Les ripoux

... or, if you don't speak Pig Latin/Backslang, top drawer. Pig Latin had a vogue in the forties - and possibly earlier - and for a time it was commonplace to hear expressions like 'amscray' (scram) in low-budget Hollywood movies. If the US had Pig Latin France has 'verlan' or 'la langue de banlieues' (the language of the suburbs). Pourri, which means 'rotten' when transposed to verlan comes out ripoux, thus Le Ripoux, The Rotten. It's basically our old friend the veteran taking the rookie under his wing, in this case veteran cop, Philippe Noiret, who's also a BENT veteran cop, if anyone asks you, is lumbered with green-as-grass rookie Therry Thermitte. Believe me, it's a match made in Heaven. Not a lot happens but the trick is, IT HAPPENS IN FRENCH and that gallic flavor makes all the difference. It was so good that six years later they made a sequel, and last year they made a sequel to the sequel. Hooray. 9/10

That's it: no more DVD or web movies to watch, thus i become addict to what French TV can play: for this night before my trip to Malmo, a channel offers this french comedy that brings back for me good memories.

First, "Les Ripoux" was maybe the first video game I bought to play then on our TO9+ computer. So it was maybe in 1987. The game was incredible funny to play as the goal was similar to the movie: amass as much money as you can as a bad cop! To do that, you used a sort of Google map limited the Paris district called the golden triangle. There, you met crooks that you had to make talk by choosing lines of dialogs. Maybe the graphics were static but the game-play was really stunning!

Next, it's Paris in the eighties and this city in that period is really like a magnet to me since my childhood. But, beware the Paris depicted here isn't the city of lights but rather of darkness as this triangle is a highly deprived area with dense immigrated poor population. As you can see in the movie, it's looks old and derelict and now, in 2013, as urban renovation is inexistent in Paris to give way to gentrification, it's even worst!

As for the story, i think it's a accurate piece of French culture: We are really down to earth people, happy with a good meal, not really motivated at work, very lenient with rules, at least for the ones that are civil servants like me or those policemen. So France is really this mix between old USSR and a banana republic. The originality of this movie is to expose this truth in a comedy and i admit it's funny: Lhermitte is a good choice to play the naive, by the book blue cop as much as Noiret is perfect to play the voluble, sympathetic veteran.

While watching it, i was thinking to the American buddy cop movie and how this subject of corrupt cops is a bit leftover to prefer big guns, big fights... here, our two bad apples are really rotten to the core and we finally like them: a paradox !

French farce with a twist. A charming piece, better watched in French with the English subtitles, for the full effect. An American production would be too slick, or too juvenile to re-make this, but I'm surprised a British unit has not, yet! Lovely character studies, a few surprises and a plot that offers humor, or humour, with some charming locations. Well worth watching if you can find it and enjoy the 'Diva', 'style of movie that the French are best known for.

Such an amazing music. Francis Lai's art is one of many reasons to watch this film.

Came across this film years ago, the french teacher at school put the video to keep us quiet; thought it was brilliant then. Caught it by accident the other night on cable - its got better with age!! The characters are superbly drawn and believable, the plot just bizarre enough to work. Which begs the question, why isn't it available on DVD? Or if it is, where?