The Emperor of Paris

The Emperor of Paris (L'Empereur de Paris, 2018) is a French crime drama you can watch online on iFILM, with Vincent Cassel as the legendary François Vidocq. In the back-alley Paris of the 1820s, the escaped convict lives under a false name, hoping a brutal past will finally let him be.

His knack for sniffing out criminals won't stay buried. A chance run-in with the city's police chief pulls Vidocq into a dangerous bargain: catch the worst men in Paris using the underworld that raised him. He builds the first real detective bureau and turns every old ally into an enemy. Olga Kurylenko, August Diehl, Denis Lavant, Freya Mavor and James Thierrée round out the cast.

Vidocq was a real man — a thief and jailbreaker who ended up founding the template for modern criminal investigation in France. Director Jean-François Richet keeps it grimy: muddy courtyards, bare-knuckle fights, Cassel at full intensity. A solid pick if you like your period pieces dark and bruising. Stream The Emperor of Paris (2018) online on iFILM.