Les brigades du Tigre

Inspired by a successful French series of the 70s, this film deals with the first mobile brigade, a police force set up in 1907, at the 'Belle Époque', by the Minister of the Interior Georges Clemenceau, nicknamed 'the tiger'. The sets and costumes are excellent, the cast is rather successful except for the main character, the police superintendent Paul Valentin played by Clovis Cornillac in the film instead of the late Jean-Claude Bouillon in the series. Clovis Cornillac is certainly brilliant in Les chatouilles (Andrea Bescond, 2018) or Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004), but he completely alters the atmosphere of the series, with a charisma without subtlety, always acting like a bull in a china shop. The choice of this actor for this film is, in my humble opinion, detrimental. Otherwise, the film is globally pleasant.

I have seen a lot of American special force type film. The french apparently don't agree with their style. Those French guy are not good at shooting, not good at fighting, with no special equipment, no special skills... However, French inspectors are more human liking. They talk and walk like real man. They go around without knowing exactly what they are looking for. But they are more lovely than the US counterparts. They have pride and confidence on themselves and they show it proudly. They even insulted normal police force by their attitude. I had never seen the TV serials on which this film based. The inspectors are cool, the criminals are malicious and strong. The music is great, I just can not forget the rhythm for some time.

I don't like the first review that was made on it...Just to explain one of my "complaints" : first, it is not a "special forces type film" at all...and i won't even comment on the rest...*roll eyes*

This film is a success in many aspects IMHO despite all the fears i had when i discovered who would be directing it...

It's adapted from a very well-known French TV series of the same name which was a huge success in the 70s in France. The script is well-written IMHO. You feel they've done their homework. The magazine Historia even dedicated a whole edition to this movie in a way and the whole historical period it depicted... Interviews of its makers revealed that they've done their best to keep the spirit of the series while still taking risks etc...like choosing a Belgian to play an Occitan French with a strong southern accent typical of Occitans(that's a bit polemical here by the way...), trying to mix huge parts of history and historical figures in the story (Minister Jean Jaurès and his journal L'Humanité, Paris Préfet etc...), The Triple Entente, the "prémices" of WWI, the 'Russian Loans', "La Bande à Bonnot", the "prémices" of the Russian Revolution and of socialism, emergence of new types of criminality and new ways of fighting crime in response, rivalry between the Brigades du Tigre and the Parisian Police in Paris and other Préfectures in the rest of France..., scientific discoveries which started helping the police at the time, the corruption and affairs of the time, touchy political subjects of the time and used for some of them to make parallels with current situations and to fire critics at some current problems in France etc...

The European actors (German Diane Kruger, Italian Stefano Accorsi from the great movie Romanzo Criminale, Belgian star Olivier Gourmet that it's no need to present now after having shown his talent times and times again, he's choosing a new kind of role for him there...) are fantastic, same for the Frenchies: Clovis Cornillac (this guy is over talented and it still shows in "popular" films like that...), Léa Drucker (she's not only good in plays, cinéma should use her more after this and Virgil hopefully...), Édouard Baer, Agnès Soral (always in small roles but always perfect), Flamand on top...; the characters are well-depicted, the feeling of the time too, musically, esthetically that's OK too (i couldn't forget of the main theme song after seeing the movie, Olivier Florio modernized it well...). Go see it!

It's got so many levels to it and it succeeds at each of them : drama, critics made, historical depiction and analysis in a way, action, aesthetic aspect of the film (its overall look etc...i don't know if the word aesthetic is even existing ...erm...), and so on...For once, a film based on a successful TV series isn't a flop...

I can't wait to see the sequel. Yep. A sequel is already in the making. These characters (both fictive or real) and the time period they evolve in can give a lot more since they're so rich so i think that's justified...=)

I hope you'll find my review helpful guys...

PS : I appologize in advance for any butchering of English i would have made. It would not be not intentional. My English is actually that bad... Sorry.

Of course, it can't be exactly the same as the seventies series LES BRIGADES DU TIGRE. But the chaaracters names are the same and the period too. But in the series, you had one different story in each episode, and it was rather smooth, sometimes light hearted, certainly not as tragic, gritty as the story in this film. The same problem with the UK series THE AVENGERS that was put on large screen in 1998. It could not be the same as the series. Impossible. I guess that's precisely because it was not a comedy that this film was a failure at the box office. If it had been a stupid comedy, it would have been a success. I am sure. I prefer this film as it is. Actually, this story is very modern, denouncing the "dirty" undercover political "affairs" of the government.