36 Quai des Orfèvres

Cop turned director is a new one on me but there's always a first time I guess. One thing's sure Marchal has a lot of balls in titling his film as he has and so inviting direct comparison with the only other film to employ as its title the address of the Police headquarters in Paris, Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1947 classic called simply Quai des orfevres without the number which is superfluous. Clouzot's movie is well over 50 years old and featured a more sedate form of detection - Louis Jouvet was not exactly Monsieur Hard Man and, like the man said, the times they are a changing. Marchal, who began taking acting lessons when he was still a cop (so that's how they perfect the good cop/bad cop routine) and went on to play in several TV crime series, has based his story on a real situation, the internicine rivalry in the eighties between the BRI and the BRB, both working out of the Quai. Co-scriptwriter Dominique Loiseau was a player and this is partly his story. The film is dominated by two lions in winter, Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil recalling Duke Wayne and Bob Mitchum in El Dorado, two ageing pros if not yet over the hill certainly at the summit, so these two craggy bears, polar bears if you will, polar being the French name for gangster/caper/crime films, light up the screen no question about it as the respective heads of the BRB (Brigade de Repression du Banditisme, that's Major Heists to you and me) and BRI (Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention (we're Gangbusters, Man). There's a history between these two, we're never QUITE told the full story which is a masterstroke, but it involves Vrink's (Auteuil) wife, who may have once been Klein's (Depardieu) girl. To sweeten the pot Mancini (Andre Dussollier) head honcho announces his retirement leaving his job up for grabs; both are equally qualified but it's an open secret that the first guy to nail a particularly violent gang will become the new chief. Auteuil is our Dirty Harry kind of cop, often worse than the villains he's after but he DOES usually get them in the end, Depardieu is a tad choosier but not TOO good to live. To say more wouldn't really add much, I found myself a little intrigued by the long, black leather coats worn by both Brigades, resembling nothing so much as the outfit of choice of the Stasi in East Germany and I HOPE this is an oblique comment on the fact that (England at least) is slowly becoming a Police state. All in all an enjoyable romp and well worth 8 stars.

I really wanted to like 36. It opens slick and energetic and it retains those two qualities throughout. The problem is that it picks up no other qualities along the way.

The promising looking cast are a let down. The plot veers all over the place. By the end of the film I found it impossible to care why anyone was chasing around doing whatever it was they were doing.

36 isn't awful. It is a pacey and at times very entertaining thriller, but it falls far short of its lofty target.

If you want a cop versus cop thriller watch Heat. If you want a French thriller watch The Beat That My Heart Skipped. If 36 happens to be on the telly one evening, well, you could do worse.

This is like the French version of Michael Mann's "Heat." Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu are like the Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro of France.

These heavyweight actors really do a good job in this cop drama where they play former friends and colleagues who work in different competing departments at the French police. Depardieu plays a gutless immoral cop. Auteuil is the family man who is not perfect himself but is far more moral than his former buddy.

It shows the grit of Paris that people outside France don't usually see in French movies, like the mobs, the gangs, the corruption of the urban ghettos. Instead of pretty cafes and the Eiffel Tower, we get to see alleys and project housing.

Italian actress Valeria Golino plays Auteuil's wife. Auteuil's character tries to protect her from the ugliness of his job by not telling her anything. But circumstances beyond their control later on force her to get involved. The director brilliantly puts it all together.

I know some people didn't like the ending. I thought it was fine and I was not at all disappointed. The other supporting actors like Andre Dussolier who are all famous in France also do a good job. We really liked this movie and highly recommend it!

I discovered this one in a cinema magazine where 36 Quai Des Orfèvres was presented as a hot thriller coming out on DVD. I read first the reviews on this site and the rating and then I didn't hesitate to order it. Wow, I am happy I bought it because I spent a wonderful entertaining Saturday evening watching a big thriller with my wife. I will add it no doubt to my best of DVD collection. My congratulations to all the stuff for this super job with lot of plots, intrigues and twists. The main characters were well developed and played by the great actors Daniel Auteil and as usual Gérard Depardieu. I am surprised what the french film scene presented recently to the audience with good thrillers as for example CRIMSON RIVERS I and II, L'EMPIRE DES LOUPS and the funny ones L'ENQUETE CORSE and TAIS-TOI. Standing ovations and I have my great respect for all. These movies are much more better than the last thrillers I saw from Hollywood. The running time was not long in respect of the similar US-thriller HEAT that was too long and not so hot as 36 Quai Des Orfèvres. For all theses reasons I give with my wife a solid 7/10 that matches nearly the actual vote of 7.2 on IMDb. Don't miss it, you won't regret.

A couple of days ago I saw the trailer of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" and I decided to buy the DVD. What a powerful movie it is, probably the best police story that I have recently seen. The dramatic and amoral story is a contemporary film-noir, with action, betrayal, shootings and hooks the attention from the beginning to the end. There is a great duel between two titans: Gérard Depardieu, in the role of a scum detective, and Daniel Auteuil, playing a detective with non-conventional procedures, and they both deserved nomination to the Oscar for such brilliant performances. The music score, with the song "Don't Bring me Down", is also wonderful. The grandiosity of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" recalled me 1995 "Heat", one of the best police stories of the 90's. I really do not understand why there are negative reviews for such great film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "36"