Urgence (1985)
Directed by Gilles Béhat

Film Review

Director Gilles Béhat followed up his gritty thriller Rue barbare (1984) with this similarly hard-edged neo-polar, joining up again with popular actor Richard Berry, the star of his previous comedy Putain d'histoire d'amour (1981). Despite his somewhat checkered career, Béhat was most in his element in the action-thriller genre and some of his policiers are among the most respectable of those made in the 1980s, when the genre was starting to go out of fashion. After several cinematic flops, Béhat diverted his talents to television, occasionally returning to cinema with such films as Diamant 13 (2009).

Urgences is one of Béhat's slickest and more involving thrillers, even if the plot is a tad absurd and strewn with well-worn clichés. It is directed with skill and boasts solid performances from its lead actors (Berry is particularly good here), some memorable action stunts and some moody nocturnal photography that evokes the tension and menace of classic film noir.  Whilst the film does little to stimulate the intellect and is marred by a lack of character depth, it is nonetheless a tense, compelling and grittier than average policier, one that presages the dark post-noir thrillers of the 1990s.

Film Synopsis

One night, Lyza sees her brother, the reporter Max Forestier, killed and narrowly escapes death herself at the hands of an unknown assailant.  She enlists the support of a sports journalist, Jean-Pierre Mougin, who works for the same agency as her brother.  Mougin quickly drops his scepticism when he himself becomes the target of a brutal assassin and uncovers a plot by neo-Nazi thugs to instigate a truly horrific racist terrorist attack.  The question is: will he live long enough to tell the tale…?