Rent Detective (1985)
3.1 of 5 from 58 ratings
1h 34min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- A return to critical and commercial favour for Godard, 'Detective' entertainingly meshes the director's experimental bent with his fondness for the noir thrillers of the 1940's. Set amidst the confines of a decaying Parisian hotel, 'Detective' is set in motion when miserably married couple Francoise (Nathalie Baye) and Emile (Claude Brasseur) attempt to collect a debt from a mob-plagued boxing manager, the mischievously named Jim Fox Warner (Johnny Hallyday). Meanwhile, house detective William Prospero (Laurent Terzieff) tries to solve an old murder case.
- Actors:
- Laurent Terzieff, Aurelle Doazan, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Baye, Claude Brasseur, Johnny Hallyday, Alain Cuny, Xavier Saint-Macary, Pierre Bertin, Alexandra Garijo, Stéphane Ferrara, Emmanuelle Seigner, Eugène Berthier, Julie Delpy, Cyrille Dajinckourt, Ann-Gisel Glass, Cyrille Autin, Erich von Stroheim
- Directors:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Producers:
- Christine Gozlan, Alain Sarde
- Writers:
- Alain Sarde, Philippe Setbon, Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville
- Aka:
- Détective
- Studio:
- Optimum
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama
- Collections:
- Action & Adventure, Top Film and TV Detectives: Guide to Screen Sleuth
- Countries:
- France
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Reviews (2) of Detective
An Entry Point Into Godard's Second Wave - Detective review by MN
Detective, playfully deconstructs genre conventions of 40s and 50s crime dramas, standing out as a fantastic piece of criticism-within-a-film. The characters search for clues, but the crime remains unresolved, and the film asks us not to guess the killer’s identity, but to make sense of what's happening by following the characters thoughts. We see Godard’s usual fixation with the limits of language, literature and film, in a presentation that provides a challenge to those more accustomed to play-by-numbers who-dunnits. The characters speeches and monologues are wild and chaotic, hard to keep up with but constantly riveting, albeit an unconventional way with the film using its lack of action to focus almost entirely on the human side of the police procedural. No doubt, dyed-in-the-wool Godard fans will get more out of it than anybody else, so, if nothing else, it's a great entry-point into his second wave of filmmaking.
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An Ordeal - Detective review by KB
I found this film confusing & couldn't get any sort of handle on what exactly it was meant to be about & what was going on .Some people might say it is well filmed but i don't know & i kept looking at the dvd timer to see when it would hurry up and end
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