Blu-ray Review: ‘Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers By Alain Corneau’ Part 1
by Rachel Bellwoar
A look at the first of three films directed by Alain Corneau and included in Radiance’s new box set.
Police Python 357 (1976)
It’s been too long since I’ve seen John Farrow‘s The Big Clock (though my memory is it was fantastic), but Police Python 357 is also an adaptation of Kenneth Fearing‘s novel, The Big Clock. Knowing that, it makes more sense why the main female protagonist carries an alarm clock in her bag or why a watch necklace plays a prominent role in the plot.
In an interview from 1976 that’s included on this disc, Corneau is asked about the decision to name Police Python 357 after a gun and it’s clear he’s trying to say something about Yves Montand‘s character. That’s clear just from the way the film ends, on a sequence that feels out of an action movie instead of the quiet thriller we’ve been watching up to this point, but it’s not the easiest message to discern, and given the esteem of the source material, it might’ve been more worth it to stick with the original title.
Police Python 357 begins with Inspector Ferrot (Montand) carrying out a “master” solo arrest (because showing off and being “impressive” is better than bringing back-up). What he doesn’t know is he’s being photographed by Sylvia (Stefania Sandrelli), a shop window decorator who just happens to be in the area and somehow has perfect hair. When he sees a cardboard cutout of himself in a shop window, though, he puts two and two together… but never fear. Instead of getting angry, they start an affair, except (and this is not the only egregious coincidence in this movie) Sylvia is already having an affair with the (married) police commissioner (François Périer), and if it seems like things are going to end badly for her, they do.
Sylvia is murdered but, while Ferrot knows he’s innocent, he doesn’t know who killed her – only that the evidence is mounting up against him. In one of the best scenes of the movie, the Commissioner (who similarly doesn’t know Ferrot is the “other man” but is trying to figure out his identity) call Sylvia’s apartment when he knows Ferrot’s inside but while Ferrot picks up, neither of them says anything and the silence is deafening.
The movie’s saving grace is it’s weirdness and, more so than either of Sylvia’s affairs, the most interesting relationship in the film is between the Commissioner and his wife (Simone Signoret, who’s casting isn’t accidental). That being said, you do feel the film’s runtime at points and Corneau and Daniel Boulanger’s screenplay goes overboard with the set-up – not everything needs to come back to bite Ferrot later.
Besides the archival interviews, Radiance’s Blu-ray includes a new interview with writer-publisher, Maxim Jakubowski, who talks about the serie noire imprint, which brought hardboiled fiction to France but with some abridged translations. There’s also a solid commentary by Projection Booth Podcast host, Mike White, who looks at the painting that appears multiple times in the film, considers other screen adaptations of The Big Clock, goes over Corneau’s background in music (which plays an even bigger role in the other two films in this box set) and poses that it might’ve made more sense to flip the casting. Mathieu Carrière should’ve played Ferrot and Montand would’ve been the cop who catches onto him.
Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers By Alain Corneau is available on Blu-ray starting April 8th from Radiance Films and includes a substantial booklet of essays. Keep an eye out for part 2 of this review which will cover Série Noire and Choice of Arms.
