Truands

To start of with, this film no fun ride, nothing glossy or Hollywood like happy endings bull.. It's hard as nails, nihilistic and pretty gutwrenching. It also comes over as very realistic.

The director also had a big hand in the (later) great French cop-series "Braquo" which is also excellent and very tough, and this has the same style.

Sure, it may lack story, I would say it's almost like watching a documentary: a day in the life of... But the happenings that unfold are told with so much vigour and relentlessness (is that a word?) that they kept me glued to the screen the whole 107 min.

Always on the lookout for anything this raw and another reviewer compared it with another French jewel "Dobermann" which as you will understand I absolutely adore as well. But the two are not at all comparable. They are in fact worlds apart with "Dobermann" being a comic-book like eurotrash/punk action adventure and this a slick slice of painful underworld realism.

Absolutely stunning 9/10

A Parisian crime-boss ensures that nobody ever double-crosses or undermines him or his business by using extreme methods. He ruthlessly deals with any of his gang who he even suspects of wrong-doing and similarly deals with other gangs trying to muscle in on his territory. However, his activities have not escaped the notice of the police.

An action-packed but empty film. We have the usual assortment of gangsters, doing gangster stuff, including torturing and murdering people and being involved in extravagant shootouts, and the usual edginess of this characters. So far, so good, as the characters and their methods seem set up for a decent crime-drama.

However, that's all there is: edgy characters, murders and shootouts. The plot is largely non-existent and superficial at best. The background setup IS the plot. There's no arc to the story or the characters: things happen (largely, people get murdered) but that's it - there's no buildup to it and nothing developing from it.

Disappointing.

'Truands' as it is named in French, somehow passed unnoticed and has been disregarded by audience. Simply said, people just do not know about it. But from many angles, this movie is a great piece of cinema, in the likes of other 'new, dark & violent' french movies. If there was a proper story telling component, it would be easily comparable to the Melville's cinema: deep dive in the criminal underworld and its ramifications; nightlife and violence, switching alliance and evolving relations of criminals competing for power.

And this is what it is about: the struggle of a boss to maintain its position on top, while fighting back challengers and suffering from a decadent organization. The figurehead of this clan - Claude - is greatly portrayed - as a dangerous megalomaniac. Its protégée, soon to be its own 'brutus' is brilliantly played by Magimel. Violence is omnipresent and could be a bit overwhelming sometime. The movie could have won by showing less and suggesting more: it leaves a 'print' that divert from the story. Story that searched itself for some time before one of the thread is followed up till the end. The lack of rhythm is disorientating and montage - after a great first 20 min - lacks imagination.

I still like and have seen this movie multiple times. The atmosphere of crime and the presentation of the protagonists are excellent, the exploration of nightly and forbidden Paris is also attractive. A clearer script, a bit of aesthetic work could have made a much classer movie about the fall of a Crime boss. I still give a 8 out of 10 for the entertainment and the courageous project (it s a bit rare if French Feature films nowadays) On a similar topic of crime boss fall, I recommend ''Le Second Soufflé''.

I love french films, especially crime thrillers, and films of this type. Dobermann by far and away is the best film of this type that i have ever seen. I bought Paris Lockdown hoping for more of what i'd seen and loved in Dobermann. I was left feeling let down by Paris Lockdown. I just didn't 'get it' at all - i don't actually know what they were trying to achieve with this film. Any chance of really showing and fleshing out the characters and story seems to have fallen by the wayside - which is a shame because it could have easily been a classic. The only decent character and acting was done by Benoit and Tomer. I don't know really... i'm pretty open minded but i'd have a hard time recommending this. This will probably sit on the shelf, or in the loft, for a long time now.

IMHO this is one of the best and most hardcore gangster flicks out there.

It's grisly, sure, but also produced in a very realistic way, and the characters are extreme, most of them are utter nuts.

It has french humor, sex, drugs and violence in abundance.

But it also has an impressive array of characters and quite a complex story line.

In short, prepare for a hell of a ride.

I rank this one a masterpiece.

Check it out!