Police

Police is not a pleasant film to watch. The protagonist is the policeman Mangin, who is working to bust a drug-smuggling ring. His work is hampered, however, by his becoming infatuated with one of the suspects, the pretty Noria. Pialat shows a world in which the difference between black and white is disturbingly small. The lawyer Lambert is not least an example of this. He fraternises with both the police and the criminals, but in the end gets so mixed up in things that it goes badly for him. Police has no heroes, least of all Mangin, who is both violent and far too easily led astray by Noria. The film thus paints a depressing picture that is probably not without a grain of truth.

The film's biggest problem is not its exaggeratedly negative outlook on life, but that its murkiness extends to the screenplay too. At any rate, it was not always easy to work out what was going on.