Un Flic - A Film by Jean-Pierre Melville

Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve Star in this Parisian Thriller

Oct 30, 2009

Also known as Dirty Money, Un Flic is the last film by the great French director Jean-Pierre Melville. Alain Delon plays a cop hunting a gang of robbers.

Director Jean Pierre Melville knew how to get the best out of the understated French star Alain Delon. Un Flic is their third film together after Le Samourai (1967) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970). Delon plays Edouard Coleman, a jaded police commissioner who goes through the motions of investigating crimes, though his methods involve finding the most pragmatic way to bring about their resolution.

Alain Delon is Un Flic (A Cop)

Un Flic opens with a bank robbery in a windswept seaside town. A gang of trilby-wearing middle-aged men pull off a heist though one of them is badly wounded. Their leader is Simon (Richard Crenna), a nightclub owner and friend of Edouard. The gang are meticulous and plan everything in great detail. Edouard suspects his friend is involved somehow but matters are complicated by his involvement with Simon’s wife, Cathy (Catherine Deneuve).

In one scene Edouard is called to a murder scene at a brothel. The corpse of a prostitute is slumped against a wall. The expression frozen on her face, which is beautifully made up, has a mournful look on her face as if she is wondering, why has this happened to me?

Melville cuts between close-ups of Edouard and the dead girl. Oddly enough there seems to be more life behind her eyes than his. Edouard turns away as if she really got to him somehow. Few male actors have the ability to suggest so much by doing so little. Edouard may have hidden depths or nothing there at all.

Edouard is impossible to read. When one suspect puts on a tough guy act Eduard hits him so hard he immediately confesses. Yet he shows kindness towards a transvestite hooker who informs for him and treats him/her with respect. That is until he gets the wrong information, then his rejection is brutal. Edouard genuinely likes Simon, but sleeps with his wife and intends to bring him down.

Simon too is going through the motions. It is not like he needs the money. He robs banks to remind himself he is alive. Melville repeats his earlier stare-off between the living and the dead. This time Simon is in an art gallery and staring at a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh. Melville cuts between close-ups of the ingenious thief and the tortured artist, until Simon also turns away from the eyes of the dead.

Catherine Denueve is chilling as Cathy, the nightclub hostess, who is part of the gang and even commits a murder to keep them out of prison. The rest of the cast are made up of the lived-in, haunted faces that populate Melville’s world. Special mention too for Michael Conrad, whom older viewers may remember as the towering roll call Sergeant in Hill Street Blues.

Almost unremittingly bleak, Un Flic is cold, embittered and desolate. Paris looks dark even during the day. In fact everything looks blue, courtesy of Walter Wottitz’s cinematography. It’s the cinematic version a jazz number playing in a bar at closing time. Just don’t watch it at three in the morning; it might just push you over the edge.

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