Il Était une fois un flic... Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Il Était une fois un flic... Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 10, 2015

Georges Lautner's "Il était une fois un flic..." a.k.a. "Flic Story" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Gaumont. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; video introduction by director Georges Lautner and first assistant director Robin Davis; and and archival featurette with clips from interviews with the French director, scenarist Francis Veber, and actress Mireille Darc. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

"That's why she jumped at this job. She seems intelligent. She should be all right".

When a notorious assassin is killed, detective Campana (Michel Constantin, Le Trou, The Outside Man) agrees to assume the identity of his brother, a barkeeper residing in Tunis, and infiltrate the organization of his patron, Manoni, a big crime boss from Nice. Because the man from Tunis is supposed to be married, Campana is introduced to Christine (Mireille Darc, Weekend), a single mother with a naughty son, who agrees to assist him in exchange for a nice cash bonus.

At the funeral, Campana meets the assassin’s widow and Manoni’s male secretary, but before he can arrange a meeting with the crime boss the two are killed. This forces Campana to abandon his original plan and think of a different way to get to Manoni. Shortly after, he arrives in Nice and rents a hotel room with Christine and her son.

Meanwhile, a couple of overly ambitious detectives unaware that Campana is one of their own begin following him and seriously hurt him when he annoys them. Nevertheless, Camapana and his boss (Michael Lonsdale, Ronin, The Name of the Rose) decide that the beating will only help their mission after Manoni is informed about it. Around the same time, however, two American killers arrive in Nice to eliminate Manoni. While looking for their target, they stumble upon the “brother” of his late right-hand man.

Based on Richard Caron’s novel, Georges Lautner’s Il était une fois un flic... a.k.a. Flic Story is a light and colorful crime comedy that employs the same formula that made many of the French director’s ‘60s films big theatrical hits in his home country. (See The Great Spy Chase, Monsieur Gangster, and Dandelions by the Roots). Indeed, at its core once again there is a carefully devised plan that goes terribly wrong and in the process unleashes a series of wildly entertaining events that bring together all sorts of colorful characters.

The film has a consistent tempo and unlike Monsieur Gangster the humor in it isn’t lost in the translation. When Campana arrives in Nice and the American killers begin tracking down Manoni, the ensuing chaos creates a number of very awkward situations that repeatedly force the imposter to improvise. But with the beautiful Christine and her demanding attention son next to him, his ability to always stay a few steps ahead of his opponents is seriously compromised.

Constantin and Darc look very relaxed in front of the camera, but occasionally it feels like there isn’t enough material for them to work with. This is rather surprising as the script for the film is from Francis Veber, who has contributed to some of the best Gallic comedies from the last fifty years. (See Yves Robert’s The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, Édouard Molinaro’s La Cage aux Folles, and Veber's own The Dinner Game). There are memorable cameos by Venantino Venantini and the late Robert Dalban, and a young Alain Delon quickly steps in front of the camera as well.

Lauthner shot the film with his regular cinematographer Maurice Fellous. The film’s soundtrack was created by Bulgarian composer Eddie Vartan ( Some Too Quiet Gentleman, How to Make Good When One Is a Jerk and a Crybaby).

Il Était une fois un flic... Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Georges Lautner's Flic Story arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Gaumont.

The technical presentation of this little seen on this side of the Atlantic crime comedy is inconsistent. Indeed, the film has been recently remastered and the majority of the well-lit close-ups boast nice detail and clarity (see screencaptures #1 and 2). Image stability is also very good. However, there are various obvious traces of filtering adjustments that have affected image depth (see screencaptures #5 and 8). Additionally, it appears that the entire transfer was encoded incorrectly and as a result the black levels have very awkward tonalities. This is an issue that has also been present on other budget releases from Gaumont's catalog, but on this release the effect is quite distracting and it is very easy to see that shadow definition is unquestionably compromised (see screencaptures #12 and 15). This being said, light grain is still present and colors remain stable. Finally, there are absolutely no large debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, or scratches to report in this review. To sum it all up, as far as I am concerned all of Gaumont's remasters are actually very good, but for some unknown to me reason when they transition to Blu-ray their raw film qualities are not retained. To be perfectly clear, there are various unnecessary filtering adjustments as well as some rather strange new encoding issues that destabilize the black levels (and with them the contrast levels). Flic Story, as well as the rest of the budget titles, can and should look great on Blu-ray. For this to happen, however, the filtering needs to be stopped and greater care must go in the encodes. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Il Était une fois un flic... Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, there are optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature.

It is easy to tell that the audio has been fully remastered -- depth and clarity are excellent and balance is terrific. Eddie Vartan's score has primarily a supporting role, but there are a few sequences where it opens the film very well. Overall dynamic intensity is modest, but this should not be surprising. The dialog is very crisp, clean, stable, and easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, background hiss, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.

Il Était une fois un flic... Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bande-annonce - original trailer for Flic Story. In French, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Presentation du film - director Georges Lautner and first assistant director Robin Davis introduce Flic Story. In French, not subtitled. (7 min).

• Autour de "Il était une fois un flic..." - archival featurette with clips from interviews with director Georges Lautner, scenarist Francis Veber, and actress Mireille Darc. In French, not subtitled. (9 min).

Il Était une fois un flic... Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is great that many of Georges Lautner's classic films are being remastered and released on Blu-ray by companies such as Gaumont, Pathe and Olive Films. Flic Story, a charming crime comedy with Michel Constantin and Mireille Darc, is now part of Gaumont's budget line of catalog titles, but I have to say that the technical presentation is underwhelming. We've addressed the issues that plague this release in the past, so at this point the only thing that I can say is that small adjustments need to be made so that these titles look as good as they should. RENT IT.