Simply A Masterpiece

How sad is this?

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Great settings, acting, actors, soundtrack and camerawork. Complications of plot at times (who's who?) didn't hide inevitably of ending. Also unfamiliar with French justice and political systems. But well worth the watch - I couldn't leave it before the end - especially for the two lead actors. Best French movie to come along for a while. Also called The Connection. (viewed 8/16)

A fairly truthful representation of an actual event that occurred in the city of Marseilles.Even though a lot of facts are edited and added for the dramatic aspect of the movie it clearly paints a magnificent image of the city in the 1970's when the ruling mafia was not like the bandit-ism of today but a far more elegant and sophisticated type. The typical accent of a "marseillais" (person from Marseilles) is heard and is very accurate, Jean Dujardin plays his role superbly as the detective and proves his caliber as on of the best french actors in the current industry. Overall a flawless production, the spectator is captivated all along and his heart beats for the main characters risky path towards breaking down the "French Connection".

Another great policier from La Belle France where they continue to make films about PEOPLE and seemingly never heard of cgi, streets named Elm or Men in black. The two leads are both more or less playing against type; Dujardin starred in two COMICAL crime capers as an inept James Bond figure, Lellouche is more often on the receiving end of violence than generating it and they co-starred memorably in a comedy a couple of years back. Here, Dujardin in Eliot Ness mode fronts a unit to bring down not a beer but a drugs trafficker (Lellouche) and like Ness has a serious family life going for him. Aptly for a movie set in Marseilles one of the supporting players is Gerard Meylan, a regular member in Robert Guideguin's repertory company and like the entire cast he is more than up to snuff. There well may be those who will groan not ANOTHER Gallic gangster film and that of course is their right and they can't touch you for it but the rest of us will, I suspect, wallow in yet another great policier.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s drugs were flowing from Marseille to New York in a sophisticated and sustained operation. The Americans made two movies about the racket: "The French Connection" (1971) set in New York and "The French Connection II" (1975) located in Marseiiles, in both cases with Gene Hackman famously playing the police crime-buster. French cinema too has had two cracks at telling the story: first with "The Judge" (1984) and then with "The Connection" ("La French" in French) in 2014. In the French films, the hero is not a policeman but a magistrate, in "The Connection" played by played by Jean Dujardin, best known outside France for his performance in the silent film "The Artist". The role of the chief criminal is taken by Gilles Lelouche. There is a short scene where the two meet alone which is reminiscent of the cafe scene between Al Pacino and Robert de Niro in "Heat". "The Connection" is not one of the the classics like "The French Connection" and "Heat" but it is a stylish, if clichéd, thriller with hand-held camera-work and atmospheric soundtrack adding to the impact.