Mangin, a police inspector in Paris, leans hard on informants to get evidence on three Tunisian brothers who traffic in drugs. He arrests one, Simon, and his girl-friend Noria. Simon's brothers go to their lawyer. He springs Noria, who promptly steals 2 million francs that belong to the Tunisians. They suspect her of the theft; her life as well as the lawyer's is in danger. Meanwhile, Noria is playing with both the lawyer and Mangin's affections. Mangin is mercurial anyway: intimidating and bloodying suspects, falling for a police commission trainee before flipping for Noria, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Can he save the lawyer and Noria, and can he convince her to love?
Acting
Depardieu at his most volcanic—terrifying and heartbreaking simultaneously.
Direction
Pialat's handheld naturalism makes every scene feel illegally intimate.
Writing
Dialogue so raw it feels improvised by people who actually hate each other.
Director
Maurice Pialat
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of 1980s French 'polar' revival that rejected Hollywood polish for social realism—Pialat famously clashed with Depardieu on set, their tension bleeding into Mangin's volatility.
The interrogation scene where Mangin breaks Simon's nose was reportedly improvised after Pialat told Depardieu to genuinely unsettle his co-star.
FR
