Overview: As their popularity waned in the US, the hardboiled genre remained hugely popular and relevant throughout the 1960s and 70s in France, thanks to the successful Serie Noire imprint and a succession of new translations.

In Alain Corneau’s early films, he sought to continue the noir tradition in his native France and was both directly and indirectly inspired by titans of hardboiled genre, including Kenneth Fearing and Jim Thompson. A heady combination of classic noir and 70s grit, these three darkly thrilling films are vastly underrated and important works in the canon of crime cinema.

In Police Python 357, Yves Montand (The Wages of Fear) plays a tough cop who, when his lover is found murdered, finds himself implicated in her death and in a battle of wits with a powerful rival, in the second screen adaptation of Kenneth Fearing’s The Big Clock.

Série Noire adapts Jim Thompson’s A Hell of A Woman to the banlieues of Paris: in an astonishing performance, Patrick Dewaere (Themroc) attempts to save a young girl from prostitution, with murder the only solution.

In Choice of Arms, Yves Montand heads an all-star cast, including Catherine Denueve and Gerard Depardieu, as a former crook pulled out of retirement when a gang on the run turn to him for shelter after a prison break.

Blu-ray Verdict: First up is Police Python 357 (1976) is where an inspector is having a secret relationship with a woman, but when she is murdered by his boss, all proof is against him.

If unfamiliar with Corneau, do not be fooled by the title into thinking that this is some watered-down Dirty Harry imitation. It is an excellent Policier which owes more to Film Noir than 70’s action, despite the title and bullet-strewn finale. Montand plays an older police inspector as a creature of habit, and the opening bullet fabrication montage is one of the best of that period.

It is not a straightforward thriller either. Instead, it twists and turns with lightning speed. Montand is exceptional in what seems like a no-win predicament. The supporting cast is first rate. Sandrelli and François Périer (as Montand’s unseemly boss) are great and Simone Signoret is Périer’s infirm but shrewd wife. Corneau’s direction is dynamite. The cinematography is by Étienne Becker and the suitably dramatic music is by Georges Delerue.

Then comes Série Noire (1979). Franck Poupart is a slightly neurotic door-to-door salesman in a sinister part of Paris’ suburbs. He meets Mona, a teenager, who’s been made a prostitute by her own aunt. Franck would like to change his life and also save Mona from her aunt. Murder is the only solution he finds to achieve his goal.

The late seventies, the very dull east suburban area of Paris, winter, waste grounds and awful new towns in the landscape. The set is definitely a character of the film. An amazing thriller, very dark with unique characters, completely lost in their misery, although full of the little hopes of ordinary lives.

The cast includes a wonderful Patrick Deweare as Franck, a magnificent looser, and Marie Trintignant as Mona a desperate teenager, almost autistic. Their encounter is the lead of this bloody black romance, that will leave you, nevertheless, with an optimistic feeling.

Wrapping the threesome up nicely is Choice of Arms (1981) and is the story of a reformed underworld kingpin whose stable lifestyle is turned upside-down when a desperate, escaped killer hides out at his rural estate.

Montand is Noel, a former underworld figure who has used his ill-gotten gains to finance an extremely comfortable lifestyle as a breeder of thoroughbreds but is obliged by an unexpected train of events to revert to the law of the jungle. On the other side of the coin is the deranged psychopath and prison escapee Mickey of Gérard Depardieu who is humanised only by his love for his child which mirrors Noel’s love for Catherine Deneuve as Nicole, his wife.

Although their backgrounds and social milieus could not be more strikingly different, both men have more in common than they realize and ultimately the orphaned child becomes the indissoluble link between them. A further contrast is offered between the old school police chief of Michel Calabru and the intense, trigger-happy, fanatical young inspector of Gérard Lanvin.

This is a well-constructed piece with a measured pace that allows the characters to develop and with an utterly riveting second half. It is beautifully shot by Pierre William Glenn, tautly scripted by former critic Michel Grisolia and atmospherically scored by Philippe Sarde.

Bonus Materials:
High-Definition digital transfers, presented on three discs
Uncompressed mono PCM audio for each film
Audio commentary by Mike White on Police Python 357
Maxim Jakubowski on Police Python 357’s source novel and adaptation (2024)
Archival interview with Alain Corneau and François Périer about Police Python 357 from Belgian Television (1976)
Série Noire set interviews with Alain Corneau, Patrick Dewaere and Miriam Boyer from Belgian Television (1981)
Série Noire: The Darkness of the Soul - An archival documentary featuring cast and crew on the making of the film (2013, 53 mins)
Archival interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant about Série noire (2002, 30 mins)
A visual essay about Jim Thompson adaptations for the screen (2024)
Introduction by documentary filmmaker Jérôme Wybon (2024)
Shooting Choice of Arms - interviews with the cast and crew including behind-the-scenes footage (1981)
Interviews with Deneuve, Montand and Depardieu from the set (1981)
Interview with Manuela Lazic on Yves Montand in the 1970s (2024)
Trailers
Optional English subtitles for each film
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited edition 80-page booklet featuring new writing by Charlie Brigden, Andrew Male, Nick Pinkerton, Travis Woods, and newly translated archival interviews with Alain Corneau
Limited edition of 2500 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Official Purchase Link

www.radiancefilms.co.uk