36, quai des Orfèvres

6/10. Watched this yesterday evening on DVD.

A French policier in the classic mold, starring Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu, with a title that refers to Henri-Georges Clouzot. So I think I can be excused for being a little bit extra disappointed here.

It's entertaining, and the leads are fine. But as it goes on, it becomes increasingly absurd, with progressively less of the action seeming to spring naturally from the setting and characters.

Plus 36 is cut and scored so that it always feels anticipatory, as if it's setting up something that's just about to happen. The result is that it glides over the milieu it wants to inhabit, never pulling you in.