Brigade of Death

1985 [FRENCH]

Action / Crime / Thriller

5
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 422 422

prostitute paris, france shotgun gore violence against women dirty cop

Director

Max Pécas Photo
Max Pécas

Top cast

Véronique Catanzaro Photo
Véronique Catanzaro as
Muriel Montossé Photo
Muriel Montossé as
Manault Deva Photo
Manault Deva as Natalie
Brigitte Lahaie Photo
Brigitte Lahaie as (as Brigitte Simonin)
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
906.62 MB
1280*682
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 38 min
Seeds ...
1.64 GB
1920*1024
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 38 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by lor_

Amazing late career hybrid from Max Pecas

Finally seeing this film was a revelation for me, and I will keep my review brief so as not to detract from other buffs' discovery of its contents. Suffice it to say that this is one of the most successful attempts to combine over-the-top violent elements within a softcore sex film while actually making a real movie.I have seen nearly all of Pecas's groundbreaking pictures from the '60s and early '70s and salute him as a pioneer of that borderline movie that was both art film and sex film (imported on the art theater circuit such as our famous Heights Art Theater in Cleveland Heights, Ohio). Attending the Cannes Film Festival in 1986 I even had the opportunity to watch his action movie Deux enfoirés à Saint-Tropez, playing at a local cinema.But none of these prepared me for BRIGADE. On the surface a routine gritty cop thriller, its integration of ultra-violence into the proceedings is unprecedented.The only film that came to mind was Lee Frost's notorious A CLIMAX OF BLUE POWER, but that movie is hardcore porn, while Pecas stays strictly within softcore guidelines. Similarly, the deviant '80s cinema of Phil Prince is hardcore porn also injecting violence. Nowadays pornographers avoid injecting violence into sex films due to fear of censorship.Film opens with a familiar night scene of street hookers, de rigeur in countless French and Italian urban action pics, but soon we're in the morgue gazing at the corpses of several fully nude trannies. I began to wonder, given the evolution of TV from its squeaky clean 1950s shows to today's array of grisly police procedurals, if such a visual would ever be shown here (though American HORROR STORY seems poised to cross over the line soon).Hero Jean-Marc Maurel's adventures on the vice squad solving a routine crime case are marked by scenes of violent dread that I found far more disturbing than the typical gorefest, because they were realistically staged and very well acted, rather than relying upon outlandish makeup or other special effects. In particular, there are two scenes of heroines being tortured that might even disturb Lee Frost at his most indulgent.I look forward to a theatrical revival of this forgotten opus (Anthology Film Archives here in a Manhattan would be a perfect venue). Not a great film, but clearly worth hunting down as a one-of-a-kind movie.
Reviewed by slammerhard 6 / 10

In the tradition of Lucio Fulci

With lots of sex and violence, obviously influenced by Lucio Fulci, especially New York Ripper and Contraband, this is a precursor to the later films of the French extreme wave. It's not very well done, the pacing is terrible, it seems the French don't know how to pull off a decent action film. It's a mishmash of styles patched together in a haphazard manner, there is even an outdoor garden scene with meticulous framing that will remind you of the films of Eric Rohmer.There is blood and extreme violence but the gore effects are not as good as those in Italian b movies. As long as you don't set your expectations too high it can provide the goods. It's also got a Greek guy as the main villain.
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