Polisse (2011)

A journalist covering police assigned to a juvenile division enters an affair with one of her subjects.

Director:

Maïwenn

Writers:

Maïwenn (screenplay), Emmanuelle Bercot (screenplay)

Stars:

Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Foïs

4 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Karin Viard	...	Nadine
Joey Starr	...	Fred (as Joeystarr)
Marina Foïs	...	Iris
Nicolas Duvauchelle	...	Mathieu
Maïwenn	...	Melissa
Riccardo Scamarcio	...	Francesco
Karole Rocher	...	Chrys
Emmanuelle Bercot	...	Sue Ellen
Frédéric Pierrot	...	Baloo (as Frederic Pierrot)
Arnaud Henriet	...	Bamako
Naidra Ayadi	...	Nora
Jérémie Elkaïm	...	Gabriel
Wladimir Yordanoff	...	Beauchard
Laurent Bateau	...	Hervé, le mari de Nadine
Carole Franck	...	Céline

Storyline

The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department's Juvenile Protection Unit - taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets and chewing over relationship issues at lunch; interrogating abusive parents, taking statements from children, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it. How do these cops balance their private lives and the reality they confront every working day? Fred, the group's hypersensitive wild card, is going to have a hard time facing the scrutiny of Melissa, a photographer on a Ministry of the Interior assignment to document the unit.

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Plot Keywords:

police | pickpocket | abusive parent | child molester | photographer | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [fr] Official site [hu]

Country:

France

Language:

French Italian Romanian Arabic

Release Date:

19 October 2011 (France)

Also Known As:

Polis

Filming Locations:

Boulevard du Palais, Paris 1, Paris, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$16,568 (USA) (18 May 2012)

Gross:

$171,320 (USA) (15 June 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Productions du Trésor, arte France Cinéma, Mars Distribution

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The French word for Police is spelled and said the same as in English. The title "Polisse" means "polishes" in French and sounds like "police." The title is an attempt at a pun.

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.18 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"L'ILE AUX ENFANTS"
(Christophe Izard/Roger Pouly)
Interprete par Anne Germain
(p) & (c) 1974 Editions de Alouettes (catalogue Technisonor)
Avec l'aimable autorisation de Sony ATV

User Reviews

Raw truth, but Difficult to watch and comprehend

Polisse is a documentary style feature film, which follows French police working with child molestation and abuse. We're follow them in a film without a plot, only everyday life and troubles, and through dinners and bar escapades. The cases and the language is really rough stuff, and this is obviously not for everyone. If you're easily offended, keep away.

We're given no explanation, just follow what happens as a fly on the wall. So is the director here, Maiwenn, which uses a small tourist camera, taking pictures all the time. Strange, and looking quite unprofessional, but then she is originally an actor. We're looking at actors, but this is all based upon real life, we're told, at least.

We see some horrific cases of them unveiling child abuse of different kinds, and when they talk in their spare time, the language is very graphic. Maybe this is a work hazard, still I find it strange that these grown ups talk low life language, using all kinds of sexual words when they seem to have a normal conversation. It might be right, but maybe this feels too much for an ordinary viewer. At least I thought so, and I'm not easily offended.

Two more things irritate. First of all Maiwenn, photographing everywhere with her old camera. She looks lame doing this, and ruins the impression of this as a serious movie. Sue's like a misfit, or bimbo in this film. She's acting, and I don't understand her mission in this. But being writer and director, she obviously needed a role as actor as well. With better professional help, the film would have been way better. Still there's lots of stuff which will hit you hard here.

The police acting like this in their spare time makes us also questioning their motives as well as their credibility and them being real professionals, though we really down to earth understand they are well qualified personnel. But from time to other you really wonder...

Interesting, and nice try, but still the film has some troubles impossible to disregard.

The second main problem is we never follow out the interesting things which we see. It's all small fragments. We don't get to know people. Instead we get longer pieces of non-important dancing at night clubs and ridiculous discussions. Still this is interesting, and worth to watch. Just expect to be annoyed, insulted, chocked, bored and disgusted every other minute.