Ripoux (Art): "We stole all the accessories"… Behind the scenes of the cult comedy starring Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte

The handsome man in his thick leather jacket and cigar, old René Boisrond (Philippe Noiret) from a police station in Barbès is a figure of the region. As he scrutinizes, he knows like his pockets are very full thanks to his arrangements with the little crooks around the corner and the not-so-smooth merchants… “Good practice exchange” ” , which allows him to satisfy his passion for horse racing. And now it’s in his hands, from the Épinal school. We’re handing in a freshly released thirty-something stylish, well-mannered young policeman played by Thierry Lhermitte. The Civil Code on the one hand, the Vichy bubble on the other: “Never alcohol, thanks” The recruit wants to enforce the law and not get into any of his “ripou” teammate’s plans…

BARBÈS AND TWO POLICES

Ripou: This phrase entered the vernacular and made its way into the dictionary, thanks to this mismatched duo imagined by Claude Zidi after meeting with ex-judicial police inspector Simon Michaël. a summary The magical duo of Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte may celebrate their fortieth anniversary next year, but they have not aged. Differences of opinion and dialogues on the implementation of public order always hit the target: “Do you want to arrest all criminals? The little old lady running through the nails? Banned! The transvestite in the corner? Banned! The it that did what it was told to do, to the gnouf!Angry at Inspector Boisrond at his young colleague’s honesty. The great Philippe Noiret embodies it in all its ambiguity and spinelessness, but defends it tenderly: “A rip-off by circumstance, because he no longer has many illusions about human nature, but keeps order in his neighborhood in good faith.“

Claude Zidi took care to immerse his heroes in a realistic universe:The police station built inside a warehouse looked so realistic that people came there to bring lost and found items and file complaints!”remembers the director. Today, his film takes on the guise of an ethnographic document, recreating the popular and multicultural Barbs of the ’80s, the crowded sidewalks, the fronts of Tati shops, the Montmartre stairs, the Place Blanche, and the underground fauna. .. The market has been recreated under the Barbès Rochechouart metro station, just across the street from the real thing, with pickpockets and boneteau players that Noiret has kindly come to usurp this whole little world with. “We had eighty professional extras. In the end, 300 people were walking around without even realizing that we were shooting. All our objects and accessories were stolen.” After his great success Ripoux (Over 5 million admissions), Zidi will give them two sequels: Ripoux contre ripoux in 1990 and Ripoux 3 in 2003.

Les Ripoux, Monday 27 March, 20:50 Arte stop

ISABEL MAGNIER