Taglines: “The only feelings mankind has ever inspired in policemen are those of indifference and derision…” (Eugène-François Vidocq)
Un Flic movie storyline. Paris Police Commissioner Edouard Coleman (Alain Delon) is able to detach himself from the gruesome and morbid details of the cases on which he works. He demands the respect of those with who he works, he not afraid to use his position to get what he needs from his associates or the supposed perpetrators. He is a night owl by necessity as that’s when most of his life’s major crimes occur.
He is also somewhat detached from the notion that his friend, nightclub owner Simon (Richard Crenna), knows that he is cheating with his girlfriend, Cathy (Catherine Deneuve), the two men who remain friends and who do not talk about it. One of the cases on which he is currently working is a bank robbery in the provincial seaside town of Saint-Jean-de-Monts. It is known that four men committed the robbery, one who was seriously wounded in the process. What Edouard is unaware of is that Simon is one of the four, the mastermind in his methodical and calculating approach to his criminal work, and that Cathy knows and is thus an accessory.
The dichotomy that is Edouard and Simon’s lives also have the potential to converge when Edouard receives a tip from one of his snitches, a transvestite show girl at Simon’s club named Gaby, she who is trying to avoid Edouard’s wrath, that a professional mule coined Suitcase Mathieu will be carrying a cache or heroin across the border on a Paris to Lisbon train, Edouard who plans for the police to intercept Suitcase Mathieu with the goods, while Simon and his gang plan on stealing the heroin en route only to sell it back to the drug lords. In these games of cat and mouse, the question then becomes if Edouard the cat will discover the mouse is Simon and if so if the cat will get his prey including Cathy.
Un flic (English: A Cop; also known as Dirty Money) is a 1972 French film, the last directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. It stars Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve and Richard Crenna. Delon had previously worked with Melville on Le Samouraï (1967) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970), playing the role of a criminal. In Un Flic, Delon’s role is reversed. He plays the cop, Édouard Coleman, in pursuit of Simon, a notorious Paris thief who is very hard to pin down.
Un Flic (1972)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Alain Delon, Richard Crenna, Catherine Deneuve, Riccardo Cucciolla, Michael Conrad, Paul Crauchet, Simone Valère, André Pousse, Jean Desailly, Valérie Wilson, Dominique Zentar
Screenplay by: Jean-Pierre Melville
Production Design by: Théobald Meurisse
Cinematography by: Walter Wottitz
Film Editing by: Patricia Nény
Costume Design by: Colette Baudot
Set Decoration by: Pierre Charron
Music by: Michel Colombier
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Les Films Corona (France), Allied Artists Pictures (United States)
Release Date: October 1972 (France)
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