92% Polisse

"Polisse" synopsis is so dull and poor that I am glad I had not read it before watching the movie. The "journalist covering police assigned to a juvenile division that enters an affair with one of her subjects" is only part of a wider and more complex quilt of characters and interesting stories.Ma?wenn brings up the dirty and dark side of Paris with the help of an excellent team of child actors - Malonn L?vana, the lovely little girl of "Tomboy" (where she plays the sister of the leading character) is someone to keep an eye on - and the best known actors of the French cinema of today: Marina Fo?s, Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Fr?d?ric Pierrot, Karin Viard, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Alice de Lencquesaing (L'heure d'?t?, Le p?re de mes enfants), J?r?mie Elka?m (La guerre est d?clar?e), Karole Rocher, and others.This team of stars, however, can be a double-edged sword: at the same time it calls the attention and arouses curiosity, it can also hinder the identification with the characters and/or concentration. It was just me, perhaps, but every time a known face appeared on the screen, my mind would unplug and try to remember in which movie I had seen that actor. Despite the great cast and some memorable moments, "Polisse" is average. It looks like a police tv drama show, both in format and melodrama, but a very good one it?s true. If made for tv, all the crucial subjects raised by Ma?wenn - such as pedophilia, social welfare, immigration, violence - could be better placed and developed, taking in mind the way she chose to portray them. Choices, by the way, seem to be carefully taken. Melissa ?s "ugly panties" being childlike and having the saying "spank me" that she didn?t know what means may work as an alert on how we collaborate with these sexual "fair tale" fantasies. The saying in English (spank me) may also be a criticism on our contemporary times where we usually follow global and standardized models/ideas, sometimes without really knowing or thinking about what they mean, what can be also seen, let?s say, in the episode of the "telephone teenager girl". "But it was a smartphone". Although I don't think "Polisse" is that good, Ma?wenn definitely got my attention. I liked a lot her character Melissa and how it develops and grow as the story unfolds; I was delighted with the funny discussion over the changes in the French language (on how we are killing our language); and the final scene really impressed me - the ending can be melodramatic as said Peter Bradshaw, but definitely not unconvincing. That said, I will sure check Ma?wenn's previous movies and will be waiting for more.

April 18, 2012

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