Canet and Cluzet: Cop and gangster in Les Liens du sang

by Fabien Lemercier

25/01/2007 - Filming on Jacques Maillot’s, Les Liens du sang [trailer] (lit. “Blood Ties”) kicks off today in Lyon, confirming the recent marked trend of the detective film genre in French production.

Starring François Cluzet and Guillaume Canet, the film is an adaptation of Michel and Bruno Papet’s autobiographical novel, Deux frères: flic et truand (lit. “Two Brothers: Cop and Gangster”), published in 1999.

While the first spent several years in prison for murder, robbery, pimping and counterfeiting, his brother worked as a police investigator in the vice squad fighting against organised crime.

Co-scripted by Jacques Maillot, Pierre Chosson ( Les Yeux bandés [trailer], Dans les cordes [trailer]) and Eric Veniard – winner of the Sopadin Special Jury Prize for Best Screenplay in 2004 – the story begins in Lyon in the early 70’s.

Police inspector François (Canet) finds out that his brother Gabriel (Cluzet) is being released from prison after doing ten years for murder. The reunion between the cop and his older brother is a delicate one. They nevertheless try to put the past behind them: Gabriel is eager to re-integrate into society and François does his best to help him. However, reality and old demons quickly catch up with them.

The film was produced by Jean-Baptiste Dupont and Cyril Colbeau-Justin for LGM Productions, an outfit that is becoming a real expert in the detective genre after 36, quai des Orfèvres [trailer], Have Mercy on Us All [trailer] by Régis Wargnier and RMR73 [trailer], which Olivier Marchal will soon start filming.

Les Liens du sang carried a €7m budget, including €700,000 from France 3 Cinéma (€350,000 in co-production and €350,000 in pre-sales) and Belgian tax shelter financing via the Motion Investment Group.

Filming is scheduled to take place in Lyon and Paris through April 17. Studio Canal will distribute the title in cinemas.

Canet and Cluzet also recently worked together, as director and lead actor respectively, in Tell No One [trailer], which garnered 2.83m admissions and won the 2007 Jacques-Deray Prize for Best French Detective Film, awarded yesterday by the Institut Lumière.

(Translated from French)