Flic Story

After the death of his wife and child, Émile Buisson escapes a psychiatric facility and returns to a scarred Paris in the late 1940s. The man who will later be labeled France's public enemy number one begins a brutal spree that unsettles the city and its witnesses. On the trail is Roger Borniche, a determined detective who pursues Buisson with unwavering resolve. The story follows their tense cat and mouse dynamic through dim streets, crowded markets, and the quiet corners of a capital trying to heal. The film emphasizes mood over spectacle, letting the viewer feel the tension in a city where rumors spread faster than police sirens and every alley feels like a potential trap that might hover briefly.

Directed by Jacques Deray, the 1975 feature adapts the memoirs of detective Roger Borniche about his hunt for Émile Buisson, translating a life case into a tightly wound Paris set thriller that keeps pace with a city in postwar recovery.

Box office data for Flic Story isn't widely published, and the film isn't typically cited among the era's biggest financial successes. Its legacy rests more on performances, direction, and the eerie mood it creates than chart topping numbers in cinema.

Flic Story helped cement Alain Delon's hard edged crime persona and showcased Jacques Deray's knack for atmospheric urban suspense. The film's stark Paris night photography, precise edits, and quiet power of performance set a template for late 1970s thrillers, shaping how postwar tension is shown on screen for modern thrillers.

Critics praised the film for its lean pacing and the moral ambiguity that surrounds vengeance. It interrogates the scars left by war on a city and its institutions, questions the cost of relentless pursuit, and shows how obsession can erode boundaries between duty, justice, and personal peril in tough times.