Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Reviews
Product Description
Leotard, a pimp, is co-erced by the police into becoming a 'balance' (slang for an informer) in an operation to capture an underworld gang.To do this he is forced to betray his girlfriend. Winner of three Cesar awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is an splendid policier set in Paris (chiefly around Belleville). In a shooting war between a gang and the Parisian police heavy mob the police need an informant (balance) and they have just the man. Preassuring the ex-con (with a face that has seen a boxing match or two) and his lover (a call girl) eventually grinds him between the twin wheels of gangs and police. The acting is superb, the informant anti-hero being particularly strong, and the action gritty and violent.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By J. F. Pye
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Another film from my time in Europe. Showing its age ( it looks like TV crime from the Seventies... ) but still very watchable. Recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
La Balance left me distinctly unimpressed when I first saw it ten years ago, but I decided to give it a second chance with lower expectations. No joy. Every now and then a resolutely ordinary movie somehow catches the critics' imagination for no apparent reason, and in 1982 it was Bob Swaim's flat flic thriller's turn.
It has a good use of location and sense of place (the other Paris populated by Algerians and hookers), but the plot is fairly trite and the characterisation underdeveloped: there are no surprises here other than just how much it looks like any number of forgettable straight-to-video cop movies from the 80s. Phillipe Leotard is excellent as the pimp in love with his mealticket, but he's the only one who really looks like he belongs in this world - despite their capable performances, Nathalie Baye, Richard Berry, Maurice Ronet and Christophe Malavoy all seem like the usual movie stereotypes. There's little tension aside from one brief scene in a warehouse and the constant movie referencing (the cops' characters are defined by the movie posters behind their desks: yes, it's that facile) just gets wearing after a while. And the bit with the Walkman near the end is just absurd and completely unbelievable. Watchable but dull more often than any thriller has a right to be.
The DVD is impressive, however - audio commentary, interview with Swaim, trailers and two of his short films, although I had no joy finding the 'Easter Egg' storyboards.
It has a good use of location and sense of place (the other Paris populated by Algerians and hookers), but the plot is fairly trite and the characterisation underdeveloped: there are no surprises here other than just how much it looks like any number of forgettable straight-to-video cop movies from the 80s. Phillipe Leotard is excellent as the pimp in love with his mealticket, but he's the only one who really looks like he belongs in this world - despite their capable performances, Nathalie Baye, Richard Berry, Maurice Ronet and Christophe Malavoy all seem like the usual movie stereotypes. There's little tension aside from one brief scene in a warehouse and the constant movie referencing (the cops' characters are defined by the movie posters behind their desks: yes, it's that facile) just gets wearing after a while. And the bit with the Walkman near the end is just absurd and completely unbelievable. Watchable but dull more often than any thriller has a right to be.
The DVD is impressive, however - audio commentary, interview with Swaim, trailers and two of his short films, although I had no joy finding the 'Easter Egg' storyboards.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By steve b
Format:DVD
A French crime thriller from the eighties to match the classics from the fifties. The film opens with the brutal murder of an police informer in the Belleville area of Paris. The police plan to catch the local criminal boss by turning a pimp (Philippe Leotard) into an informer. Leotard and his prostitute girlfriend (Nathalie Baye) are portrayed as the victims of a ruthless policeman (Richard Berry) who will use them anyway he can to get the result he wants. Indeed this film can be classed as a love story, between Leotard and Baye, as well as a very good crime thriller.
Set in a Paris that the tourist does not see, the police are brutal,racist and in fact little different from the criminals they hunt. Nathalie Baye is a beautiful as ever and both Berry and Leotard play their roles well. Tcheky Karyo (The Core and the Patriot) in an early role, plays one of the gangsters.
Stylish and slick with realistic violence, La Balance combines the best of American and French crime films, perhaps because the director, Bob Swaim is an American.
A friend said that he thought La Balance was best discribed as a French version of the Sweeney with the French cops like Jack Reegan being willing to do whatever it takes to get the bad guy.
If you enjoy crime or gangster films and do not mind a bit of moral ambivalence you will enjoy this movie.
18 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By mn
Format:DVD
The seedier side of romantic, beautiful Paris had never really been shown until La Balance came out. The hard-nosed cops, seedy drug -pushers and sassy hookers, but they are all on show in this masterpiece. A cast that would cost many millions today, amazing performances from all (Nathalie Baye , Richard Berry, Philippe Leotard and Tcheky Karyo)lots of awards and a story of corruption in the underbelly of the Parisien gangsterdom.
This fabulous DVD also has lots of great extras, even a hidden 'Easter Egg', check it out and wonder how Hollywood never grabbed it for a re-make. MN
This fabulous DVD also has lots of great extras, even a hidden 'Easter Egg', check it out and wonder how Hollywood never grabbed it for a re-make. MN
Format:DVD
One of the first films I watched, back in the daze, that dealt with police corruption and the multiple problems that arise. Serpico in th 1970's was the first big time hit. But this was far more realistic, less showpiece, and exalted the template as corruption as an everyday phenomenon. I remember coming out of the cinema and thinking wow, when first released. Now of course the template has been battered to death, so much that there is a blase glaze. No longer a conspiracy theory but part of everyday life.
Watching it it again, after a period of 20 plus years and the surplus of films that have arisen about the subject have diluted the original intent. Although this was the first to prise open the can, other worms have become apparent. Shot in a district normally hidden from the tourist, it reveals the rotting underbelly.
Filmed from a police viewpoint where the baddies are less than human whilst our hero is also fatally flawed. The wider message has been beaten with a base ball bat. It lies after so many repeated blows on the operating table awaiting resuscitation.
As this was one of the first openings it gets the full 5. Nowadays Channel 5 is replete with films about corruption - but the police still get a standing ovation. Released at a time when there was sheer exaltation and to mention corruption meant you were a 5th Columnist, it was fresh oxygen in a blighted landfill.
Initially shown in art cinemas it was too real for the big flicks.
Therefore take a look at a film that threw a brick into a badly held view.
Watching it it again, after a period of 20 plus years and the surplus of films that have arisen about the subject have diluted the original intent. Although this was the first to prise open the can, other worms have become apparent. Shot in a district normally hidden from the tourist, it reveals the rotting underbelly.
Filmed from a police viewpoint where the baddies are less than human whilst our hero is also fatally flawed. The wider message has been beaten with a base ball bat. It lies after so many repeated blows on the operating table awaiting resuscitation.
As this was one of the first openings it gets the full 5. Nowadays Channel 5 is replete with films about corruption - but the police still get a standing ovation. Released at a time when there was sheer exaltation and to mention corruption meant you were a 5th Columnist, it was fresh oxygen in a blighted landfill.
Initially shown in art cinemas it was too real for the big flicks.
Therefore take a look at a film that threw a brick into a badly held view.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Perfect Balance
If you're into realistic police drama with a very authentic feel, then this movie is for you. If you're a member of the newer short-attention-span generation and are unable to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Videonut
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic French police/gangland movie.
Having enjoyed all four series of Spiral on BBC 4 and both Mesrine films, La Balance completes the set of tough, violent, no nonsense gangland films.
Published 3 months ago by Mr. Bj Revell
1.0 out of 5 stars
Like watching a second rate Sweeney
Unfortunately, I dont think i ll paying any attention to Amazon customers reviews anymore. How this gets above 1 star is beyond me. Read more
Published 23 months ago by dapper
4.0 out of 5 stars
La Balance
It has been some time since I first saw La Balance (some 20 years ago) I remembered it as a very good film, fast paced and very French. Read more
Published on 24 Dec 2009 by Frank Martin
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
