Jul. 21, 2003 - 7:46 pm
a.k.a. The Crimson Rivers. this was one that Margaret and Gayle at work were trying to get me to see. they both thought it was amazing. the only thing i knew about it was that Leslie had tried to watch it before and had to turn it off because of the terrible dubbing. apparently Gemstone only bought dubbed copies of this French film. but anyway, Gayle let me borrow her dvd copy so that I could watch it with subtitles. i never would have watched it had it been a dubbed copy. we all know how i detest that.
this is a somewhat gruesome detective story that features Vincent Cassel and Jean Reno as two crimefighters working on the same case, but from two completely different beginnings. they don't even run into each other for the first hour of the film. they have to find a lot of clues out first. basically people are being killed in some terribly complicated ways that involve them being tortured and something involving the eyes and childhood. the whole thing takes place in sort of a remote mountain college area. the town is composed of professors and their children and there seems to be a lot of inbreeding going on that causes them to become vastly intelligent, but also causes some hideous side-effects. a very interesting story, but i'm not a huge fan of the ending. i think it's a bit weak.
i have to give a thumbs up for the cast on this one. i'll always enjoy seeing Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel on the screen. probably the two best male French actors in the business today. and it looks like Luc Besson is writing the screenplay for the sequel to this film. i'm sure he goes to see anything with his old buddy Jean in it, so he must have liked this film pretty well. i really wish he would start directing some more pictures instead of just writing and producing. they're never as good. i'm sure it's keeping the money rolling in for him though.
this film is directed by the guy who you'll probably remember as Nino from Le Fabuleux destin d'Am�lie Poulain (2001), Mathieu Kassovitz. he also directed La Haine (1995). pretty decent job on directing people i guess, but he's no genius. i think most of the acting skill conveyed was already present in the actors themselves. hmmm, that's a bit insulting eh? but that's how i feel anyway.
a few of the scenes were just badly written and they turned out to be quite goofy. for instance, in order to get some information out of a skinhead gang (composed of 4 people), Vincent Cassel's character enters their poolhall hangout and starts a fight with two of them. the other two have been playing a fighting video game. as the real life fight begins, the video game volume increases and the voiceovers from the game begin to become inexplicably catered to what is happening in the fight. it's idiotic really. imagine the Mortal Kombat voiceovers. "Fight!"...they start fighting. he beats up a guy..."Excellent!" the second guy starts fighting him..."Round 2." "We have a new challenger." i'll quit complaining about this now. you get the idea.
the movie definitely does have its good points though. great moments of cinematography is one thing. lots of motion to motion shots. you'll see a tracking shot of some houses or something and then in the next shot, the camera's in a hallway with the lead characters walking towards you, but the camera continues to track in the same direction and at the same speed as the previous shot. it's really a visually stunning movie. very macabre though. i enjoyed it, but it had some questionable bits.