French Connection II
Encyclopedia
French Connection II is a 1975 crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 starring Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...

 and directed by John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...

. It is a fictional sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

 to the initially true story of the 1971 Academy Award
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

 winning picture The French Connection
The French Connection (film)
This article is about the 1971 film. For the British fashion label, see French Connection .The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore...

. The film expands on the central character of James "Popeye" Doyle who travels to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, France where he is attempting to track down French drug-dealer Alain Charnier, who got away at the end of the first film. Hackman and Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...

 are the only returning cast members.

Plot

Picking up where the original left off, narcotics officer Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...

) is still searching for the elusive drug kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...

). Orders from the captain send Doyle to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, France, to track down the criminal mastermind and bust his drug ring. Once in France, Doyle is met by Inspector Henri Barthélémy (Bernard Fresson
Bernard Fresson
Bernard Fresson was a French cinema actor. He starred in over 160 films. Some of his notable roles include: Javert in the 1972 mini-series version of Les Misérables, Inspector Barthelmy in John Frankenheimer's French Connection II , Scope in Roman Polanski's The Tenant , Gilbert in Lover Boy , and...

), who resents his rude and crude crimefighting demeanor. Doyle then begins to find himself as a fish out of water
Fish out of water
Fish out of water may refer to:* Fish Out of Water * Fish Out of Water , 1990* "Fish Out of Water" , a song by One Minute Silence* "Fish Out of Water", a song by OPM on the album Menace to Sobriety...

 in France, where he is matched with a language he can't understand.
Doyle is shown round the police station where he finds his desk is situated directly outside the gents toilets. He tells Barthélémy that he is not satisfied with this positioning and hopes it is not a joke at his expense. Barthélémy informs Doyle that he has read his 'file' and is aware of his reputation in USA and especially hopes he has not brought a gun with him as it is strictly forbidden in France for visiting police officers from other countries to carry firearms.

Doyle continues to struggle with the language and tries to order drinks in a bar. He eventually makes himself understood, befriending the barman in a local bar buying him drinks and they eventually stumble out of the bar together at closing time.
Determined to find Charnier on his own, Popeye escapes his French escorts. While watching a beach volleyball match Charnier 'makes' him as he is situated in a restaurant below.
Charnier sends his henchmen to follow Doyle through the town and after a short game of cat and mouse they capture him and take him to a nearby hotel for interrogation.

For several days, Doyle is injected with heroin in effort to force him into capitulation. Scenes of his growing addiction follow, including one in which when an elderly lady visits him in his befuddled state. She talks to him, declaring herself to be English, and how her son is "just like" him, while stroking his arm. Initially she seems compassionate to his plight, but a change in the camera angle reveals her 'track' marks and that she is slowly removing his expensive-looking watch.

Barthélémy has sent police to search for Doyle and as the raids close in on where Doyle is detained, he is dumped barely alive but addicted in front of police headquarters. Gritty scenes of resuscitation and drug reversal follow. In effort to save both his life and his reputation, Barthélémy immediately quarantines the abused and humiliated Doyle in the police cells and begins a long and agonizing cold turkey
Cold turkey
"Cold turkey" describes the actions of a person who abruptly gives up a habit or addiction rather than gradually easing the process through gradual reduction or by using replacement medication....

 withdrawal from the heroin. Supervising his cure, and at his side with both emotional support and taunts questioning his toughness, Barthélemy ensures Doyle completes the cycle of physical withdrawal. When at length, well enough to be on his feet, Doyle starts back on the road to regaining his physical fitness. He searches Marseillles and finds the hideout/drug warehouse he was brought to (The Hotel Tangers) and sets it on fire.
Doyle breaks into a room at the hotel and finds Charnier's henchmen whom he interrogates as to the whereabouts of Charnier.
Doyle is joined by Barthelemy and other inspectors. The raid on Charnier and his henchmen is successful, but Charnier escapes. Doyle, in an epic foot chase of Charnier sailing out of Marseille Harbor on his yacht, takes his gun out; calls his name, and finally shoots Charnier dead.

Cast

  • Gene Hackman
    Gene Hackman
    Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...

     as Det. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle
  • Fernando Rey
    Fernando Rey
    Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...

     as Alain Charnier
  • Philippe Léotard
    Philippe Léotard
    Philippe Léotard was a French actor, poet, and singer....

     as Jacques
  • Bernard Fresson
    Bernard Fresson
    Bernard Fresson was a French cinema actor. He starred in over 160 films. Some of his notable roles include: Javert in the 1972 mini-series version of Les Misérables, Inspector Barthelmy in John Frankenheimer's French Connection II , Scope in Roman Polanski's The Tenant , Gilbert in Lover Boy , and...

     as Henri Barthélémy
  • Jean-Pierre Castaldi
    Jean-Pierre Castaldi
    Jean-Pierre Castaldi is a French actor. He is the father of French TV presenter Benjamin Castaldi.- Selected filmography :-References:...

     as Raoul Diron
  • Cathleen Nesbitt
    Cathleen Nesbitt
    Cathleen Mary Nesbitt, CBE was an English stage and film actress.-Biography:Born in Cheshire, England in 1888, of Welsh and Irish descent, Nesbitt was educated in Lisieux, France, and at the Queen's University of Belfast and the Sorbonne...

     as The Old Lady

Score

The music was composed and conducted by Don Ellis
Don Ellis
Don Ellis was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of unusual time signatures...

, who was returning from the original film. The score itself is a very challenging modernistic composition with many jazz elements. A soundtrack CD was released by the Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...

 in 2005 and paired with the music from the first film.

Reception

The film has received generally positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 reports that 76% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 21 reviews with an average score of 6.6/10.

Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

gave the film two and a half out of four stars and said that "if Frankenheimer and his screenplay don't do justice to the character (of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle), they at least do justice to the genre, and this is better than most of the many cop movies that followed The French Connection into release."
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK