'Un condé' aka 'The Cop' (1970) - Yves Boisset.

Tough-as-Cop thriller from a clearly not-so-belle France, moodily shot with a real flair for coolly capturing callous street justice by, Yves Boisset, whose terse, muscular mise-en-scène translates excitingly into a remarkably grim, morbidly fascinating French crime thriller. The legendary French actor, Michel Bouquet is genuinely chilling as the flinty L'inspecteur Favenin whose amoral and increasingly brutal journey to avenge the fruitless death of a fellow officer leads him ever deeper into a violent existential nightmare!  

'Un condé' (1970) is a magnificently bleak, profoundly philosophical Gallic Euro-crime which works brilliantly as a savage expose of police barbarity, dealing unflinchingly with the ultimate societal conundrum; must one become like the beasts in order to deal with the beast? The only thing that marred my enjoyment of this wickedly immersive Gallic crime treat is that the source VHS print of my bootleg was a trifle muddy. An immaculately restored, UK-friendly, bells & whistles DVD/Blu-ray edition of this exquisitely cold example of gripping, abyssal dark 70s French policier is LONG overdue!

 

 

'I 'aint the one bleeding, Florence! who do you think leaves the room with both legs!'

'A machine gun cafe? You REALLY get me, Adolfo!'

French Poster for 'Un Conde'