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Police Python 357
1976 Crime / Thriller
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Credits
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Director: Alain Corneau
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Script: Daniel Boulanger, Alain Corneau
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Photo: Etienne Becker
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Music: Georges Delerue
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Cast: Yves Montand (Inspecteur Marc Ferrot),
François Périer (Commissaire
Ganay),
Simone Signoret (Thérèse
Ganay),
Stefania Sandrelli (Sylvia Leopardi),
Mathieu Carrière (L'inspecteur Ménard),
Vadim Glowna (L'inspecteur Abadie),
Claude Bertrand (Le marchand de cochons),
Gabrielle Doulcet (La vieille aux chats),
Alice Reichen (La marchande de stylos),
Tony Rödel (L'Alsacien)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 125 min
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Aka: The Case Against Ferro
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Summary
Marc Ferrot is a police inspector in the town of Orléans, his love of women equalled
only by his love of firearms. One night, he meets Sylvia, an attractive young woman
who has just escaped from prison. Ferrot takes Sylvia as his lover, not realising
that she is also having an affair with his immediate superior, Commissaire Ganay.
When he hears of this, Ganay kills Sylvia in a moment of passion. Following the
advice of his paralysed wife, Ganay decides to cover his tracks. As Ferrot investigates
Sylvia’s murder he is surprised to find that all of the clues point to him being
the murderer…
Review
After his original debut feature, France société
anonyme, director Alain Corneau won further acclaim for this very respectable offering
in the film noir / policier genre. Corneau chose to set the film in Orléans,
the town in which he grew up as a child, and one which provides an appropriate backdrop
for a tale of subterfuge and bloody double dealings. Well scripted, well acted and
well paced, Police Python 357 is the first of
a series of quality crime-thrillers which Corneau directed in the 1970s and early 1980s
which were both well-received by the critics and very popular with the cinema-going public.
The film features Yves Montand in one of his most compelling and hard-edged performances,
a stark contrast with his other popular persona, that of the sophisticated and very amiable
singer. He appears in the film with his real-life wife, Simone Signoret, in an acutely
poignant sequence. The film gets its title from the Colt Python 357, a powerful
firearm that was standard issue to the American police.
© James Travers 2004
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