Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alai — Hardboiled( Blu Ray boxset)

Hardboiled is a Blu-ray set bringing together three 1970s crime/ action films, helmed by Orléans, Loiret-born Alain Corneau. Each blends classic noir tropes, gritty ’70s edge, and French sensibilities- with often creative/distinctive twists on the crime film form. Each film in the set receives an HD scan, as well as a selection of new/ archive extras. With the set finished off, an eighty-page booklet- taking in four new pieces of writing, and archive interviews.

First up, we have 1976’s Police Python 357 (aka The Wages of Fear). From both its opening credits/ first scene,  original title, and poster/ publicity, this looks like it’s going to be a French Dirty Harry clone, but in reality, it’s more of a taut and tightening thriller, with a few scenes worth of action/ gun play- but largely this is a cop-based suspense film.

The two-hour and six-minute film opens in the small single-bed apartment of Inspector Marc Ferrot (Yves Montand) a middle-aged policeman, who is sitting at his desk preparing his gun ready for use. He pulls on his tight driving gloves and is out into the night.

Next, we move to a nighttime church where a man is chiselling away at a statue- also in the shadowy interior of the church is a twenty-something woman, who takes pictures of the crook from a distance. The crook takes the statute to the awaiting car, but Ferrot is waiting for him, pulling his gun out and shooting at the man, with the photographer secretly taking pictures of the inspector.

Next, we see Ferrot driving through the city at nighttime, and he does a double take/ then reverses back up a street, as in one of the shop windows is a big blown-up picture of him with his gun raised- creating the window dressing is the photographer Sylvia(Stefania Sandrelli).  The pair talk and she agrees to give him back all of the negatives of the film, arranging to meet him at the train station the next day.

One thing leads to another, and the pair start a passionate affair- meeting up in either a car or in the countryside to have sex. He gets more and more pulled into her playful/unpredictable nature- so he wants to have a proper and full relationship with her, but she is still undecided, though there are a few things that are a little strange about her,  for example, she carries a handheld alarm clock, which often goes off.

We find Sylvia has a plush penthouse apartment, and another middle-aged man, Ganay (François Périer), who is seemingly showering her with gifts/ paying for the place. Though unlike Ferrot, he doesn’t live alone, but instead lives in a plush and gated apartment with a bedbound woman around his age.

Both men’s lives are shaken up when Sylvia turns up dead, and from here we get a wonderfully twisting and turning plot- with some great/ very unexpected reveals along the way.

Both of our leads are excellent, having rewarding arcs- Montand moves from being a focused, if at times not playing by the rules cop, to a rather haunted/ troubled fellow.  Périer is initially more of a smug-if-slightly world-weary man, who later becomes somewhat cold and manipulative. There are some decent supporting actors surrounding the two- like Mathieu Carrière, who plays the stern, meticulous, and bespectacled partner of Inspector Ferrot.

The film is most skilfully filmed/ brought together- there is a repeated theme of others watching others, and the whole suspenseful mystery of the whole thing is done spellbindingly well. All in all, Police Python 357 is a great opener to this set- been a wonderful tension-building thriller, which will really have you on the edge of your seat.

 

Extras-wise, we get three things- two new & one old. On the new side, we get a commentary track from Mike White of The Project Booth podcast.  He starts off giving a bio of director Alain Corneau- we find out he started out studying jazz before his interest in film, with his first job in the industry being an assistant director. We find out that the film to hand was the director's second feature, and it did rather well in French cinemas. He talks about the Série noire imprint, which started in 1945, releasing noir books in France, which led the genre to become popular in the country and wider Europe. He discusses the film's lead character- his stark/ neat apartment, his lack of family, and his focus on work. He discusses the use of clocks/ watches in the film. Later on, he discusses other character tropes,  points out key/ important scenes, and touches on The Big Clock, the 1946 novel by Kenneth Fearin. The commentary track is fine if slightly mixed. He starts off rather darting around a bit from subject to subject, and at points rather blandly reeling off facts. Later on, he does run out of steam a little,  just commenting on what we see on screen. Next on the new side, we have crime fiction author/ critic Maxim Jakubowski (15.11) commenting on the film to hand, the book it was based on, and the Série Noire publishing imprint.

On the archive side, we have a 1976 Belgian  TV interview with Alain Corneau and François Périer(5.00).

 

The second film here is 1979’s Serie Noire —it’s a wholly distinctive, though terminal hopeless, mix of kitchen-sink drama, low-key crime thriller, and darker-than-night black comedy. The film was based on A Hell Of A Woman, a 1954 American crime novel by Jim Thompson

It’s set in a dreary and rundown Paris suburb in the winter. It focuses on Franck Poupart (Patrick Dewaere), a seedy, gangly, partially balding with a  floppy-fringe door-to-door salesman. The film charts one failure, cock-up, or bumbling mess after another in Franck’s life, moving from low-key bad luck days, such as getting soaked/ losing a sale, all the way through to a few bumbled murders.

Surrounding Franck is a small, but effective selection of shady characters- taking in his slobby & unpredictable wife Jeanne(Myriam Boyer), his balding and tubby boss Staplin(Bernard Blier), his simple/easily manipulated friend Andreas Tikides(Andreas Katsulas), and underage/ doesn’t say much prostitute Mona(Marie Trintignant).

The film runs at the one hour and fifty-five-minute mark, and really, it’s a compelling dramatic car crash, as Franck's luck goes from bad too much, much worse. It’s not a picture you can give too much away about, as we get some neat twists & turns along its length- but trust me, both Dewaere's performance and his terminal bad luck is most engaging.

All of the small cast is excellent, but Dewaere truly is the highlight here- he’s a legend in his own mind, but a total failure in reality. He often wears an ill-fitting beige trench coat, too-short flared trousers, and a saggy white polo neck. He often breaks into dance, throwing his gangly body about in a truly cringe-inducing manner.  And even when clearly everything is lost, he either pretends nothing is wrong, or makes yet another highly stupid discussion.

I guess a great alternative title would be a decidedly dark comedy of Errors. It’s not a formal/ focused crime film, but as things move on, things turn rapidly, dodging, going from petty theft/ scamming, to bumbling roughing-up & improper behaviour with a minor, onto murder.

 

For this film, we get the following extras. A Hollyhock in a Cornfield (29.41) a new visual essay by Paul Martinovic. This moves from giving a general bio of writer Jim Thompson, whose novel  A Hell Of A Woman the film was based on. Going on to discuss other films based on Thompson’s books. Before talking about Serie Noire itself, and why it stands as the best cinematic interpretation of his work. We find out the lead actor, Dewaere lost ten kilos in a few weeks for the role and refused a stuntman for his car headbutting scene. This is an excellent/interesting featurette. Otherwise, on the extras we have the following archive extras Série noire: The Darkness of the Soul (52.33), a 2013 documentary featuring cast and crew on the making of the film.  Interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant about Série noire from 2002 (29.41) Onset interviews(10.56)

 

Choice Of Arms (Le Choix Des Armes) is from the year 1981. It’s a gangster drama with moments of action and emotional resonance- it focuses on generational crime. It features an impressive cast of notable French actors like Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, and Yves Montand.

The film has a runtime of two hours and fifteen minutes. It begins with a prison breakout, where ageing and moustached old school criminal Serge (Pierre Forget), is joined by younger, more unpredictable Mickey(Depardieu)- proof of the latter turns up fairly quickly as he swings the escape car around- to gun down two policemen, unprovoked.

As the film unfolds, things go from bad to worse for the two, and they end up at the large country house with the stables of the Durieux family-taking in the smartly dressed & flat-capped Noel ( Yves Montand) & his blond/ elegant wife Nicole(Catherine Deneuve). Who seem a million miles from the pair, but slowly but surely, Noel's past is revealed- as back in the day, he was part of the criminally underground.

Serge passes, and unfortunately, this pushes the already unpredictable/unhinged Mickey over the edge, as he moves from a smash & grab, a posh house gun down, an off-the-cuff bank robbery, and reconnecting with people from his past, like  nervous laughing,  with a sullen wife & several children, Dany(Richard Anconina)

The film shifts back and forth between the countryside & its grand house, back into the city, moving from rubbish-strewn/ rundown flats, through to the city streets, onto the offices of the police. Talking of the right side of the law, there is the initially doesn’t say much/ mean moody Sarlat(Gérard Lanvin), and his bespeckled/ skeleton in his closet senior officer Roland (Etienne Chicot).

The film blends some nicely tense and taut action set-ups, with moodier/ at times emotional talky encounters- where the players show both their tough guy tropes/unpredictable, and emotional depth/ need. The score nicely switches between, taught & tight bass runs & swooning string scoring.

All of the actors involved- going from the leads, all the way down to the smaller supporting roles- are well selected. And throughout, you are wondering what the highly unpredictable Mikey will do next.

Choice Of Arms is a largely engaging/ compelling gangster film, with some effective undercurrents- though I do feel it could have been edited down to under the two-hour mark, as it does drag in places with unnecessarily long scenes.

Extras for this final film include Manuela Lazic on Yves Montand (23.53). This looks at the career of the film's lead actor- we find out he started his career as a singer, and other key roles are discussed, with, of course, the film to hand. Shooting Choice of Arms (21.64) – from 1981, taking in interviews with the cast and crew, including behind-the-scenes footage. Interviews with Deneuve, Montand and Depardieu from the set (18.12).

The set is finished off with a perfectly bound eighty-page inlay booklet. This takes in full cast and crew credits for each of the films. A 1995 interview with director Alain Corneau, four new pieces about the films, running around ten pages, a tribute to actor Patrick Deweare by Alain Corneau from 1986. And a good selection of colour stills from each of the films.

 

Hardboiled serves up three distinctly French takes on the crime cinema form, with this excellent box set taking in clean and crisp new scans, a good selection of worthy extras, and, of course, the eighty-page booklet. Yet another wonderfully curated/ put together box set from the folks at Radiance Films.