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Cop or Hood

1979 film by Georges Lautner

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ604912
Source-derived summary

Cop or Hood (French: Flic ou voyou) is a 1979 French crime and action film directed by Georges Lautner. It's loosely based on the novel L'Inspecteur de la mer by Michel Grisolia.

Plot

Stanislas Borowitz is a divisional commissioner from the IGPN (Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale) who uses particularly expeditious methods to counteract the "ripoux" (French term for "corrupt cops"). Sent to Nice to struggle against the Mafia and enquire on a murder of a notoriously corrupt commissioner, he changes his identity into a thug named Antonio Cerruti to trigger a gang war between the two biggest local sponsors, Théodore Musard ("l'Auvergnat") and Achille Volfoni ("le Corse"), and discovers a police organization with the mafia of the town. But the corrupt police inspectors Rey and Massard, on the pay of Volfoni, absolutely want to harm him.

Cast

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Antonio Cerutti and Stanislas Borovitz

Georges Géret as Théodore Musard, ("l'Auvergnat")

Michel Galabru as Commissaire Grimaud

Marie Laforêt as Edmonde Puget-Rostand

Jean-François Balmer as Inspecteur Massard

Claude Brosset as Achille Volfoni

Julie Jézéquel as Charlotte

Michel Beaune as Marcel Langlois

Catherine Lachens as Simone Langlois

Tony Kendall as Rey

Juliette Mills as Mrs. Bertrand

Venantino Venantini as Mario

Charles Gérard as Cazauban

Philippe Castelli as driving school inspector

Michel Peyrelon as Camille

Development

Cop or Hood was a French production from two Parisian film companies: Bemondo's own Cerito Films and Gaumont International. It was based on the novel L'Insepcteur de la mer by Michel Grisolia. Grisolia was a film critic for Le Nouvel Observateur and this novel marked his debut as a novelist. The film had a budget of fifteen million francs and began filming on October 15, 1978, with a twelve-week shooting schedule.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cop or Hood” as 1979 film by Georges Lautner. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 1978—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1979-03-28, 1979-06-21—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Hood, film and Georges can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1979 film by Georges Lautner. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q604912. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979 and 1978.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cop or Hood”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cop or Hood primary sources, Cop or Hood archive and Hood research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cop or Hood”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cop or Hood” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.