Diamant 13

A great turn by Gerard Depardieu. While he is playing the main role and his character is written straight forward, he gives that man edges. There is a scene where he is looking at another person and you can't quite figure out, what he's up, what his true feelings are (his look is fatherly, but at the same time also menacing ... and curious) ... his facial expressions, his acting ability in general is really great and he really enjoys his role in this movie.

While he is great, there are of course quite a few other things, that are letting him (and his performance) down. There is Asia Argento (very obviously and badly dubbed in french) and quite a few story tweaks, that you have to work around. If and when you do that, you will enjoy Gerard's almost one man show. The question is, are you willing to do that.

A cop called Mat (Gerard Depardieu) goes up against corruption and violence of other colleagues , as well as mobsters and dark political forces . His lifelong friend , Frank (Olivier Marchal) is related to one of the city biggest drug traffickers and becomes involved into dirty issues , then Mat attempts to help him , but things go wrong . As Mat tries his redemption by means of a relentless vengeance .

French formula thriller with plenty of action , crisply edition , tension , intrigue , suspenseful , and loads of violence with reminiscent to "Dirty Harry" and ¨Charles Bronson¨ films . A nice cop movie , being realized in ¨Polar¨ style , and written by the prolific actor and cult director Olivier Marchal at his best . Here he delivers frenetic action , thriller and violence enough throughout the nail-biting flick . It is an engaging flick of interwoven lives structured in two protagonists , Gerard Depardieu and Olivier Marchal , crossed by a web of suspense that is resolved in the last reel in a surprising finale . Stars Gerard Depardieu , giving a real interpretative recital as Mat , a veteran police of a troubled precinct about to retirement , he's the main role of this dark tale of cops in distresses , as he must affront nasty politicians , police force executives and ruthless delinquents . His walk to discover the truth becomes increasingly hard and blurs the usual lines of ethic and morality , until there seems no difference between police and delinquents he pursues . Furthermore , a real description about the underbelly of a police station and the criminal world , including a cruel gang committing a series of violent crimes . The flick revolves around some tragic events that become complex throughout the movie . This serious and truly original film with groundbreaking narrative results to be an intriguing story of ambition , corruption , deceiving and killing , being professionally done , swiftly paced and including a twisted screenplay . The film was noteworthy for casting some of the finest actors in France . Exceptional acting by Gerard Depardieu as an unfortunate cop who executes a merciless vengeance and nice Olivier Marchal as an unsettling police with dark purports . Support cast is frankly good , such as : Anne Coesens , Aïssa Maïga , Catherine Marchal and the Italian Asia Argento , Dario Agento's daughter .

Here stands out Olivier Marchal as a corrupt cop , he's a good French actor who has played several Noir flicks . He is also a notorious writer/producer/director . As he did a formidable job with ¨36th precinct¨ . Olivier then wrote the first draft of this interesting Diamant 13 , and so on , being helped by director Gilles Behat himself , and based on Hugues Pagan's novel . Olivier is a notorious writer/director and he was formerly a police officer . As Olivier Marchal started taking acting lessons when he still was a police officer . He began his career in television , appearing in supporting parts or writing scripts for detective TV series . In 1989 when Yves Rénier resurrected his TV series Commissaire Moulin (1976) he became his partner as scriptwriter , series supervisor and sometimes actor . In 2000 he starred as Commandant Pierre Rivière in his own TV series "Police district" (1999) written by novelist Hugues Pagan , himself also a former police officer . His films are usually played by the same actors as : Gerard Depardieu , Daniel Auteuil , Daniel Duval , Francis Renaud and Catherine Marchal . Olivier Marchal , a great actor/writer/director has directed sensational French thrillers , just like : "36th Precinct" , ¨Gangsters¨ , ,¨Mr73¨ and ¨Les Lyonnais¨ (2011) as good as "36 Quai Des Orfèvres" (France original title) also titled "36th Precinct" and this ¨Diamond 13¨ . The motion picture was professionally directed by Gilles Behat , though it has some gaps , flaws and disjoined scenes . Gilles Béhat was born in1949 in Lille , France as Gilles Marc Béat . He is a director and actor , specially known for his thrillers and dramas , such as : Haro (1977), Rue Barbare (1984) , Les longs manteaux (1986) , Charlie Dingo (1987) , Dancing machine (1990) and Diamond 13 (2009) . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and decent French thriller .

After a bunch of seriously dark French thrillers directed by Olivier Marchal (36, MR73, Les Lyonnais, the TV series Braquo), I was keen to see Marchal and Depardieu reunited. Well, it just doesn't work this time: Olivier is clearly better behind the camera and Gerard behind a bar counter. The tempo is pretty random, cops and villains seem to make appointments to fight each other or walk casually in the most obvious traps. The scenario is weak as American coffee; who would believe that 280-pound pure fat Gerard can take on trained killers or that a burning car on a 20 meters wide pier would stop a death squad... Avoid, and if you missed 36 or Braquo go for those instead! On a slightly different note, add 'A la petite semaine' to your watch list for good measure.

5.1 is really to low for this movie. The acting is good, Depardieu still has it in this movie, he is physically imposing and he doesn't overact, the story is interesting and the direction was ok, not spectacular, but realistic, no fancy stuff, maybe that's the reason for the low rate. The movie has a good suspense. Worth seeing, 6.5 should be more realistic.

Reviewer jordan_bell is too cynic and does not seem to like or understand film noir. I agree with the 2 other reviewers that Depardieu in particular is impressive throughout the entire movie. Strong character, reminds sometimes of Inspecteur Maigret (as played by Jean Gabin), also always film-noir-ish. But Depardieu adds an emotional and uncertain (even endearing), doubting, dark edge to that. And most surrounding characters are doing well too if you ask me.

This is a character movie. You will want to revisit certain scenes because they have touched something in you.