Hacker Cinema
Dobermann
1997 · Film · 103 min
Directed by Jan Kounen
The charismatic criminal Dobermann, who got his first gun when he was christened, leads a gang of brutal robbers. After a complex and brutal bank robbery, they are being hunted by the Paris police. The hunt is led by the sadistic cop Christini, who only has one goal: to catch Dobermann at any cost.
1 mixed1 neutralfrom 2 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
2 comments on Hacker News
I'm starting to think that the French police are the worst in the EU at least. And here I was thinking that the Dirty Harry cop in the Dobermann movie was a caricature. Looking at the news of the last few years it seems they really are that deranged.
1. Police answer a domestic case by kicking down the door and shooting the father of the (Asian) family without warning:
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2083188/more-clashes-paris-family-dead-chinese-man-dispute-police-account
2. Riot cops shoot a mother and her children at the outskirts of a Gillets Jaunes demo, one of the kids loses a hand:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/30/french-police-tactics-scrutiny-gilets-jaunes-injuries-paris
3. Police anally rape a young (black) man with an expandable baton during an identity check:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38892302
4. Police assault a (black) musician in his studio, allege "smell of cannabis" emanated from within:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55127815
And all this is happening in a democratic country at the heart of the EU. If the police in Tunisia are taking lessons from the French police, I'd be worried about the safety of anti-regime Tunisians.
Of note, I come from a European country that is ostensibly a democracy and I know well that all the democratic laws in the world are not enough to control a bunch of jumped-up brutes given the authority to beat up their fellow citizens.
It's easy to forget but acting and filming are actually art forms and Hollywood once excelled at them.
You won't see any evidence of that in the modern blockbuster, though. I remember a scene in one of the Iron Man movies (or perhaps the Avengers?) where Iron Man is fighting the Hulk. Scenes of the fight are interrupted by scenes where we see Tony Stark's face against a dark background- encased in his helmet, with the armour's HUD superimposed. It's a clever trick. The point though is not to create a dramatic effect. It's to maximise Robert Downey Jr's face time.
When I was younger I was always on the lookout for "videoclip-like" directing. For instance, I was crazy about a French movie called Dobermann [1] that goes like a cheetah on speed and doesn't stop to take names. I was obsessed with portrayals of action and violence, the faster the better.
But there is power in standing still. There is power in silence, in saying nothing, in showing nothing. I was shown that in the movies of masters [2] [3]. Perhaps I've grown up in the process.
____________
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobermann_(film)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Samurai
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man