Profil bas (1993)
Directed by Claude Zidi

Film Review

After the enormous worldwide success of Les Ripoux (1984), still considered one of the best entries in France's comedy-thriller genre, director Claude Zidi waited another decade before attempting a serious thriller, Profil bas.  This was a radical departure for a mainstream film director who had enjoyed considerable success with a string of riotous comedies featuring such popular performers as Les Charlots (Les Bidasses en folie, Le Grand Bazar), Louis de Funès (La Zizanie) and Coluche (Inspecteur la Bavure, Banzaï).  Critical reaction to the film was overwhelming hostile and it proved to be a notable box office flop - a rare occurrence for a director unused to failure.  Apparently, Zidi had lost the Midas touch.

The film's failure to attract an audience is all the more surprising given that it features in its lead role the phenomenally popular actor-singer Patrick Bruel, who was then at the height of his popularity.  Bruelmania kept the actor firmly in the limelight for well over a decade, and his film appearances were generally well-received, in comedies such as Francis Veber's Le Jaguar (1996) and more serious fare like Pierre Jolivet's Force majeure (1989).  Bruel was very nearly as capable an actor as he was a singer and, helped by his boyish good looks and sympathetic persona, he brought a touch of class to many otherwise mediocre films of this period.

Unfortunately, not even the trusty Bruel magic could rescue Profil bas, a film that looks too much like a badly thrown together potpourri of French gangster films of the 1980s.  With little in the way of a coherent narrative to hold it all together, the film is further marred by an off-putting surfeit of bad taste and a general lack of character depth.  Weighted down by a lumbering plot that is just too complicated for its own good and a plethora of secondary characters that are no more than lazy archetypes, Profil bas struggles to engage our interest right from the off.  It looks suspiciously like a poor imitation of one of those crass American cop movies of the era, content merely to repeatedly shock rather than involve its audience.

On the plus side, there are some impressively choreographed action scenes, but even here Zidi seems to be unable to rein in his excesses and the spectacle of violence and sadism we are treated to looks mostly gratuitous, to say the least.  Bruel does the best that he can with a stereotypical role that lacks definition and substance, but neither the script nor his director do him many favours and for the most part he looks out of place, too amiable and genteel to be entirely convincing as the hard-bitten disillusioned cop.

Bruel fares somewhat better than Jean Yanne, who is completely wasted in a supporting role that barely has time to register.  Even Didier Bezace, who gets to play the most interesting character, fails to deliver the goods.  Former real-life cop Olivier Marchal makes an early film appearance in a minor role, almost a full decade before he made his own debut in the policier genre with Gangsters (2002), a far more worthy example of the genre.  If Marchal had had the opportunity to direct Profil bas it would have been a completely different film, nothing like the unsatisfying half-baked muddle that Zidi somehow concocted with no obvious flair for the genre and too slavish a regard to the well-worn conventions of the genre.

Film Synopsis

Julien Segal is a seasoned police inspector in his mid-thirties.  Although he has an exemplary record, he has become disillusioned with his career and is seriously contemplating giving up his work for good.  He derives little if any satisfaction from trying to play the honest cop in a world where the boundary that separates the criminals from their police pursuers is becoming ever more tenuous.  Julien's immediate superior, Superintendent Carré, ropes him into a new case which has the objective of unmasking a notorious gang of drugs traffickers led by a dangerous man named Roche.

For the assignment to be a success, Julien must carefully infiltrate the gangster underworld by posing as a criminal himself.  What he doesn't know is that the ruthless Carré plans to use him as a scapegoat to conceal his own involvement in a massive drugs trafficking operation.  When an attempt on his life fails, Julien suddenly becomes suspicious.  Realising that he is a pawn in a dangerous game of double dealing, the young cop comes up with a plan to discover who is so keen to put him away...