Police

Parisian police officer Mangin (Gérard Depardieu) is known for being detached, cynical, and uncompromising. His interrogation methods are brutal, but tolerated. Mangin, inwardly exhausted, has long since stopped believing in clear boundaries between good and evil—for him, only the result matters. As he sets out to dismantle the drug ring run by three Tunisian brothers, he meets the attractive Noria (Sophie Marceau, star of “La Boum”), the girlfriend of the main suspect, Simon, during his investigation. As Mangin tries to uncover more information about the cartel’s drug operations, he develops feelings for the young woman. Things take an unexpected turn when Noria steals money and drugs from the gang’s hideout—and Mangin must compromise himself to protect Noria... Maurice Pialat’s police drama (“The Sun of Satan”) is particularly compelling thanks to Gérard Depardieu’s powerful performance and its realistic, very somber atmosphere. Paris is portrayed not as romantic but as oppressive—thus mirroring the protagonist’s inner state of mind. It is precisely through its occasionally slow narrative pace that this sophisticated police drama gains depth. “Avoiding external action, this unsettling film depicts the daily life of the police and their entanglements with the social milieu; constantly challenging the clichés of the genre, this extraordinary story—limited to a few locations—deals with the search for security and identity, with the fine actors lending it intensity and depth. Worth seeing.” (Lexikon des Internationalen Films) Note: Gérard Depardieu has already been found guilty of sexual assault against two women during filming. Furthermore, allegations of rape against actress Charlotte Arnould have been circulating since 2018. In a 2023 interview, his co-star at the time, Sophie Marceau, reported that during the filming of “The Cop from Paris,” Depardieu had hit her on set until she cried. This was done on the instructions of the famous director Maurice Pialat, so that the scene would appear more authentic. Depardieu obeyed. Even in world-renowned films (such as Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” or on the set of Alfred Hitchcock) there was once a commitment to portraying reactions to violent or sexual assaults as authentically as possible—at the expense of the actresses involved. Today, efforts are made to prevent these sometimes traumatic experiences of abuse through the use of specially trained intimacy coordinators, contractually agreed-upon codes of conduct, and, generally, greater awareness among all those involved.