Written by Catherine Breillat (who would become a significant director in her own right), and directed by Maurice Pialat (A Nos Amours), this intricately moody, multi-nuanced film centers on jaded police detective who, while investigating a drug ring, is drawn into a shady scheme.
Gerard Deaprdieu shine as Louis Vincent Mangin, a French police inspector, who is assigned to investigate a Tunisian drug ring.
In the process, Mangin finds that his values are clouded and his morals in danger of being challenged and compromised, due to his increasingly personal encounters with the criminals, and especially his attraction to Noria (Sophie Marceau), the girlfriend of one of the gang members.
World premiering at the 1985 Venice Film Fest, where Depardieu won Best Actor, Police was a big success in France (where appeal is measured by admissions, generating 1,830,970 tickets), but did not make an impact at the U.S. box office, when it was released by New Yorker after playing at the New York Film Fest.
The film was nominated for two Cesars (the French Oscars), for Best Actor and Best Editing.