Le petit lieutenant

This is less about the crime, then the day to day minutiae of police work, in particular the growing relationship between an eager young lieutenant, and his tough, ex-alcoholic boss – Nathalie Baye, in an excellent, uncharacteristically dark performance. There's no romance between the two, just an evolving connection.

In the meantime, the lieutenant's home life is a mess – his wife is understandably angry because he requested his Paris posting, far from their home and her work, without asking her.

This sad, low key, almost documentary like film, without music or fancy shots, is an insightful look into the people who face crime every day. Dense enough that I'd gladly re-see it.

As in previous Beauvois' movies, this film is about loss. The loss is everywhere in the movie : the loss of the dead child of the main female character, the loss of a normal couple life for the "petit lieutenant" and, finally, his loss. What makes the movie so interesting is the way in which it uses the form of the cope movie (film noir) as a way to reflect the hardships of living with the memory of the dead, to go on while things are forever changed by their disappearance. At the same time, the form of the cope movie is more than a mere pretext: the director is very much at ease with the conventions of the genre and is very skillful at going beyond by adding stunning realistic elements. There is no heroism there, only gloom and despair. No big man hunt, but a very trivial one. A very good movie. A must see for lovers of french film noir.

This is the procedure school. It starts as a rather hectic story about the young policeman starting his job in a hectic Paris and ends in a classic British murder case, as it's seen in many many TV productions from BBC.

But the Parisian police force is shown as real human beings this time, including alcohol problems, which is quite rare in French movies. The French attitude to alcohol has always been that there never can be any problems about it, because we're French. Anyway, after a while the movie is focused on the female Captain instead of the young copper. There's one main character in the beginning of the film and another at the end.

Rather OK as police movie, but rather soon to be forgotten anyway.

A young tough guy, eager to be a real cop solving real crime, and to be really cool. A middle-aged woman, alone, with personal problems but well organized and effective. Put these two together in a big city ("the jungle") in some cheesy office rooms, and you may expect to see another cliché cop-movie. But you're wrong.

First of all, this film contains not much action at all. The murder that things evolve around is not the main attraction, it is more of a catalyst for the development of the humans on screen. Furthermore, there is no music to "guide" us emotionally, and no extreme display of emotions (or overacting) as is so common. Instead we follow the characters at distance, but emotions are there, but like in real life, poorly articulated and often ambiguous. And the less glamorous work of attending an autopsy, and reactions to it, is also shown; just the sound is disgusting, and that scene of the film has for me a really artistic feeling to it: it highlights the "fleshy-ness" of the body, that it is not just an abstract piece in life, but something bulky, ugly, imperfect and vulnerable, which is quite a contrast to how the young tough guy probably considers himself.

These aspects together means that the film is more real. That does not have to be an advantage for a film - good film rarely limit itself to a display of reality. But to follow the development of the characters, their life and work, from a distance, sometimes with some police action added, as you do in a very precise way in this film, is very rewarding. This is a good drama with action content.

I saw the movie being a French police officer.

Usually I don't like movies about French police for they are mostly very unrealistic.

There however we have a story about what could be a regular case in one of the most important Crime Units in the city of Paris. With regular police work done by regular police detectives.

The actors are playing in a such realistic manner that they just could be real cops caught in their everyday work.

The movie is sad, very sad and hard. I don't think you would apply to become a police officer after seeing it ...