Even the staunchest devotees of Jean-Pierre Melville of whom this viewer is one, would have to acknowledge that this, his thirteenth and final film, is one of his least effective. By the standards of the average film-maker of course it isn't at all bad but following in the wake of his four previous gangster films and the undisputed masterpiece 'Armée des Ombres' in which he swapped the Underworld for the Underground, this opus is decidedly lame.
It fared pretty well at the box office but of course the Delon/Deneuve factor guaranteed that but Melville's customary coolness has here become positively glacial whilst many of the minor characters are simply ciphers and cardboard cut-outs and his usually mesmerising slow pace is just plain tedious. The technical excellence that one has come to expect from this director is somehow sadly lacking. Whatever its weaknesses however, it didn't fail to influence the neo-noirs that predominated in French cinema of the 1970's.
What impresses most is the morally ambiguous relationship between the detective of Delon and the crook, played by a dubbed Richard Crenna. Melville has never disguised his distrust of the guardians of law and order and here Delon and Crenna represent both sides of the same coin. It is often said that in order to catch criminals it is necessary to possess an inverted criminal mentality and the methods employed by Delon's character do nothing to contradict that view. Catherine Deneuve is the meat in the sandwich but her role is woefully underwritten.
Even the best directors are like thoroughbreds that only have so many great races in them and here alas there is a distinct dipping of form. As it happened, Melville went to his grave considering the infinitely superior 'Le Cercle Rouge' to be his final film and jokingly denied that he had ever directed 'Un Flic'. Had he not died at just fifty-five whilst preparing his next project with Yves Montand, well, who knows......?
It fared pretty well at the box office but of course the Delon/Deneuve factor guaranteed that but Melville's customary coolness has here become positively glacial whilst many of the minor characters are simply ciphers and cardboard cut-outs and his usually mesmerising slow pace is just plain tedious. The technical excellence that one has come to expect from this director is somehow sadly lacking. Whatever its weaknesses however, it didn't fail to influence the neo-noirs that predominated in French cinema of the 1970's.
What impresses most is the morally ambiguous relationship between the detective of Delon and the crook, played by a dubbed Richard Crenna. Melville has never disguised his distrust of the guardians of law and order and here Delon and Crenna represent both sides of the same coin. It is often said that in order to catch criminals it is necessary to possess an inverted criminal mentality and the methods employed by Delon's character do nothing to contradict that view. Catherine Deneuve is the meat in the sandwich but her role is woefully underwritten.
Even the best directors are like thoroughbreds that only have so many great races in them and here alas there is a distinct dipping of form. As it happened, Melville went to his grave considering the infinitely superior 'Le Cercle Rouge' to be his final film and jokingly denied that he had ever directed 'Un Flic'. Had he not died at just fifty-five whilst preparing his next project with Yves Montand, well, who knows......?