While Polisse is an intense and personal exploration of the lives of these detectives, the acting is, overall, excellent, and the scripting insightful, funny at times and intensely interesting, much of that was lost on me because of the sheer mental effort of concentrating through two hours and thousands of subtitles. I never truly got into the heads of the actors and never got to the stage I’d normally get with subtitles where I’d forget I’m reading them and just watch the film.
As winner of the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, it’s almost certain that Polisse has even more worthy features than the many that I managed to discern. For one thing, there were a number of moments common to subtitled films where people in the audience who probably didn’t need the subtitles laughed out loud at situations or comments that I found moderately amusing at best.
With so much dialogue it’s no surprise there was much lost in the translation. But that shouldn’t detract from what is a highly watchable, if tough, fly-on-the-wall docudrama. Just ensure you’re ready for the million-miles-an-hour subtitles. Or learn French.
Rating Four baguettes
