A complex police thriller from a writer-director, Olivier Marchal (who appears as the excrim, Christo) who spent some time working for the police force in Paris.  The title of the film is the address for the main bureau.

This is a film that is continually on the move. It portrays in exact detail a robbery on a freeway in the early morning.  It shows a stakeout to trap the thieves – which is botched and leads to disaster.  It has a vigorous finale.

But, it is also a drama of character clash and is served particularly well by its two stars, Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu (who had appeared together almost twenty years earlier in the classic Jean de Florette).

Auteuil is the up and coming detective, special squad, who is in line to become chief.  However, he is a man of action and a risk-taker.  He and his squad share a strong bonhomie (with which the film opens) as well as unorthodox methods that would be subject to investigation.  He has many good friends in the underworld. Depardieu is also on the short list for commander but he is a taciturn loner, unpopular, claiming to work by the book.  The clash is complicated because Auteuil is married to the woman (Valeria Golino) who used to be with Depardieu.

When they are assigned to the same case, Depardieu’s crass decisions lead to mayhem in a siege and the death of a popular member of the squad.  The men turn their backs on Depardieu at the funeral.

In the meantime, there is a further ingenious plot complication when a murderer out on leave just before his release is able to con Auteuil with promises of identities of the thieves but compromises him in establishing him as his alibi for his killing of an informer – who worked for Depardieu.  This leads to more complexity involving Auteuil’s wife and daughter.

The two central characters are fascinating, Auteuil as the tough cookie who becomes victim, Depardieu as the power-hungry, imagination-lacking Javert-type who succeeds – but at great cost.

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