UN FLIC (1972)

Jean-Pierre Melville’s final film falls into the vein of the crime thrillers he directed previously and, although Melville ups the action, the resulting product doesn’t quite match the level of its predecessors.

Un Flic tells the story of French Police Chief, Eduoard Coleman (played by Alain Delon, reteaming once again with Melville), a rather unlikable man who has been worn down by crime. His next target is Simon (Rambo’s Richard Crenna), a daring bank robber who we meet in an exquisitely paced opening heist sequence.

Unfortunately, the opening scene doesn’t quite match the rest of the film. As mentioned previously, Melville does take a lot of care and attention with his two main action sequences. The second robbery features Simon being lowered, by helicopter, onto a speeding train in the dead of night. Taking up around a fifth of the film’s runtime, this sequence is handled extraordinarily by Melville and it feels like it could outdo a fair few Bond action sequences, too.

However, in choosing to take greater care over the action, Melville seems to lose a hold of his protagonist, Coleman. It’s a shame because Delon performs but never gets the time to become the anti-hero we want to root for. In a story that is supposed to be centered on Coleman - the title literally translates to ‘a cop’ - Melville instead seems to revel in focusing more on the criminals and their actions. Melville’s swan song is technically brilliant, but ends his wonderful career with one of his weaker films. Score: 58/100