Un Flic (1972)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Un Flic (1972) – J.-P. Melville

Melville’s final film is a restatement (or rehashing) of his earlier themes about male bonding, grace under pressure, the commonalities between cop and criminal (themes later borrowed by John Woo among others).  It also is another example of his stylized technique, with the art direction and set design featuring multiple shades of grey, blue, and brown (including the suits, trench coats, and fedoras), shot in the rain or on cloudy days.  Melville famously claimed that his films weren’t “Bressonian” but instead that Robert Bresson’s films were “Melvillian” – by which he means to say that his films were intensely focused on instrumental actions (including shots of hands and feet) more than on establishing the psychology of his characters. Un Flic displays this fetish rather extravagantly with two major heist scenes, the gang (led by dubbed Richard Crenna) robs a bank on a rainy day and a drug courier on a train.  The latter scene takes place in “real time” as the train travels twenty minutes between two stops and Crenna descends from a helicopter onto the roof and then back up again.  (The fact that the train and helicopter are so clearly models detracts from the film and speaks to Melville’s tight budget; unlike Hitchcock’s back projection, the effect here isn’t particularly Brechtian). The two heist set pieces don’t really contribute to the themes or to character development in Un Flic.  Instead, Alain Delon’s police inspector is more richly presented, as we see him in a variety of contexts, at different crime scenes, at the office, with police informants, and alone with his tryst partner Catherine Deneuve – but also at the typical Melvillian nightclub (with synchronised dancing girls) which is run by Crenna whose girlfriend is actually Deneuve as well (a link between cop and crook again).  Of course, everything and everyone is cool, particularly Delon, Crenna, and Deneuve, but Melville’s handling of the conclusion feels abrupt – he’s set the mood expertly, but he has less patience for the resolution and its (typical) fatalism.  Still, there’s a nice effect when Delon’s final move in this chess match sinks in.  Start elsewhere but this is still worth it for fans.