Flic Story
It was in 1975 that director Jacques Deray’s Flic Story was released in France, based on the memoir of the same name, the first of many volumes written by former detective Roger Borniche, adapted for the screen by Alphonse Boudard and released nineteen years after the conclusion of events through the film charts events from 1947 to 1956, the (unseen) escape of Émile Buisson from a mental hospital to his recapture and ultimate execution for his crimes.
Starring Le Cercle Rouge‘s Alain Delon and Il grande silenzio‘s Jean-Louis Trintignant as the protagonists Borniche and Buisson, both consciously underplay the parts, the film avoiding sensationalism or sentiment as it depicts the near decade search for the violent criminal who was responsible for an estimated hundred robberies and, although he denied it through his trial despite evidence and witnesses, around thirty murders.
A police procedural of office work, statements, alibis and botched stakeouts based on the dubious word of informers more afraid of the gangsters and thugs on the streets than the enforcers of the law, where a modern take would find ways to build tension without sacrificing veracity in the telling Flic Story is dry with little pace or structure, the passage of time never clear and the characters beyond the two leads functional.
Both creatures of habit, Buisson known to have had an unhappy childhood with an alcoholic father who forced him to steal, there is much to the story beyond the screen, but Borniche potentially being available as a consultant on the film, dying just days after his 101st birthday in 2020, there is no indication of any involvement or insight granted nor effort to expand him beyond duty or explore his methods or his obviously difficult relations with his colleagues, particularly his resentful superior.
The modern tools of behavioural analysis and digital fingerprints not even conceived, what was established was the basic of forensics, leading to the question of why Borniche is seen puffing on his customary cigarette over the body of one of Buisson’s associates, found dead outside Versailles, and there is a lingering feeling that had the various investigative forces made an attempt to cooperate the case might have been resolved more swiftly.
Seemingly filmed on every grey rainy day in France and given a new restoration as it joins StudioCanal’s Cult Classics range, their new edition of Flic Story is supported by a video essay by Will Webb, a commentary from Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and an archive conversation between Jacques Deray and Jean-Louis Trintignant dating to the time of the original release, as well as the usual suspect of a trailer.
Flic Story will be available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from StudioCanal Monday 5th October
