 For this, Berléand thanks his former girlfriend, actress-director Nicole Garcia.In "Martin et Léa", he plays a police inspector, a role he went on to perform many times on screen ("La Balance", "Les mois d'avril sont meurtriers" (based on the novel "The Devil's Home On Leave" by Derek Raymond), "Marche à l'ombre" ("Walking in the Shade"), "The Bait", "The Death the Chinese", "Fred", "The Smile of the Clown", "Ne le dis à personne" ("Tell No One"), "Transporter 1, 2, and 3") thanks in part to a cold, distant, and a piercing gaze.Berléand often plays military characters ("The Hostage of Europe", "Stella", "Les Milles", "Captain Conan", "The Prince of the Pacific"); he has also played a detective ("Follow This Plane"), pastor ("Au revoir les enfants") and psychiatrist in "Seventh Heaven", the film that really showed his talents to the public in late 1997.