Marseille, 1975. Pierre Michel is assigned a judgeship against serious crime. Armed with integrity and tenacity, he goes to merciless war against Gaëtan Zampa, the head of a drug network that has contaminated the entire city and that reaches all the way across the Atlantic to New York: the French Connection. A bloody duel begins between theses two men that will destroy both their lives and those of their families.

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Scorsese’s great shadow hovers over this stylized thriller, the second very ambitious movie by Cédric Jimenez, who tries to rise higher after the harmless Aux yeux de tous. The director pulls out all the stops: a seamless reconstruction of events, smooth editing, an expert soundtrack – all in the service of a story elapsing two full hours and spanning several years, about the obsessive battle between a lawman and an outlaw. The mission is accomplished: this thriller does the job effectively, skillfully manipulating great characters of the genre. The downside is its classic length, far from the dimensions of American models, which keeps the screenplay from unfolding completely, especially as far as the very limited secondary characters are concerned – see Mélanie Doutey, reduced to high-priced bit part. However, the very solid performance by Jean Dujardin, who is much more convincing than Gilles Lellouche, lasts from La French’s first minutes through to its final twists.