The final film of French
director Jean-Pierre Melville, a specialist in postmodern hard-boiled cinema, Un Flic has enough style for a dozen
movies, even though the plot leaves something to be desired. Starring suave
Alain Delon as a Parisian police superintendent, the picture is a methodical,
sleek examination of the title character’s investigation of an armed robbery
that turns out to have larger implications. The picture soars when presenting a
twilight world filled with amoral people and wicked schemes; Melville treats
actors and objects as colors in his deliberately minimal palette. Yet the
picture falls short in characterization, since Melville is obviously more
interested in mood than in psychology. Still, with Paris as the primary
backdrop and the beautiful faces of Delon and leading lady Catherine Denueve at
his disposal, it’s hard to blame the director for getting preoccupied with
surfaces.
The movie begins with a brief introduction to Edouard (Delon), an
unflappable detective who spends his evening prowling the Parisian underworld
to resolve cases that flummox other policemen. Then the movie shifts to a bank
robbery overseen by Simon (Richard Crenna). The robbery ends with one bystander
murdered and one accomplice wounded. While the injured crook is hospitalized,
Edouard cleverly connects the man to the crime; then the policeman works informants
and discovers that the robbery was merely the prelude to an elaborate train
heist. Concurrently, Edouard spends time with his glamorous mistress, Cathy
(Deneuve), who is also Simon’s lover—although Edouard initially has no idea
that Simon is involved with criminal enterprises.
While the procedural aspects
of the story come together well, culminating in an deliciously ambiguous
finale, the romantic-triangle thread fizzles after too many excessively cryptic
scenes. Plus, the nature of the principal Gallic performances creates an
inherent storytelling obstacle—Delon and Deneuve transfix with their looks, but
neither actor communicates much emotional heat. Meanwhile, the valiant Crenna’s
work is hampered by dubbed dialogue, for although the Hollywood star spoke his
French lines on set, a performer with better diction was hired to loop the role
during post-production.
These shortcomings aside, Un Flic has an utterly unique look that communicates Melville’s
themes beautifully. In addition to employing such playfully artificial tools as
miniatures for train scenes and process shots for driving scenes, Melville
presents the whole film in a cool shade of blue—it seems likely he shot
daylight film without adjusting for artificial light, and vice versa, so even
the whites in Melville’s images (with a few exceptions) feel slightly azure.
This offbeat visual device makes Un Flic
seem as if it exists within a universe all its own. Better still, the most
effective sequences do more than merely cast a spell with visuals. The
centerpiece of the picture, for instance, is a real-time staging of the
audacious train heist, an impressive 20-minute sequence almost entirely bereft
of dialogue. Similarly, the opening robbery sequence and Edouard’s final
scramble to capture fleeing criminals are studies in economy.
Un Flic:
GROOVY
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