A police drama set in the days of the Dreyfuss affair, when anti-semites falsely charged a Jewish officer with treason, and beginning with the death of the French President in fellatio, might appear to be highly promising. But 'Paris Police 1900' is most disappointing: the Guardian called it 'stately', I would simply call it dull. I'm not certain why it doesn't quite work, but the lack of a single perspective from which the story is told makes it harder to follow what is going on, or care. Each policeman seems to have their own agenda, but it can be difficult to work out what these are; it's almost as if everyone is a minor character, but there's no-one to lead the story. And while the sets nicely reconstruct the Paris of 120 years ago, I didn't really get a sense of what, outside of the twists of the plot, would have felt normal to any of the numerous protagonists. Sadly it falls well short of a historic version of 'Spiral'.
Review of Paris Police 1900
