Une sale affaire

I had not watched this little French crime drama since several decades and I really appreciated to discover it again. This is a film hesitating between drama and crime atmosphere; you have action sequences, very bleak, gritty, brutal, scene for which you are not necessarily prepared, and then a character study concerning the relationship between the cop and the city hall clerk. This is an overall gloomy film, with a superb jazzy score, a sort of tribute to the American film noir. This is somewhere a strange film that may surprise you. However this is not a masterpiece, only a rather gripping feature which can leave you a bitter taste in the mouth.