1969: Frederick Wiseman up close with the police in Law and Order

LAW AND ORDER © Zipporah Films

Cannes Classics pays tribute to the sociological filmmaking of Frederick Wiseman. After honouring Hospital in 2016, the Festival de Cannes has invited the director to present his film Law and Order in a restored version.

Kansas City, 1969. We ride along with a police squad in a rough part of town. Frederick Wiseman is there, he films every interaction and bears witness to the daily lives of police officers, from serving the public to heavy-handed arrests.

A pioneer of direct cinema, Frederick Wiseman specialised in long shoots. He set up his camera in a school for High School (1968), followed the army for Basic Training (1971) and observed social assistance for Welfare (1975). His method: no commentary on the images and no interfering in the shoot.

Despite this neutral posture, Wiseman quickly started asking himself questions on the impact of the camera on his subjects. He discussed this in an interview, “Filming the Staging of Daily Life”, about an eloquent scene from Law and Order where a police officer breaks down the door of a prostitute’s apartment before putting her in a chokehold.

“If he thought he was doing something bad, why would he do it in front of the camera? You could tell me that if the camera wasn’t there, he could have killed her… But that reaction’s a cliché. I think he did it because the girl was a prostitute, she had struck a cop and he was trying to teach her a lesson.”

The subject of the police goes beyond Law and Order in Frederick Wiseman’s filmography. “Far from being a lover of the police”, as he explains, he nevertheless judges it important to show these “collectors of human race” in what they do that’s good and what they do that’s bad, without any simplistic black and white taking of sides.

A presentation and restoration by Zipporah Films in association with Steven Spielberg, and with the participation of the Library of Congress.
New version in restored 4K from the 16 mm image negative and sound elements. Digitising and colour grading work carried out by DuArt and Goldcrest. Calibration and restoration carried out by Jane Tolmachyov, under the supervision of Frederick Wiseman and Karen Konicek. Retrospectives throughout the world and distribution in France by Météore Films starting in Autumn 2024.