Le choix des armes

"Le choix des armes" is a good example of French movie thriller -"le polar à la française", we can define it a true cinematic genre.

The film is an encounter between two generations of gangsters. The older one (Montand) lives now a quite life with his wife (Deneuve), the younger (Depardieu) has just escaped from prison. In this story both live personal dramas: Montand's brother dies during his escape and Deneuve is erroneously killed during a police operation; Depardieu face the impossibility of going elsewhere with his daughter and leading a normal life. He will pay the price of his dreams.

The direction of Alain Corneau is strong. He's able to analyze each charachter in a exhaustive way, no one is left apart. In this way also Gerard Lanvin and Michel Galabru's roles are well treated, between them there's almost the same relationship as between the two gangsters. Lanvin is a young agent who believes in justice but no one helps him, whereas Galabru is a frustrated old policeman.

Solid film, elegant, with action and many cat-and-mouse games.

With Melville's death, Tavernier and Corneau became the masters of French film noir, but the latter has the dreamlike mood that the genre really needs to be effective. Le choix des armes has many effective scenes (usually involving either Depardieu or Lanvin) but sometimes leaves us cold. There is a little too much exposition in the storytelling--why show us Montand and his buddy smashing up the gang lord's opulent house when there is no dramatic effect to be gained? Or the elaborate four-way car pursuit (did the budget allow for all those stunt-drivers, so Corneau thought Why not?).

The acting is mostly exceptional. The young Gérard Lanvin gives us a very frustrated young detective, Michel Galabru is his burnt-out superior, Richard Anconina plays a man trying to settle down to happy domesticity and failing, and Depardieu is simply great as Mickey le dingue, crazy and moving at the same time. The woman who plays Dany's wife with burning resentment takes over every scene she's in.

Alain Corneau was considered as a director who could replace Jean-Pierre Melville's, I mean the new master of the crime film made in France. First there was POLICE PYTHON 357, LA MENACE, then SERIE NOIRE, and just after LE CHOIX DES ARMES. Corneau did not direct only crime dramas, but those ones were his best work, with also the DEUXIEME SOUFFLE remake (2007), three years before his death. Here, you have a perfect cast: Yves Montand, Gerard Depardieu, Gerard Lanvin, Catherine Deneuve.... The story is not that usual, rather unpredictable and I particularly like Gerad Lanvin's ambivalent character, as a trigger happy brutal, ambitious, ruthless young cop.

Alain Corneau began as assistant to Costa-Gavras so it is only fitting that as a fully-fledged director he should work with Yves Montand. This fine actor had previously starred in 'Le Cercle Rouge' for Jean-Pierre Melville and of the three policier/polar noirs that Corneau and Montand were to make this last one is the nearest to the Melvillian style, in terms of pacing, atmosphere, its depiction of the criminal 'code' and the wafer thin distinction between the gangsters and the guardians of law and order. This is very much a man's world and a pretty cold and brutal one it is at that.

Montand is Noel, a former underworld figure who has used his ill-gotten gains to finance an extremely comfortable lifestyle as a breeder of thoroughbreds but is obliged by an unexpected train of events to revert to the law of the jungle. On the other side of the coin is the deranged psychopath and prison escapee Mickey of Gérard Depardieu who is humanised only by his love for his child which mirrors Noel's love for Catherine Deneuve as Nicole, his wife. Although their backgrounds and social milieus could not be more strikingly different, both men have more in common than they realise and ultimately(SPOILER COMING) the orphaned child becomes the indissoluble link between them. A further contrast is offered between the old school police chief of Michel Calabru and the intense, trigger-happy, fanatical young inspector of Gérard Lanvin.

This is a well constructed piece with a measured pace that allows the characters to develop and with an utterly riveting second half. It is beautifully shot by Pierre William Glenn, tautly scripted by former critic Michel Grisolia and atmospherically scored by Philippe Sarde.

Nicole is assuredly not the most demanding role that Catherine Deneuve has been called upon to play but the simpatico between her and the magnificent Montand is palpable and helps the film to work. They had earlier worked together on the rom-com 'Le Sauvage'. Likewise there could not be a greater contrast between this and her recent collaboration with Depardieu, 'Le Dernier Metro'. He is larger than life here but always 'true' which is a difficult balance to strike and as usual brings his air of unpredictability. Many have lamented that with maturity he has rather 'let himself go' but when Montand, who worked with him three times, referred to him as 'THE actor of his generation', he wasn't far wrong.

A gracefully paced and ably directed work featuring highly talented players, including Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve, along with Yves Montand, LE CHOIX DES ARMES is generally successful as cinematic art, although it must be stressed that it should properly be viewed in its French language format, since the subtitled American release is harshly cut and reveals post-production efforts not at all sympathetic with the original release. An escaped convict and killer, Mickey (Depardieu), chooses to hide from police pursuit upon the lavish estate of former organized crime doyen Noel Durrieux (Montand) and his wife Nicole (Deneuve, with a wonderfully layered interpretation of her rôle), but when detectives come near, Mickey flees to Paris, although he soon returns, bringing about a conflict between two criminal codes after Mickey believes that Durrieux has informed police of the escapee's location. There are carefully fleshed out parts here for numerous characters as the two principal antagonists career toward an inevitable climactic meeting, it becoming increasingly apparent that there are lessons to be learned beyond those of the scenario and they may not be divulged by ancillary figures. Auteur Corneau's metronomic tone mates well with the script's finely balanced, rather spare, dialogue, and with a complex plot not immediately pervious to a viewer, the film benefits from the director's ability to weave a diverse cast of characters into a discriminatory dramatic construction. Deneuve earns acting honours, while Depardieu is highly effective as a sociopath savaged by paranoia yet displaying a wide range of emotional engagement with disparate characters, and Montand is icily persuasive as a "retired" mob leader who is forced to reenter his past in the hope of achieving safety for him and his wife. Following a slowly gaited but logical storyline is difficult with the extensive cutting performed upon the film's U.S. version, that is burdened as well with poor sound transference and largely inferior processing, very unfortunate in this instance of a solidly crafted motion picture that deserves better.