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Bertrand Tavernier's superb L.627 bears scant resemblance to the description its UK DVD distributors put out - `This gritty police drama shows us the underbelly of the Parisian drug trade. Lulu is a tough streetwise narcotics cop who, like a Frank Serpico or a Dirty Harry Callahan, doesn't play by the rules or kowtow to his weak and/or corrupt superiors. Lulu thrives in this violent world, where sheer guts can overcome his squad's deficiencies of money and equipment.' In reality, it's much more down to earth and compelling look at the day to day realities of fighting a never-ending war, spending more time on the mundane realities of police work and its limitations. These cops aren't Dirty Harry, they're underfunded and unappreciated and never bring down any big guys. When a long-time surveillance fails, it's because of the most petty reason imaginable. When there's finally some violence it's just over a petty offence rather than a major crime. They fill in forms in a crappy prefab office, wrestle with budget cuts, play practical jokes and make no difference whatever - all of which is surprisingly gripping.
At times some of the characters threaten to stray into cop movie clichés, such as Didier Bezace's relationship with a prostitute and casual informer, and there's a subplot with wedding videos that the film could do without, but other than that there's little to find fault with. Tavernier's direction is at once convincingly observational while remaining unobtrusively cinematic and he's assembled an equally convincing ensemble cast, including Philippe Torreton, who would go on to play leading roles in Tavernier's Capitaine Conan and It All Starts Today. It's not a short movie - it's not far off the two-and-a-half hour mark - and as befits its subject matter it never reaches a grand climax but leaves its characters no better than when we found them, but you won't feel you've wasted the time you spend with them.
The French DVD boasted an impressive array of extras - audio commentary by Bertrand Tavernier, Michel Alexandre and Charlotte Kady, 3 deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, stills gallery and theatrical trailer - but while the feature had English subtitles, none of the extras did. Optimum's UK DVD offers a different but very decent selection of its own: a different English-language commentary and lengthy on-camera interview with Tavernier and the trailer, and offers a very respectable subtitled widescreen transfer of the film itself.
