L. (627) Movie Review

Director Bertrand Tavernier (Capitain Conan, Life and Nothing But) created a sensation at the French boxoffice with this hard-hitting and uncompromising policier about a side of Paris that never appears in travel brochures. Written in collaboration with Parisian police inspector Michel Alexandre, L.627 chronicles the day-to-day frustrations—and occasional victories—of an undercover narcotics cop named Lulu (Didier Bezace). Lulu's personal relationships with hookers, dealers, and informers make the lines between criminal, associates, and friends ever more obscure; the concern Lulu feels when an HIV-infected prostitute and informer named Cecile (Lara Guirao) suddenly disappears is typical not only of Lulu's blurring identities, but also his humanity. American audiences will probably find much of the action in the streets to be old hat; our police procedurals have for years shown the difficulties cops have in making home life and street life co-exist, and their frustration with legal technicalities and bureaucracy. In terms of action, most half-hour episodes of Cops contain more shocks and genuine horror. Nevertheless, Tavernier's particularly humanistic slant is a refreshing take on this largely familiar material; at the very least, he gives us electric, pulsating images of a Paris never seen.

NEXT STOP … The Clockmaker, The Judge and the Assassin, Serpico

1992 145m/C FR Didier Bezace, Jean-Paul Comart, Cecile Garcia-Fogel, Lara Guirao, Charlotte Kady, Jean-Roger Milo, Philippe Torreton, Nils Tavernier; D: Bertrand Tavernier; W: Bertrand Tavernier, Michel Alexandre; C: Alain Choquart; M: Philippe Sarde.VHS KIV