DIRTY COPS
11 films in this collection
A SEASON OF LAW AND DISORDER
The badge is supposed to separate the cops from the crooks. DIRTY COPS is devoted to films where that thin blue line gets blurred, and all cops are bastards.
Corruption, brutality, blackmail, dirty money, hard drinking and bad intentions run through a strain of crime cinema in which the law is less a moral force than another racket. These are underseen movies of cops on the take, cops coming apart and cops crossing lines.
From grimy precinct rooms and rain slicked city streets to narcotics busts, protection rackets and deals made in the shadows, DIRTY COPS explores the particularly nasty pleasures of police cinema once law and order have gone sour. Hardboiled, morally murky and often savagely cynical, these are films where everybody has a price, authority is dangerous and doing the right thing may be the quickest way to get killed.
Welcome to DIRTY COPS, a season of badges, bullets and bad intentions.
The badge is supposed to separate the cops from the crooks. DIRTY COPS is devoted to films where that thin blue line gets blurred, and all cops are bastards.
Corruption, brutality, blackmail, dirty money, hard drinking and bad intentions run through a strain of crime cinema in which the law is less a moral force than another racket. These are underseen movies of cops on the take, cops coming apart and cops crossing lines.
From grimy precinct rooms and rain slicked city streets to narcotics busts, protection rackets and deals made in the shadows, DIRTY COPS explores the particularly nasty pleasures of police cinema once law and order have gone sour. Hardboiled, morally murky and often savagely cynical, these are films where everybody has a price, authority is dangerous and doing the right thing may be the quickest way to get killed.
Welcome to DIRTY COPS, a season of badges, bullets and bad intentions.
NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER
(1980, USA, Robert Butler)
101 mins15
A tough, New York City ex-cop relentlessly searches for his kidnapped teenage daughter, held by a deranged drifter who’s mistaken her for the child of a wealthy businessman. As the chase rages through the city’s derelict streets and subways, both men are pushed to the brink.
Restored at long last, this notorious cult thriller has been nearly impossible to see on any format except VHS for over four decades and is a furious, grimy portrait of Manhattan at its wildest.
Restored at long last, this notorious cult thriller has been nearly impossible to see on any format except VHS for over four decades and is a furious, grimy portrait of Manhattan at its wildest.
Upcoming Screenings
FEAR OVER THE CITY
(1975, France / Italy, Henri Verneuil)
125 mins15
A sadistic killer calling himself Minos is terrorising Paris, taunting the police and targeting women he considers immoral. Maverick detective Jean Letellier takes the case, but his pursuit soon becomes a breakneck war across rooftops, moving trains and the city’s vertiginous skyline.
Jean-Paul Belmondo performs his own staggering stunts in Henri Verneuil’s muscular policier - a grim serial-killer thriller welded to one of the most exhilarating practical-action films of the 1970s.
Jean-Paul Belmondo performs his own staggering stunts in Henri Verneuil’s muscular policier - a grim serial-killer thriller welded to one of the most exhilarating practical-action films of the 1970s.
Upcoming Screenings
REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER
(1975, USA, Milton Katselas)
112 mins15
A veteran New York City police officer dies during a botched undercover operation, leaving his inexperienced replacement to uncover what really happened. As the investigation unfolds, she becomes entangled in the city’s bureaucratic pressures, internal corruption, and the psychological toll of policing a system that resists transparency.
The film unfolds as a tense urban crime procedural, but its focus steadily shifts toward the emotional strain of its protagonist and the institutional forces surrounding her. Its New York setting is used less for spectacle and more as a dense, procedural environment where ambiguity and moral compromise dominate.
The film unfolds as a tense urban crime procedural, but its focus steadily shifts toward the emotional strain of its protagonist and the institutional forces surrounding her. Its New York setting is used less for spectacle and more as a dense, procedural environment where ambiguity and moral compromise dominate.
Upcoming Screenings
BAD LIEUTENANT
(1992, USA, Abel Ferrara)
96 mins18
A corrupt New York City police lieutenant spirals through a world of drugs, gambling, and moral decay, abusing his authority while sinking deeper into self-destruction. When a brutal crime shocks the community, he becomes obsessed with the case, confronting questions of guilt, redemption, and faith as his own life unravels.
Abel Ferrara’s film is raw and confrontational, driven by an intense central performance and an unflinching look at addiction and spiritual crisis. Its loose, almost documentary-like style gives the story a sense of immediacy, pushing the character’s descent into something deeply uncomfortable and difficult to shake.
Abel Ferrara’s film is raw and confrontational, driven by an intense central performance and an unflinching look at addiction and spiritual crisis. Its loose, almost documentary-like style gives the story a sense of immediacy, pushing the character’s descent into something deeply uncomfortable and difficult to shake.
Upcoming Screenings
SHAKEDOWN
(1988, USA, James Glickenhaus)
97 mins18
Public defender Roland Dalton is assigned to represent a drug dealer accused of killing an undercover police officer. Convinced that the shooting was self-defence, Dalton turns to renegade narcotics cop Richie Marks for help and uncovers a network of corrupt officers protecting a lucrative drug operation. Their investigation pulls both men into an escalating war fought across the streets, courtrooms and rooftops of New York.
Peter Weller and Sam Elliott tear through James Glickenhaus’s gloriously excessive action thriller, a film that combines hardboiled conspiracy plotting with some of the most outrageous practical stunt work of the 1980s. From a department-store shootout to a climax involving a passenger jet, SHAKEDOWN continually finds new ways to outdo itself while preserving the grit and momentum of a classic urban crime movie.
Peter Weller and Sam Elliott tear through James Glickenhaus’s gloriously excessive action thriller, a film that combines hardboiled conspiracy plotting with some of the most outrageous practical stunt work of the 1980s. From a department-store shootout to a climax involving a passenger jet, SHAKEDOWN continually finds new ways to outdo itself while preserving the grit and momentum of a classic urban crime movie.
Upcoming Screenings
THE MAD BOMBER (ON 16MM)
(1972, USA, Bert I. Gordon)
91 mins18
William Dorn, a disturbed Los Angeles man whose life has been destroyed by personal tragedy, begins planting and detonating bombs around the city against people and places he blames for society’s problems. When one of his attacks is witnessed by a serial rapist, police detective Geronimo Minelli is forced to track down both the bomber and the dangerous criminal who may hold the key to identifying him.
A grimy piece of early-1970s exploitation cinema, Bert I. Gordon’s crime thriller mixes police procedural, psychological study, and urban nightmare. Chuck Connors gives the film its unsettling centre as a man consumed by rage and paranoia, while the collision between the bomber, the detective, and the rapist creates a bleak portrait of violence and social decay.
A grimy piece of early-1970s exploitation cinema, Bert I. Gordon’s crime thriller mixes police procedural, psychological study, and urban nightmare. Chuck Connors gives the film its unsettling centre as a man consumed by rage and paranoia, while the collision between the bomber, the detective, and the rapist creates a bleak portrait of violence and social decay.
Upcoming Screenings
CHAMPAGNE AND BULLETS
(1993, USA, John De Hart & James Paradise)
99 mins18
Former police officer Rick Bode is forced from the department after refusing to participate in the schemes of corrupt judge Norman. Reunited with his old partner Huck, Rick sets out to expose a criminal network involving blackmail, murder and a satanic cult. Along the way he finds time for romance, martial arts, country music, spiritual contemplation and the irresistible dance sensation known as the Shimmy Slide.
Written, produced by and starring John De Hart, CHAMPAGNE AND BULLETS is an extraordinary vanity-project action epic whose ambition is matched only by its profound eccentricity. Its awkward dialogue, sudden tonal shifts and complete sincerity have made it a cult phenomenon, especially in its alternate incarnation as GETEVEN. Far more than a conventional bad-movie curiosity, this is personal cinema in its purest and most bewildering form.
Written, produced by and starring John De Hart, CHAMPAGNE AND BULLETS is an extraordinary vanity-project action epic whose ambition is matched only by its profound eccentricity. Its awkward dialogue, sudden tonal shifts and complete sincerity have made it a cult phenomenon, especially in its alternate incarnation as GETEVEN. Far more than a conventional bad-movie curiosity, this is personal cinema in its purest and most bewildering form.
Upcoming Screenings
LIVE WIRE
(1992, United States, Christian Duguay)
85 mins15
Bomb-disposal expert Danny O’Neill is pulled into a case of seemingly spontaneous human combustion when senators begin exploding without warning. The weapon is invisible, the conspiracy reaches into Washington, and Danny’s estranged family may be the next target.
A gloriously overheated early-nineties action thriller, LIVE WIRE treats liquid explosives, political skulduggery and marital crisis with equal urgency. Pierce Brosnan brings pre-Bond polish to the chaos, while Christian Duguay keeps the fuse short and the set pieces deliriously combustible.
A gloriously overheated early-nineties action thriller, LIVE WIRE treats liquid explosives, political skulduggery and marital crisis with equal urgency. Pierce Brosnan brings pre-Bond polish to the chaos, while Christian Duguay keeps the fuse short and the set pieces deliriously combustible.
Upcoming Screenings
RICOCHET
(1991, USA, Russell Mulcahy)
102 mins18
Rookie Los Angeles cop Nick Styles becomes a public hero after his dramatic arrest of psychopathic criminal Earl Talbot Blake is captured on camera. Years later Styles is a successful prosecutor with a family and political future, while Blake has spent every day in prison planning revenge. After staging his escape, Blake begins an elaborate campaign to destroy Styles’s reputation, relationships and sense of reality.
Denzel Washington and John Lithgow face off in Russell Mulcahy’s feverishly heightened revenge thriller, written by Fred Dekker and produced by Joel Silver. RICOCHET pushes the police procedural into the territory of horror and comic-book melodrama, with Lithgow’s villain attacking not simply his enemy’s body but the public image on which his life has been built. Fast, lurid and unapologetically excessive, it is peak early-1990s studio action cinema.
Denzel Washington and John Lithgow face off in Russell Mulcahy’s feverishly heightened revenge thriller, written by Fred Dekker and produced by Joel Silver. RICOCHET pushes the police procedural into the territory of horror and comic-book melodrama, with Lithgow’s villain attacking not simply his enemy’s body but the public image on which his life has been built. Fast, lurid and unapologetically excessive, it is peak early-1990s studio action cinema.
Upcoming Screenings
INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION
(1970, Italy, Elio Petri)
115 mins15
On the day of his promotion, a senior police chief murders his mistress in her apartment and deliberately leaves behind a trail of evidence pointing directly to himself. Rather than conceal the crime, he turns the subsequent investigation into a grotesque experiment, testing whether his rank and authority place him beyond suspicion even when his guilt becomes increasingly obvious.
Gian Maria Volonté gives a ferocious performance in Elio Petri’s Academy Award-winning political satire, a film that combines police procedural, black comedy and psychological nightmare. Driven by one of Ennio Morricone’s most distinctive scores, INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION dissects the intoxicating relationship between state power and personal impunity. Its portrait of an institution determined to protect its own remains as funny, disturbing and politically urgent as ever.
Gian Maria Volonté gives a ferocious performance in Elio Petri’s Academy Award-winning political satire, a film that combines police procedural, black comedy and psychological nightmare. Driven by one of Ennio Morricone’s most distinctive scores, INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION dissects the intoxicating relationship between state power and personal impunity. Its portrait of an institution determined to protect its own remains as funny, disturbing and politically urgent as ever.
Upcoming Screenings
COP (VHS)
(1988, USA, James B. Harris)
110 mins18
LAPD detective Lloyd Hopkins becomes convinced that the murder of a young woman is connected to a series of killings stretching back many years. Intelligent, obsessive and increasingly unrestrained, Hopkins pursues the case beyond official boundaries, using manipulation and intimidation while his marriage, family life and already flexible ethics begin to disintegrate around him.
Adapted from James Ellroy’s novel Blood on the Moon, COP gives James Woods one of his defining roles as a policeman whose certainty in his own instincts becomes both his greatest weapon and his most dangerous flaw. Director James B. Harris strips the story down to a cold, hard-edged character study, combining the procedural detail of a detective thriller with an unsparing portrait of institutional violence and masculine obsession.
Presented on VHS.
Adapted from James Ellroy’s novel Blood on the Moon, COP gives James Woods one of his defining roles as a policeman whose certainty in his own instincts becomes both his greatest weapon and his most dangerous flaw. Director James B. Harris strips the story down to a cold, hard-edged character study, combining the procedural detail of a detective thriller with an unsparing portrait of institutional violence and masculine obsession.
Presented on VHS.