Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

MartinHafer I have long been a fan of the French actor Daniel Autieul and he is the reason I watched this picture. Otherwise, it's just no the sort of movie I would normally watch, as ultra-violent films about dirty cops aren't my thing. I am not saying these sorts of movies are bad....just not something I enjoy or want to see in the first place.The story is about two cops who are competing to take the Chief's job when he retires. One, Vrinks (Autieul) is a very good cop but also one who bends and breaks rules to get his quarry. The other, Klein (Gerard Depardieu) is even more ruthless and, at heart, an evil and gutless guy. Eventually, Klein shows his infamy as he ensures Vrinks is not only sent to prison but that Vrinks' wife is killed! Ultimately, you can't help but think that Vrinks will bide his time and plot his eventual revenge.This film has two major things going for it...action and violence. What it does NOT have going for it is logic, as several of the scenes simply make little sense (such as the scene where the police woman is kidnapped...and they let the kidnapper go EVEN after he murders the Captain. The same sort of thing in the scene where Vrink's wife if killed...it doesn't make much sense. The same with when Vrinks infiltrated the big party near the end and no one recognized him. I kept thinking that these and a few other scenes could have been written better...and despite not loving the genre, I could have enjoyed this one a lot more. Overall, not a terrible movie but Autieul and Depardieu deserved better material....and it is unrelentingly grim.

gradyharp 36 (36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES) is a 2004 film that is just now making it to DVD: it should do very well with audiences who enjoy fine thriller/suspense dramas that depend on brilliant acting as opposed to endless pyrotechnics and CGI gimmicks. This film was inspired by a true story as related by director and actor and writer Olivier Marchal (with Franck Mancuso, Julien Rappeneau and Dominique Loiseau) of some corruption uncovered in the Paris police in 1985. The film is tense, forces the audience to think as the action jumps around showing simultaneous events in a smoothly cut and paste method of cinematic magic, and is populated with some very unforgettable characters who are a able to make us believe the fact that good cop/bad cop is a matter of interpretation in the vagaries of police action. There are repeated serial heists in the criminal underbelly of Paris, hijacking and murders that confound the headquarters of the Paris Police headed by Robert Mancini (André Dussollier). Two departments are challenged to put an end to the madness: the BRI headed by Léo Vrinks (Daniel Auteuil) and the BRB headed by Denis Klein (Gérard Depardieu) who are competing to head the police division now that the head Eddy Valence (Daniel Duval) is retiring. The personalities of these two competitors are quite different and the tone of past mistrust pervades every conversation and confrontation they have. Each is determined to be the one who brings the heinous group of criminals to justice. The violence escalates when Eddy is killed: the policemen are devoted to Vrinks who has considerable connections with the underworld such as Silien (Roschdy Zem) who seems to pull Vrinks down with an unexpected incident. Klein is the power obsessed cop who seems to stop at nothing to assure that he is responsible of the end of the hijackers/murderers, even to the point of involving Vrinks' wife Camille (Valéria Golino) in an event that results in Camille's death. Vrinks and Klein each commit blunders that result in a chain of events that blurs the lines of morality and enters the realm of vendetta and revenge. In addition to brilliant performances by both Anteuil, Depardieu and Golino there are memorable cameos by Francis Renaud as Titi, a cop with a heart, Anne Consigny as Klein's wife Hélène, Mylène Demongeot as the sassy older tart with a heart Manou. Daniel Antueil's daughter Aurore Auteuil who plays his screen daughter Lola as well, and even director Olivier Marchal as the criminal Christo. The musical score by Erwann Kermorvant and Axelle Renoir is unusually fine as is the cinematography by Denis Rouden who appreciates the importance of closeup shots of the intense psychological aspects of both Anteuil's and Depardieu's faces. This is a film for those hungry for intelligent and thought-provoking dramas. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp

FilmCriticLalitRao It is true that French cinema has failed to make Die Hard type films which have shown one man's crusade against heartless criminals but action film genre has been seen in Taxi series.One positive thing that can be said about 36 Quai des Orfèvres is that it is a brilliant action film.All credit must go to its director Olivier Marchal who has proved that French cinema is as energetic as American cinema as far as action cinema genre is concerned.Action scenes have been directed with perfect agility as they show how main actors like Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil and Daniel Duval display their best acting talents to tackle reckless criminals.In 36 Quai des Orfèvres we are shown that criminals are elegant,slick and vigilant.They are showed as nasty elements who are constantly on move.The presence of a female member in their midst goes to prove that they want to achieve beauty and the beast effect.As a film cannot rest on only one genre Olivier Marchal has steered this film into the realm of drama too.This is where things go wrong for him as there is absolutely no coherent element between fight scenes and dramatic elements which helps in uniting the narrative structure of this film.Dramatic elements of this film are so badly filmed that they offer only a myopic vision of corruption in police units and how family lives of police forces are ruined due to intense pressure.

htodd For some reason I never got into this movie. All throughout I was wondering why the movie was dragging along for me. I think it's two things:First, the English subtitles were awful. Or the dialog was awful. I can't tell, I can't speak French.The scenes transitions just made me wonder why they didn't end the last scene, or why this new scene was starting so slowly.The music scoring was also bad enough that someone I know complained about it.And worst, all the actors seemed to stare off into the distance a lot, like the director wanted to put up a big sign that said, THE ACTOR IS CURRENTLY THINKING but thought better of it. Hell, maybe everyone in France does that. I don't know, I've never been there.