[Masters of Cinema] [1985]

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Maurice Pialat's delivers on the raw promise of its title, insofar as much of its action qualifies as an insistently 'procedural' descent into the Paris drugs underworld. But the hyper-real route that the film takes to arrive there, before veering into a zone of dangerous emotional play, contributes to a disorienting, adventurous, and ultimately tremendously exciting experience unlike any '-thriller' ever before conceived. The iconic Gérard Depardieu (who also collaborated with Pialat on Loulou, Sous le soleil de Satan, and Le Garçu) plays Mangin, a cop whose brutal method of investigation finds its obsessive outlet in an attempt to crack a Tunisian narcotics ring. It is when Mangin enters into close acquaintance with the defiant Noria (expertly played by Sophie Marceau in one of her first screen roles) that the film proceeds to chart an unexpected, emotionally ambiguous course and the lines between 'right' and 'wrong', and 'power' and 'freedom', terminally blur. Written with Catherine Breillat (director of The Last Mistress, Anatomy of Hell, Girl), but relying in equal measure upon Pialat's improvisatory control (directing, among others, his star-actress from A nos amours, Sandrine Bonnaire), is a genre-defying excursion rivaled only by John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in the pantheon of cinema's most idiosyncratic thrillers. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Maurice Pialat's daring 1985 film in a magnificent, digitally restored transfer for the first time on DVD in the UK. SPECIAL 2-DISC EDITION including: Gorgeous new anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio -- New and improved English subtitle translations -- 2003 video interview with director and co-screenwriter Catherine Breillat, conducted by former Cahiers du cinéma editor-in-chief, and current director of the Cinémathèque Française, Serge Toubiana -- ZOOM SUR [ZOOM ONTO ] (2002) 34-minute documentary by Virginie Apiou about the production of the film -- Vintage screen-tests featuring Maurice Pialat and C. Galmiche, the inspiration for the character of Lambert -- Excerpt from a 1985 episode of Cinéma Cinémas during the course of the 17th day of production on -- 23-minute video discussion with Yann Dedet, the editor of -- The film's original trailer, along with trailers for other Maurice Pialat films to be released by The Masters of Cinema Series -- 40-page booklet containing a new essay by filmmaker and critic Dan Sallitt, and newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat