What a great movie! All around good fun -- I'd recommend it to anyone. The lead actors were awesome -- does anyone else think the guy playing Francois looks like a French Baldwin brother? Anyways, the story of two crooked cops hasn't aged at all. Hard to believe this one's not on VHS or DVD yet. See it if you can.
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haverpopper43 December 2003
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No sign of the Louvres, the Champs-Elysees , the Eifel tower , the 'bateau-mouche' on the Seine , the Arc de Triomphe or any of the usual sights that one would normally associate with the city of romance in this movie. The one exception is perhaps a blurry view of Sacre- coeur in the background , albeit very briefly.
Instead , we're treated with a perhaps over-realistic version of this beloved city , with an extremely 'bent' policeman (Noiret) who is given the clean country boy (Lhermitte) as a new partner. The comedy stems from Lhermitte's transformation from an " Elliot Ness" type of honesty , to eventually become more dishonest than Noiret himself.
Incidentally , the term 'ripoux' stems from a french type of slang , whereby the syllables in a word are phonetically reversed , so in this instance , ripoux = pouris , which means 'rotten' or 'garbage' .
A great little movie which spawned 2 sequels ( of inferior quality , but let's be honest, sequels usually are ). -
JackCerf21 March 2011Philippe Noiret plays a leather-jacketed corrupt cop who is the king of his little bailiwick in one of those corners of Paris tourists never see, gruffly administering rough justice while collecting bribes and sweeteners right and left. All is well until he's stuck with a rookie partner, a handsome straight arrow college graduate (Thierry Lhermitte) with ambitions to be police commissioner one day, who believes in arresting lawbreakers instead of chasing them into someone else's neighborhood, and who is definitely cramping Noiret's style and cutting into his income. What to do? Noiret and his longtime lover, an ex-hooker who owns a bar, decide that the best way to humanize this guy is to get him involved with an expensive new girlfriend who he can't afford on a cop's salary. A suitable working girl is found, the expected happens, and by the end Noiret is retired (after a short stretch in the can) and Lhermitte has inherited his place and his way of life.
No surprises along the way, but a very enjoyable ride. -
m_fehle23 June 2003Came across this film years ago, the french teacher at school put the video to keep us quiet; thought it was brilliant then. Caught it by accident the other night on cable - its got better with age!! The characters are superbly drawn and believable, the plot just bizarre enough to work. Which begs the question, why isn't it available on DVD? Or if it is, where?
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leplatypus12 November 2013That's it: no more DVD or web movies to watch, thus i become addict to what French TV can play: for this night before my trip to Malmo, a channel offers this french comedy that brings back for me good memories.
First, "Les Ripoux" was maybe the first video game I bought to play then on our TO9+ computer. So it was maybe in 1987. The game was incredible funny to play as the goal was similar to the movie: amass as much money as you can as a bad cop! To do that, you used a sort of Google map limited the Paris district called the golden triangle. There, you met crooks that you had to make talk by choosing lines of dialogs. Maybe the graphics were static but the game-play was really stunning!
Next, it's Paris in the eighties and this city in that period is really like a magnet to me since my childhood. But, beware the Paris depicted here isn't the city of lights but rather of darkness as this triangle is a highly deprived area with dense immigrated poor population. As you can see in the movie, it's looks old and derelict and now, in 2013, as urban renovation is inexistent in Paris to give way to gentrification, it's even worst!
As for the story, i think it's a accurate piece of French culture: We are really down to earth people, happy with a good meal, not really motivated at work, very lenient with rules, at least for the ones that are civil servants like me or those policemen. So France is really this mix between old USSR and a banana republic. The originality of this movie is to expose this truth in a comedy and i admit it's funny: Lhermitte is a good choice to play the naive, by the book blue cop as much as Noiret is perfect to play the voluble, sympathetic veteran.
While watching it, i was thinking to the American buddy cop movie and how this subject of corrupt cops is a bit leftover to prefer big guns, big fights... here, our two bad apples are really rotten to the core and we finally like them: a paradox ! -
Andrew-1688 October 2002Because of the timeless plot "Les Ripoux" remains one of my favourite comedies. The performance of all actors is excellent, but Noiret and Lhermitte are brilliant. A good story and an absolute reasonable scenery make this movie a pearl, towering miles above for example the usual Hollywood fast-food. Claude Zidi is not known for deep sophisticated dramas and "Le Ripoux" is also not falling in this category but believe me, the movie IS clever in a certain way. If your heart is with the little people and you never saw this movie, try to watch it soon because afterwards you will want the sequel as bad as the boss wants his medicine (would be too big a spoiler if I'd tell you what this is about). I can't wait to get all 3 DVD's. 10 thumbs up for this fantastic movie.
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mob61uk27 July 2002I really enjoyed this. It's the old story about the old, experienced cop (Philippe Noiret) being lumbered with an over zealous young inexperienced cop (Thierry Lhermitte). In this case, though, the old cop is also corrupt. Noiret is brilliant as the world-weary father figure, teaching the new recruit that the world is not quite like it's painted in books. This film's well worth checking out.
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Jabberwock3 June 1999One of the comedies that are typically french, at the same time a farce and a study of characters.
Certainly a well aging movie. -
john-thorp2 May 2006I have only seen this film with subtitles and it is the only foreign film I have watched that I have forgotten, I was reading the subtitles in the first place. (I do not speak French)The film is a masterpiece. The second Ripoux contre Ripoux is good but Just an avenue to soak up a few franks in revenue for all involved and lacked the originality of the original, like many part two film's.Apart from the Godfather Etc. and Une Taxi Mauve, The Purple Taxi, Also with Phillipe Noiret is a forgotten gem. The comedy in Le Ripoux has never been matched since and everything just bonds, Writing ,Acting, Directing and Soundtrack, Yes I think this soundtrack added to the film.
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French movie police detectives had already worked in pair before but they were professional partners; "Les Ripoux" is certainly the seminal cop buddy-movie. The 1984 classic inspired several movies that yet never truly captured the charm of Claude Zidi's film, not even the sequels. It's remarkable in its simplicity but its attention to the little details, the dialogues and the performance of Philippe Noiret bring that level of authenticity and credibility that could allow humor to blossom.
'Ripou' is a slang term for 'pourri' which means corrupt, but translating the title into "corrupt cops" would do the film a disservice for it wouldn't carry the practicality and somehow the tenderness of being a cop of the loose kind. There even seems to be an enjoyability of being a cop who knows so much about the real world not to care about pulling a Dirty Harry for each law infringement. It's not that the film dares show corruption as a 'normal' aspect of law enforcement but that it gives, without being too preachy, elements that explain if not justify, why a cop like René Boisrond, played by the unique Philippe Noiret, would elevate the bribe to a level of art, if not science, or let's say a lifestyle, much to his new partner's displeasure.
And before you think that he doesn't know much about the law, just watch the film.
The plot is rather classic by our standards, René is a veteran cop who loses his partner Pierrot (Pierre Frag); in an American film, the partner would be an old Black guy killed during duty but Pierrot had just been caught in flagrante delicto and couldn't possibly snitch on his friend René. There comes François Lesbuches, played by a young, clean-cut and handsome Thierry Lhermitte, he prepares a law degree and is the equivalent of a Serpico dressed like Elliott Ness. The casting is perfect for Noiret's droopy eyes carry the blasé nonchalance brought by years of experience and Lhermitte has that stern, ambitious look of the young rookie who acts by the book. If anything, he wants action, little does he know that inaction is the tacit law that prevails in his run down station. Lhermitte is good but Noiret outperforms him.
I presume that even audiences back then in 1984 could figure that the two wouldn't get along, that their conflict will reach a point where extreme measures would be taken and ultimately the student would surpass the master. But predictability isn't Zidi's concern as his script is more of an excuse for a wonderful immersion into the picturesque world of little cops dealing with little criminals, and confronted to the three "R-T"s: routine, red tape and ultimately... reality. As viewers, we're put in the nicely polished shoes of Lhermitte who's so green that he doesn't even understand the word 'ripou'. When he wants to arrest a petty thief, Boisrond tells him to let him go so he might eventually lead to a bigger fish, the logic doesn't work if you consider tha there'll always be a bigger fish to catch, which leads to François' conclusion that the police's job is to get as many clues and as few arrests as possible. Well, remember what Gittes said about his job at "Chinatown"?
But René has selfish reasons too, he loves horse racing and needs cash to bet on his horses, it so happens that corruption is more lucrative than honesty. What's interesting in the film is that René isn't just labeled as the corrupt guy, in a scene where he challenges François in a 'gun drawing' duel, he beats the kid with the supposedly quicker reflexes, the trick is to ballast your jacket with lead. That's the stuff they don't teach you at school. When François pinpoints a traffic offense during a patrol, in less than thirty seconds, René shows half a dozen of people disobeying the Code, referring to the very article they infringe (numbers included). René might break the law but he knows what he's breaking. The tension between the two cops reach its culmination when René releases François' first catch. He reads to a bewildered François a series of new guidelines warning against overzealous arrests and their negative effect on the district's reputation. François might be a cop but he's also a civil servant.
Ultimately, it's René's partner-in-life Simone, played by singer and night celebrity Régine, that brings the solution with a protégée of her Natasha (Grace de Capitani) The interactions between René and Regine are delightful, he's a cop, she's an ex-prostitute and together they walked the beat long enough to know about the ropes and understand that there's a sort of tacit connection between outlaws and law enforcers, they after all belong to the same world. François will bite the bait and kiss the girl but I wasn't too interested in the romance that the film doesn't insist much on. It doesn't take long for François to trade his flannel suit for a badass leather jacket and to enjoy the new way of the Police until he brings a job that can make René rich while René is trying not to be stewed by the 'beef-carrots' (slang for Bureau of Internal Affairs)
With its urban charm and streetwise humor, "Les Ripoux" can be regarded as a more lighthearted version of Claude Berri's "So Long, Stooge", an exploration of a cosmopolitan world where French lived through the DIY way and weren't too concerned by political correctness, reminding that sometimes the best cops weren't the nicest ones. A glimpse at French history during WW2 would actually make you root for those who disobeyed the law. It's also a time of characters actors such as Julien Giomar who plays the commissionner or Michel Crémades as the pickpocket. A time where it wasn't difficult to make a good film. In fact it's not, have a good story, great characters and a touch of authenticity. -
writers_reign23 February 2004... or, if you don't speak Pig Latin/Backslang, top drawer. Pig Latin had a vogue in the forties - and possibly earlier - and for a time it was commonplace to hear expressions like 'amscray' (scram) in low-budget Hollywood movies. If the US had Pig Latin France has 'verlan' or 'la langue de banlieues' (the language of the suburbs). Pourri, which means 'rotten' when transposed to verlan comes out ripoux, thus Le Ripoux, The Rotten. It's basically our old friend the veteran taking the rookie under his wing, in this case veteran cop, Philippe Noiret, who's also a BENT veteran cop, if anyone asks you, is lumbered with green-as-grass rookie Therry Thermitte. Believe me, it's a match made in Heaven. Not a lot happens but the trick is, IT HAPPENS IN FRENCH and that gallic flavor makes all the difference. It was so good that six years later they made a sequel, and last year they made a sequel to the sequel. Hooray. 9/10
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mfkd-mixcoatl331 May 2006I purchased the DVD box set of Les Ripoux and Ripoux Contre Ripoux, its first sequel (there is now a third, Ripoux 3). To my horror, it only has the French language track, no English anything, to include subtitles. The had subtitles in the theater, so is it a French government plot that they cannot put them on DVD? Otherwise, I'll say that Les Ripoux is one of the best French comedies of all time, along with Grand blond avec une chaussure noire, "The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe", and its sequel. Which I would also like to have if I could get subtitles for them! (For those who have seen the Tom Hanks version of the latter, while funny, I found it to be too Americanized and think the original version was better.)
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aleksejevsruslans3 November 2019Such an amazing music. Francis Lai's art is one of many reasons to watch this film.
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howardchelin13 January 2019My New Partner begins with police sirens screaming in he background and two people on the run through the cobblestone streets of Marseilles. When one turns to the other and says 'No need both of us getting caught. Let me turn you in and I'll save your share of the money for you until you get out ' it is surprisingly revealed to us that both of them are in fact themselves detectives. The other guy mildly protests by answering 'Why me?' The first one responds 'Because I thought of it'. The next scene fast forwards to the police station where detective number one is happily ensconced in his office, his former partner is now in jail and he is just waiting for his new partner to be assigned to him. To his disdain, he is assigned a 100% by the book, straight laced, fresh out of the police academy graduate, who will undoubdedly cramp his free flowing style. A series of hilarious adventures ensues as each one learns to appreciate the other's qualities.
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brogmiller5 February 2023Until this film was released to great acclaim, Claude Zidi was generally regarded as a director of 'Saturday Evening Cinema' for the consumption of a national audience but 'Les Ripoux' received a distribution in the United States, having acquired a typically anodyne title of 'My New Partner'. As luck would have it there was to be no Hollywood remake whilst that dubious distinction was later accorded Zidi's 'La Totale' which became 'True Lies'.
Zidi has achieved a perfect balance here between comedy and thriller whilst spoofing the Policier genre as well lifting the veil of institutionalised police corruption of which the French public of the time would have been all too aware. The fact that the idea for the film was suggested to Zidi by former cop Simon Michael adds further veritas. It was hoped that the ubiquitous Michel Audiard would provide additional dialogue but he was engaged elsewhere although Zidi's regular contributor Didier Kaminka has turned up trumps. The pacing of the film is superb and it is little wonder that editor Nicole Saunier was awarded one of the film's three Césars. Authenticity is aided by scenes shot in the traditionally working class 18th Arrondissement of Paris and Francis Lai's idiomatic score is an absolute delight. Comedy is often unfairly dismissed as a poor relation to Tragedy, so for this to gain a César for best film is, in itself, something of a milestone.
The morally vacuous René Boisrond is essentially the product of a corrupt system and who better to play this loveable rogue than the superlative Philippe Noiret who not only engages our affections but is able to exhibit his comedic ability. There is little doubt that his presence in this proved an inspiration to the scriptwriters. He has a perfect foil in Thierry Lhermitte as new recruit Francois whose high-mindedness and moral superiority do not last long once René has introduced him to fine wine and horse racing, not to mention a lovely little number named Natasha whose pimp is none too pleased! Lhermitte of course, with his photogenic looks and inherent quirkiness has deservedly become one of his country's most popular actors and is still working.
The film was a massive box office hit and spawned not one but two sequels, the last of which is the most implausible and in which Noiret and Lhermitte are twenty years older. As sequels go they are still pretty good but it is well nigh impossible to replicate the charm, spirit, immediacy and sheer novelty of the original. -
French farce with a twist. A charming piece, better watched in French with the English subtitles, for the full effect. An American production would be too slick, or too juvenile to re-make this, but I'm surprised a British unit has not, yet! Lovely character studies, a few surprises and a plot that offers humor, or humour, with some charming locations. Well worth watching if you can find it and enjoy the 'Diva', 'style of movie that the French are best known for.
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SunTzu-425 January 2001An excellent, funny and sad movie about being young, getting old, playing it straight and bending the rules. Cannot fail to engage: one of those movies the French do inimitably and best. DVD soon, please.