Rette deine Haut, Killer

Sometimes we need to get reminded that even cheaply produced movies can be great fun. Alain Delon's Director Debut here comes as a thirteen in a dozen French "policier" flick. The difference is that the actors are obviously having great fun on the set while the movie is presented with a well mixed variety of Violence, fun and some smart lines.

Alain Delon is cool on camera and even behind the camera. A smart fun but further unmemorable film. Alain continued to direct his next to films as well (although only credited for le battant).

Pour la peau d'un flic is an inseparable part of my Delon movie collection.

Despite some extreme violence (shootings at close range, rape of one of the main characters), there is a surprising amount of humor in this picture. I wonder if this was Delon's way of moving away from the sometimes humorless approach taken in his films with J-P Melville. It also features a nice performance by a very young Anne Parillaud.

I do enjoy a good Alain Delon thriller, unfortunately this is not a good Alain Delon thriller. It would be slightly better without the accompanying music - a couple of songs that are just annoying. Like bad Tom Waits.

The plot is ludicrous, the acting perfunctory. There is predictable romance and nudity as you'd expect from a 1981 flic movie.

Disappointed really.

This is not a real review, it should be taken more as a collection of impressions on the film.

Very simple film but at the same time very beautiful and intriguing. Classic detective story with the usual conspiracy stuff to pull the threads of this story which would like to be very convoluted but is quite simple even if with some small plot holes which make some passages complex to understand or even real forcing done just to make everything proceed otherwise it would have been almost impossible to continue. So all in all the film is very nice, it's a shame about the small plot holes but you can get over it by looking at the film as a whole.

French cinema of nineteen eighties was known for its numerous popular films which gave a new dimension to box office collections."Pour La Peau D'Un Flic" is one such film which is not so much known by ordinary film viewers both in France and elsewhere.This might have something to do with the manner in which this film was distributed. It is sure that loyal Alain Delon fans would be aware that this film marked the beginning of his directorial career in 1981.Alain Delon gives one of his career's finest performances as a detective who would go to any length in order to bring cold blooded criminals to justice.As a film director he has not fought shy of portraying what ails police forces in France.In "Pour La Peau D'Un Flic",policemen are shown as real human beings with their fair share of weaknesses.Alain Delon's acting performance has too many shades of similarities with American actor Al Pacino although it would be politically incorrect to suggest such a comparison.This is a good film for all those people who would like to see Alain Delon both as an actor as well as a director in a same film.