Reviewed - 33/36 Quai des Orfevres: OLIVIER Marchal is said to have drawn on his own experiences as a cop when preparing this slick French crime thriller. Really? Most of the procedural and technical details revealed in 36 could easily be picked up from a glance at Michael Mann's Heat or the Heat-ish Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs.
Policemen, it seems, all drive gleaming top-end saloons, recently delivered from the showroom. They dress in beautiful leather jackets, meticulously distressed by Karl Lagerfeld's own poodles. Their every action is underscored by a subtle ambient throb. Still, it is interesting to see M Marchal confirm that Hollywood and Hong Kong have got their facts right.
A grumpier writer than this might complain that 36, unlike Jean-Pierre Melville's great thrillers, fails to add anything characteristically French to its stew of (mostly) American influences. Stick Anglophone heads on the bodies of Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu and the film could pass for a study of murky goings on in some suburb of Los Angeles.
But that would be to quibble. Following two surly cops as, hungry for promotion to the top job, they seek to track down the perpetrators of a series of armed robberies, the picture proves to be an efficient, stylish thriller with a satisfactory stock of surprising twists.
Just as Heat allowed Pacino and De Niro to square off, 36 (the original French title, 36 Quai des Orfèvres, referenced the French equivalent of Scotland Yard) invites Auteuil (flawed, but decent) and Depardieu (ruthless) to compete in an enthralling shrugging contest. The result is an honourable draw.
