Polisse 2011 is the greatest "fuck you" in the history of French cinema
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
Maïwenn Le Besco's 2011 film Polisse tells a story about a "child protection unit" in French police. The film is written by Maïwenn based on real life cases that she researched with a real "child protection unit". So the film has no bullshit in it. And yet given Maïwenn's personal life, this begs the question: Was this movie secretly a hate letter to Luc Besson? Was this film the greatest "fuck you" in the history of French cinema? ↩ Reply
The official story for why Maïwenn took on to make a detailed movie about child-abuse has to do with 2 things. First she saw a documentary on the matter on TV. And secondly it was her parents. Which she recalls being very motherfucking abusive. To the point that a lot of her life choices ( like her giving herself a citizenship in Algeria ) were done specifically to piss off her parents. ↩ Reply
This ignores, though, the elephant in the room. Her relationship with the French filmmaker Luc Besson. To recap the story: she met Besson at age 12, got married to him by 15 and got her first daughter from him ( in 1993 ) at age 16. Everything was well and good, and Besson even put her into 2 of his films, which were heavily about "love". But then in 1997 he dumped her ( motherfucker! ) for Milla Jovovich. ↩ Reply
Given this history you might expect a certain vile hatred toward people like Besson. And frankly I can totally get any such anger. I mean, the motherfucker dumped her for Milla fucking Jovovich. Like come on... ↩ Reply
But then watching the film I was surprised to see how how ballsy and nuanced it is. Like Maïwenn Le Besco has more balls than some of the greatest filmmakers out there. She passes the ballsiness of Eli Roth and goes straight for Lars Von Trier's throne. ↩ Reply
Speaking of Von Trier, the film is shot in a very similar to Von Trier style. Very naturalistic. The camera is hand held. There seems to be very little directing in it. More "capturing" of the moment. It feels like, almost a Dogme 95 film, minus the credits and some obviously fake babies. ↩ Reply
Maïwenn seems to be able to get children's performances on, or above, the level of Steven Spielberg. And Spielberg is one of the only directors who really knows how to get good performances out of kids. Some of the stuff in Polisse is so well acted ( by kids ) that I don't know what sort of black magic Maïwenn had to use for that. But to be frank: Everybody in the entire movie acted their asses off. Even Maïwenn, who plays the everyman character. ↩ Reply
I could theorize that Maïwenn might have gotten the performances that she got ( and Spielberg does a similar thing ) by respecting the kids. By not being an ageist motherfucker who immediately thinks that they can't act. It seems like most directors think kids cannot act, so they just don't bother trying. Some of the only directors I know that can get really good kids performances are Spielberg, Luc Besson ( ironically ), Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro and now Maïwenn Le Besco. ↩ Reply
If you want to tell me that Robert Rodriguez does it well, well... his movies tend to be too silly for any real emotional stuff. So it doesn't count. ↩ Reply
Maïwenn apparently had a checklist of situations that she had to include into this movie. So the movie is a bit meandering. It could have been one very big case, where we are joining the police on the investigation. But instead, I think Maïwenn was trying to show everything, in all their colors. No matter how counter-intuitive, illogical or outright cognitive dissonance inducing they are. You get everything from dead babies to teenage girls with "fuck the police" attitude. You get wealthy rapists pedophiles that bought the police. And you get what seems to be a case of genuine love between a child and a teacher. Which is so counter intuitive and so cognitive dissonance inducing that one of the police officers simply cannot handle it. And so ( spoiler alert ) she jumps out of a window. ↩ Reply
Besides all of the child-abuse stories, Maïwenn also shows the deteriorating health of the officers that are assigned to work on those cases. You have a rivalry between two women officers because one of them gave up on love, seeing all that she saw. Forcing the other one to break her marriage, so she could feel that she is not the only one like that. We get a guy who is broken to the point he is afraid to bathe his own daughter, because he is a policeman that knows that touching her by mistake in a wrong spot might get him be investigated. ↩ Reply
Maïwenn's balls are so fucking huge that she puts real child nudity into this movie. Maïwenn's balls are so fucking huge that in one scene you see the policemen literally laugh at a little girl for how silly her reason to give a blowjob was. Maïwenn's balls are so fucking huge that she makes her character in the film pretty ( and it works ). Maïwenn's balls are so fucking huge that one little girl literally gives birth to a dead baby. Maïwenn's balls are so fucking huge that the film is not pretending that kids enjoy the "child protection unit". Quite the opposite. In most cases it seems like saving kids from abuse is abuse in itself. And then the policemen just need to cope with this stupid reality of the situation. ( One jumps out of the window unable to cope ). In a way Maïwenn's balls are so fucking huge that it seems like she might even not have a huge biff with Luc Besson. And she is basing the movie on her parents actually. But that part is disputable. Let me explain... ↩ Reply
So here is my theory about the greatest "fuck you" in history of French cinema. Obviously I'm making shit up. So take it with a whole tablespoon of salt. ↩ Reply
So again. Maïwenn Le Besco has a child at age 16 with Luc Besson. It happens in 1993. So if you do the math, at the release of Polisse that child is now exactly 18 years old. That is a very important thing. ↩ Reply
If you think about families that separate ( which the film shows multiple examples of ) they still raise the kids in a semi-together way. One of them gets the custody and the other visits from time to time. I know that reality from my personal growing up. The second parent is sort of there, but not as much as you'd like to. The two parents, while not wanting to be with each other, still sort of rely on each other for the sake of the child. ↩ Reply
So Besson dumps Maïwenn in 1997 ( when little Shanna Besson is 4 ) and so Besson and Le Besco, despite her being pissed at him, continue relatively civil relationship for the sake of the little Shanna. This continues all throughout the 2000s. And up to the point when Shanna is an adult. So in 2011, Maïwenn Le Besco can finally fuck with Luc Besson. The civil relationship is now over. So... Maïwenn does the best "fuck you" idea she can come up with and makes this movie. ↩ Reply
In the film Polisee there are 3 cases of partner separation. One is very civilized and while somewhat sad, is rather banal. Maïwenn's character lives across the street from the father of her two daughters. They are already separated but they are friends and it seems like they might still have some feelings towards each other. When she decides to live, he even says that he is happy for her ( which she doesn't believe ). But he accepts it anyway. ↩ Reply
Then there is the policewoman who was driven by her colleague into dumping her husband. She is doing it completely out of logical reasons, while she is very much still in love with the guy. And while the guy is very much still in love with her. At the divorce hearing, she can't help herself but hug him tightly and then cry like a baby because of it. And then in the end of the film she breaks down into an angry episode, because she feels like she has lost the love of her life for nothing. ↩ Reply
And then there is the third case when the husband already feels alienated with his wife, so he sleeps at a friend's house for a while. And then finds a new girl. And when his wife finds out, all she can utter is the word "layers". As in, she doesn't even want to speak to him. ↩ Reply
From those 3, if the film is about Luc Besson, which one of them is the one? When Maïwenn figured out that Luc Besson is seeing Jovovich, which was the response? Was she like super-pissed and wanted only to know about lawyers? Was she driven into the divorce out of logical reason, while still loving him very much? Or was the separation very civilized and rather basic? ↩ Reply
( Remember to take it with salt, it is still bullshit ). Maybe this happened: Maïwenn noticed that Luc is seeing Milla. And so obviously she was pissed. So all she wanted was lawyers and lawyers now. Then something happened... ↩ Reply
Between 2002 and 2004 she fancied herself with another man. A french producer Jean-Yves Le Fur. From which she has a son Diego. Why so long? And why nothing after it? Le Besco was literally not married a single time since 2004. ↩ Reply
If you remember 2004 was the year when Luc Besson married his current wife Virginie Besson-Silla. And if Luc was in contact with Le Besco during that time ( I mean they did have a little girl to raise together ), she might have known about the stuff I talk in my review of Revolver 2005. Or in other words she must have known about his curing himself from the pussy curse. ↩ Reply
Maybe she divorced Le Fur out of some guilt, or some inner realization that Besson has grown finally as a man. Maybe that change of character in Besson made her unable to stay with a different man. This was this second stage. The stage of regret. She could have pardoned him for sleeping with Jovovich and therefor saved him from his embarrassment. And her own embarrassment. If they would have stayed through those years together, at the very least she could have said that it was real love. At the very least there would have been an argument in herself, of why she went through what she went through with him. ↩ Reply
This whole age thing probably obsessed her. And finally when she saw on TV a documentary about the "child protective unit" she decided to use it as her way to cope with this confusion. How that could be that she feels pissed at him going away, if what she needs to be pissed at, is him "taking advantage of her"? Besson was probably already very much mature when it comes to topics like that. And so maybe their daughter's age had nothing to do with it. It was just that in time for the movie, it was finally time for them to separate fully. For them to stop living across the street from one another. ↩ Reply
She made the movie knowing that she needs to be frank. Knowing that she can't lie about anything. Knowing that she needs to show the truth how ever uncomfortable it might be. But knowing that it would also be a lie if she said she never loved that motherfucker. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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c:0Somehow, somehow I feel this whole internal drama is going to bleed into "The 8 year olds"
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