Pierre (Jean Dujardin) is a good French cop we can admire; Tany (Gilles Lellouche) is a drug lord we can like despite his murderous heroin. The Connection, loosely based on incidents surrounding the infamous French Connection, both real and depicted in William Friedkin's 1971 award-winning thriller starring Gene Hackman. If you can separate yourself from the testosterone-fueled business, you will experience a thriller of humane proportions.Pierre has taken over the magistrate's responsibility for mob activity, and heroin is the big enemy. Writer-director Cedric Jimenez and writer Audrey Diwan expertly navigate between his daily professional activity and after-work family life with a wife and two children. When it's revealed that Pierre had an addictive gambling problem, the audience is appreciative of his weakness but cognizant of his obsessive personality, such as pursuing Tany.The film also shows mobster Tany in his two worlds of business and family. While the director may too frequently parallel edit the two characters in these roles, he successfully reveals two characters with traits we can understand.Beyond the inevitable blood, of which there is less than might be expected, is the oft-told tale of highly-driven men who want successful careers and happy family life—those of us who have seen many such thrillers know the balance is impossible. In a way the film draws us into each sphere with responses more sympathetic than judgmental.The pace of The Connection is frenetic between paralleling the two principles' activities and chronicling the confrontations (I like when the two meet at a remote spot in a low-key, un-macho response for both) many of which are hair-raising heists and busts. Just as often, however, the film slows it down to a daily level that draws in our attention to the little things of life yet keeps the suspense and terror in the background.As in A Most Violent Year, starring Oscar Isaac about a good but going-bad business man in NYC in the early '80's, so too does The Connection make that lawless time, albeit European, seductive because Dujardin is so compelling while he breaks laws to stop crime. It's ironic and complicated. That's life, and that's Chinatown, Jake.

In a way I was disappointed after seeing La French. The (real) story is gripping. I remember Marseille in the 70's was known as a dangerous place. You had to watch your steps. The French Connection was in the wrong way famous. And the murder on the judge was brutal. Only in the last 30 minutes La French will give you this feeling of drama. Before that the story is quite flat and cliché. It lacks the French grandeur and depth.Gilles Lellouche is a miscast as the main criminal. He is just too friendly in his looks and deeds (I agree with another reviewer). Jean Dujardin is good as always, but not brilliant. Celine Sallette is OK, but can do more. She has to play the terrible role of the wife, who leaves her husband because he is too busy with his work. But on the street after Jean Dujardin was shot, she is convincing. Also the atmosphere and the cinematography are very good. Real 70's. And the film is cut fast. So, there are a lot of good things, but they can't compensate the poor scenario and miscast of Gilles Lellouche. La French could and should have been better. I give it a 6/10, because of the importance of the real story behind it.

This story, inspired by actual events that occurred in Marseilles, has already been told in the early eighties: LE JUGE, starring Jacques Perrin, as the lead character. Well, this one is more ambitious, starring Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lelouche and Benoit Magimel as a supporting character. Those three are great figures of the new french crime movie industry. This tale takes place in Marseilles, South of France, during the mid seventies, and describes the dog fight, the terrific struggle between a hard boiled, ruthless, untouchable judge against a no less ambitious, greedy, smart and fierce drug ring leader. Jean Dujardin plays the judge and Gilles Lelouche his Némésis. The sequence between the two of them is outstanding, although it never occurred in real life. Curiously, in this movie, audiences may feel empathy for the judge but for the gangster as well. No real hero or true villain here. And I loved another gripping scene, the one with Dujardin in a phone booth, begging his wife - the beautiful Celine Salette - to come back to him. This scene was improvised by Dujardin.

If I could only recommend you go and see one film this year, The Connection would be it.The film follows the true story of the rise and fall of Pierre Michel "The Judge", played by The Artist's Oscar winning Jean Dujardin, against the Marseillaise mafia gang The French Connection in the 1970s. The story had already been put to cinema in The Judge (1984), but this time the story's been redone much more ambitiously.It's a typical good guy versus bad guy story, but it's the bells and whistles in this film that really make it so much more than that. The director achieves the perfect combination of action, drama, comedy and tragedy with the irrepressible Mediterranean sun beating down on every day time scene in the film. The Mediterranean settings give the film a sense of glamour and surrealism, juxtaposing the surreal nature of life as a successful drug trafficker in the 1970s, passing time between seaside villas and the biggest nightclub in Marseille.This is film making at its best - it's as if the screen writer and director Cédric Jimenez pulled out an old school book of film making craft written in the 1970s and followed all the old rules to perfection to bring about not only a brilliant piece of cinematic entertainment, but also of art. This film is a living, breathing and intimate nostalgic reinvention of the 1970s and a just and accurate portrayal of a real gangster story, with some liberties in representing the character's private lives.Cédric Jimenez grew up himself in Marseille in the 1970s and says that the story of the Judge has run through his veins his whole life. He has wanted to make this film as long as he has wanted to be a film maker, starting his career initially as a documentary maker. He chose to shoot the whole film with a hand held camera, which gives the film it's intimate and raw feeling.It is an absolute viewing pleasure to be immersed back into the 1970s era and the sets and costumes have been rendered to perfection, to every last detail. The velour furniture, the dingy nightclubs, the glamorous dresses and old style police surveillance technologies are a delight to rediscover. The cowboy style of policing in the 1970s makes the action scenes much more exciting than anything depicting the risk-averse 2000s - the only person in the film wearing even a bullet proof vest is the gang leader Gaëtan "Tany" Zamper (Gilles Lellouche).There are countless unforgettable scenes in this film, the dialogue is witty, the action is edgy and the acting is superb. Another highlight is the film's soundtrack featuring endless classics from the 1970s (Blondie, Kim Wilde and the Velvet Underground) and tunes by composer Guillaume Roussel that reflect the film soundtracks of the time (for example, his tune Meurtre de fou). It can be tough to watch a sub-titled film for 2h15min, but believe me it's worth it.