Wahl der Waffen

.. of superlatives. This, the last of the three polars that Corneau made top-billing Montand, finds Montand retired from the mob and roughing it with Catherine Deneuve in a large country chateau where they breed thoroughbreds. Such an idyll can't last, natch, so, before you can say 'make my day, punk', enter Depardieu, hothead extaordinaire, on the lam and looking for a soft touch. Eventually we need the obligatory scene in which the ageing gunfighter dusts off the old six-shooter and wastes the wannabee new fastest gun, except, of course, that this isn't a Western but a very sophisticated and hugely enjoyable polar.It doesn't get any better than Montand and Depardieu (who had worked together earlier in Claude Sautet's 'Vincent, Paul, Francois et les autres' and would do so again in 'Jean de Florette') and with Corneau on bullhorn what's not to like. Post-war French policiers/polars are in a class of their own and provided your nose is in good working order the whiff of cordite can be identified at once as generated by Jean Pierre Melville, Alain Corneau, Tavernier, etc. This one is right out of the top drawer and would BE a top drawer on any screen it graced. Go see! Enjoy!

"Le choix des armes" is a good example of French movie thriller -"le polar à la française", we can define it a true cinematic genre.

The film is an encounter between two generations of gangsters. The older one (Montand) lives now a quite life with his wife (Deneuve), the younger (Depardieu) has just escaped from prison. In this story both live personal dramas: Montand's brother dies during his escape and Deneuve is erroneously killed during a police operation; Depardieu face the impossibility of going elsewhere with his daughter and leading a normal life. He will pay the price of his dreams.

The direction of Alain Corneau is strong. He's able to analyze each charachter in a exhaustive way, no one is left apart. In this way also Gerard Lanvin and Michel Galabru's roles are well treated, between them there's almost the same relationship as between the two gangsters. Lanvin is a young agent who believes in justice but no one helps him, whereas Galabru is a frustrated old policeman.

Solid film, elegant, with action and many cat-and-mouse games.

With Melville's death, Tavernier and Corneau became the masters of French film noir, but the latter has the dreamlike mood that the genre really needs to be effective. Le choix des armes has many effective scenes (usually involving either Depardieu or Lanvin) but sometimes leaves us cold. There is a little too much exposition in the storytelling--why show us Montand and his buddy smashing up the gang lord's opulent house when there is no dramatic effect to be gained? Or the elaborate four-way car pursuit (did the budget allow for all those stunt-drivers, so Corneau thought Why not?).

The acting is mostly exceptional. The young Gérard Lanvin gives us a very frustrated young detective, Michel Galabru is his burnt-out superior, Richard Anconina plays a man trying to settle down to happy domesticity and failing, and Depardieu is simply great as Mickey le dingue, crazy and moving at the same time. The woman who plays Dany's wife with burning resentment takes over every scene she's in.

A gracefully paced and ably directed work featuring highly talented players, including Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve, along with Yves Montand, LE CHOIX DES ARMES is generally successful as cinematic art, although it must be stressed that it should properly be viewed in its French language format, since the subtitled American release is harshly cut and reveals post-production efforts not at all sympathetic with the original release. An escaped convict and killer, Mickey (Depardieu), chooses to hide from police pursuit upon the lavish estate of former organized crime doyen Noel Durrieux (Montand) and his wife Nicole (Deneuve, with a wonderfully layered interpretation of her rôle), but when detectives come near, Mickey flees to Paris, although he soon returns, bringing about a conflict between two criminal codes after Mickey believes that Durrieux has informed police of the escapee's location. There are carefully fleshed out parts here for numerous characters as the two principal antagonists career toward an inevitable climactic meeting, it becoming increasingly apparent that there are lessons to be learned beyond those of the scenario and they may not be divulged by ancillary figures. Auteur Corneau's metronomic tone mates well with the script's finely balanced, rather spare, dialogue, and with a complex plot not immediately pervious to a viewer, the film benefits from the director's ability to weave a diverse cast of characters into a discriminatory dramatic construction. Deneuve earns acting honours, while Depardieu is highly effective as a sociopath savaged by paranoia yet displaying a wide range of emotional engagement with disparate characters, and Montand is icily persuasive as a "retired" mob leader who is forced to reenter his past in the hope of achieving safety for him and his wife. Following a slowly gaited but logical storyline is difficult with the extensive cutting performed upon the film's U.S. version, that is burdened as well with poor sound transference and largely inferior processing, very unfortunate in this instance of a solidly crafted motion picture that deserves better.

On the basis of a very traditional diagram, almost austere in its banality, Michel Grisolia, the scenario writer, gave his realizer a springboard from which this last built a true psychological drama, rich of subtle nuances and learnedly worked drafts. The police aspect interests less Corneau than the painting of the underworld, than the denunciation of the police methods or than the purulent proletarian company of today. The setting in scene is fantastic and remarkable is interpretation (Depardieu!), let us announce however a light Manicheism and certain doubtful psychological analyses.