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A couple of days ago I saw the trailer of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" and I decided to buy the DVD. What a powerful movie it is, probably the best police story that I have recently seen. The dramatic and amoral story is a contemporary film-noir, with action, betrayal, shootings and hooks the attention from the beginning to the end. There is a great duel between two titans: Gérard Depardieu, in the role of a scum detective, and Daniel Auteuil, playing a detective with non-conventional procedures, and they both deserved nomination to the Oscar for such brilliant performances. The music score, with the song "Don't Bring me Down", is also wonderful. The grandiosity of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" recalled me 1995 "Heat", one of the best police stories of the 90's. I really do not understand why there are negative reviews for such great film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "36"

As usual, Olivier Marchal offers us an excellent thriller with a Homeric duel between Léo Vrinks and Denis Klein, two Parisian cops coveting the same promotion, i.e. the office of their common boss. They know and despise each other, making the competition fiercer. This movie rhymes globally with excellency, thanks to a dark atmosphere, an excellent knowledge of the French national police, Olivier Marchal being a former inspector, and an ineluctable fatalism, ... and despite the caricatural character of Denis Klein who is a a well-known alcohol abuser cruelly lacking of dignity and integrity, conferring a poor image of the national police. De facto, the film's realism is diminished, at least I hope so. In this respect, the final scene between Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu is disappointing and disturbing, Denis Klein's soliloquy being surrealistic with a mix of madness and megalomania.

The whole cast, the script and the dialogues are globally excellent. Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu are awesome.

The opening in 36 has got to be one of the more arresting (pun not intended) starters in a movie I've watched in some time, especially if you're a fan of Euro-electronica, where a catchy tune paces the multiple action happening on screen.

The French police is stumped by a gang of armed robbers whose fast and brutal methods leave no witnesses. Of course the politicians are angry and want immediate results in the capture of these criminals. The stakes are raised when a vacant seat in higher office is opened to the officer who manages to do so.

Leo Vrinks is a decorated cop with questionable methods. Toeing the line that separates cops from thugs, his team of officers and himself are tasked to bring these criminals to justice. His rival, Denis Klein, also a celebrated cop, wants the case for himself, but unceremoniously gets his team and himself relegated to a support role in the sting operation.

Naturally, unexpected things happen during the operation because of Denis' callous behaviour, and lives on both sides are lost. But no, the show doesn't end there when the thugs are captured, as the rivalry between the men spill over and provides more than sufficient fuel for the second half of the movie.

I guess it's the same at most offices, where promotion's at stake, the struggles and intense rivalry may get into the way of the greater good in getting the objective achieved. Methods are questioned, where morality and ethics are put into the spotlight - does the end really justify any means necessary? Like memorable HK police thriller Infernal Affairs, it is the powerful relationship between the main characters that this drama explores and excels in, with excellent acting from Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu as the bitter men with ambiguous methods and morales.

It's a relatively tight storyline, and you'll have to pay close attention to the subplots in order to be able to piece together how and why the ending was as presented. Highly recommended stuff.

What a good surprise this movie has been ! I just had to let you know about it as soon as possible

As it might not rings any bell in foreigners' head, know that the Quai Des Orfèvres is the familiar name for the Criminal Investigations Division of the Paris Police, located at no. 36. In popular parlance, "Quai des Orfèvres" means to the French what "Scotland Yard" means to the British.

Indeed we are here in a thriller, a dark one. The director, Olivier Marchal is a former cop and the story of 36 Quai Des Orfèvres is from real facts from the life of Dominique Loiseau (who co-wrote the script), former member of the BRI (Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention = Search and Action Squad, the "anti-gangs" squad) in the mid eighties.

In this movie we follow the struggle between two cops.

On one hand we have Vrinks, BRI's head. Daniel Auteuil, who is one of the most famous actors in France, offers the audience an amazing performance playing this cop who is found of justice, whatever it costs and whatever the methods are to take down the criminals. To reach his ideal of justice he uses to flirt dangerously with the "dark side" taking risks for his family, his life and his career. Anyway it seems his priorities are still in this order. Like the Vincent Hanna of Heat, he just has two lifes he tries to separate: the one at work and the one at home where he doesn't say anything about his work to his wife (played by the beautiful Valeria Golino), just because he's afraid that might make her run away...

On the other hand we have Klein, the head of the BRB (Brigade de Répression du Banditisme = Crime Repression Squad, taking care of big robberies and so on) played by a very well known actor, in France but also around the world after a few appearance in Hollywood movies: Gérard Depardieu who seems to have reminded the amazing actor he can be. Depardieu is indeed at his top, playing this ambitious and soured character who reaches power and power only.

Tensions exist between these two men who used to be friends. They really don't share the same goals regarding their professional life but it appears quickly that the problem is mostly located on the private front. We don't know exactly what has happened but it seems that a woman, who is now Mrs Vrink, has been between the two of them, breaking for good their friendship long years ago and creating a scare which is still very sensitive today.

Their boss Robert Mancini, played by André Dussolier (the narrator's voice in Amélie, here playing perfectly again a role quite similar to the one he had in Agents Secrets), makes these tensions get worse when explaining them that he is about to be promoted. As they are both equally qualified, they are in competition for his replacement. The one who will take down a gang of very violent robbers currently holding up to ridicule the police forces, will be the new head of the number 36, Quai des Orfèvres.

And here you know just the starting plot of this movie which benefits of a really really good script. In addition to this perfect script you have a great casting for the main roles but also for the "background characters" who are for most of them unknown actors who will surely be known in a few movies if they continue to play so well and have the luck again to play in such a great film.

The rhythm of the movie is also really good and, very unexpected for this kind of production in France, risks have been taken and ... it pays. This movie really takes you in its story and it's a great journey.

Olivier Marchal is a former cop yes, but more than that he is also a great thriller movie fans. I've used a reference to Heat earlier and, according to some interviews I've read after having seen the movie, it seems that Olivier Marchal totally agrees with me on the fact Heat is one of the best thriller ever shooted if not the best. He said he wanted to something in the same spirit, all things considered and I had indeed been surprised during 36 Quai Des Orfèvres to think a few times about Michael Man's work. We are far from a Collateral or a Heat but 36 Quai Des Orfèvres doesn't have to get redden in front of these masterpieces IMHO.

Fan, honest and humble, Olivier Marchal has delivered us a very efficient and striking thriller who deserves to be classified among the best of the genre.

36 Quai Des Orfèvres is letting me hope that maybe France will be back on the thrillers front, which had been quite deserted after a golden age in the 70's with great directors like Jean-Pierre Melville.

I really hope that this movie will be released in foreign countries and that most of you will have the opportunity to see it. An opportunity that I seriously invite you to not miss

Cop turned director is a new one on me but there's always a first time I guess. One thing's sure Marchal has a lot of balls in titling his film as he has and so inviting direct comparison with the only other film to employ as its title the address of the Police headquarters in Paris, Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1947 classic called simply Quai des orfevres without the number which is superfluous. Clouzot's movie is well over 50 years old and featured a more sedate form of detection - Louis Jouvet was not exactly Monsieur Hard Man and, like the man said, the times they are a changing. Marchal, who began taking acting lessons when he was still a cop (so that's how they perfect the good cop/bad cop routine) and went on to play in several TV crime series, has based his story on a real situation, the internicine rivalry in the eighties between the BRI and the BRB, both working out of the Quai. Co-scriptwriter Dominique Loiseau was a player and this is partly his story. The film is dominated by two lions in winter, Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil recalling Duke Wayne and Bob Mitchum in El Dorado, two ageing pros if not yet over the hill certainly at the summit, so these two craggy bears, polar bears if you will, polar being the French name for gangster/caper/crime films, light up the screen no question about it as the respective heads of the BRB (Brigade de Repression du Banditisme, that's Major Heists to you and me) and BRI (Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention (we're Gangbusters, Man). There's a history between these two, we're never QUITE told the full story which is a masterstroke, but it involves Vrink's (Auteuil) wife, who may have once been Klein's (Depardieu) girl. To sweeten the pot Mancini (Andre Dussollier) head honcho announces his retirement leaving his job up for grabs; both are equally qualified but it's an open secret that the first guy to nail a particularly violent gang will become the new chief. Auteuil is our Dirty Harry kind of cop, often worse than the villains he's after but he DOES usually get them in the end, Depardieu is a tad choosier but not TOO good to live. To say more wouldn't really add much, I found myself a little intrigued by the long, black leather coats worn by both Brigades, resembling nothing so much as the outfit of choice of the Stasi in East Germany and I HOPE this is an oblique comment on the fact that (England at least) is slowly becoming a Police state. All in all an enjoyable romp and well worth 8 stars.