Film Review: Gangsters (2002)

French film maker Olivier Marchal has spend more than a decade as policeman before switching his career to film acting and screenwriting. His professional experiences gave inspiration for his directorial debut, 2002 thriller Gangsters.

Protagonist of the film is Franck Chaievski (played by Richard Antonina), small time criminal recidivist who befriends Little Claude (played by Jean-Louis Tribes), Parisian criminal who prepares for the job that should crown his career – taking away diamonds which a Belgian businessman had hidden in a night club. The heist goes very wrong and turns into bloodbath, further complicated with an arrival of another set of masked attackers who try to take away Franck’s and Claude’s loot. Claude gets killed, while Franck manages to escape and hide diamonds with his girlfriend, drug-addicted prostitute Nina Delgado (played by Anne Parillaud). Soon afterwards both are arrested by police and brought to interrogation by officials who want to locate diamonds. Franck refuses to talk, which makes policemen use some harsh and not exactly legal methods to obtain information. Things get further complicated when it turns out that Franck perhaps isn’t who he claimed to be.

Marchal has obviously learned a lot working in front and behind the camera and that, together with his rather unique perspective on the realities of crime fighting, results in a more than solid film. Script is well written, direction is solid with clever use of flashbacks and the suspense is maintained quite well. Cast is also very good and includes some notable names, like Anne Parillaud of La Femme Nikita fame and Alexandra Vandernoot, Belgian actress known for her role in of Duncan MacLeod’s girlfriend in Highlander: The Series, here playing police commissioner. Relatively simple plot and realistic depiction of violence, both physical and verbal, however, can’t prevent disappointment that comes with weak and predictable ending. However, fans of “hard boiled” police films are probably going to be pleased. Marchal’s next two films - 36 Quai des Orfèvers, made in 2004, and The Last Deadly Mission a.k.a. MR 73, made in 2008 – are often seen as part of “Police Trilogy” which began with Gangsters.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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