Our Paris office takes a look at CRIMSON RIVERS (LES RIVIERES POURPRES)

Well geeks, Edgard has send Father Geek this Review and other info on a film that is really stirring it up among film fans in Europe right now, check it out cause it will be in our Art Houses over here before you know it...

Hello folks... Edgard here with more cool Euro news... I received an interesting thing today that I thought could not wait until next Monday...

So here is a review from Grozilla of the CRIMSON RIVERS (aka LES RIVIERES POURPRES); directed by Matthieu Kassovitz, with Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel.

Before letting the floor go to Grozilla, let me insist again : you MUST check the trailer of this film, it's really really cool JUST CLICK RIGHT HERE. This movie will be released here in France next week, so I will review it then.

Meanwhile let me tell you why many people are exciting about this one. First there's this cool trailer. Then it's the new movie from talented director Matthieu Kassovitz (fans of the FIFTH ELEMENT have seen him in a cameo, he's the funny guy with a strange hat pointing a gun in Bruce's face). Kassovitz directed METISSE (which - shame on me - I haven't seen), HATE (aka LA HAINE) and ASSASSIN(S). I love HATE (sounds silly to say that); I hate ASSASSIN(S). But in both cases I agree that Kassovitz is one of the most talented director in France today. If you haven't seen HATE go rent it today... it could be described as a French BOYZ'N THE HOOD/MENACE II SOCIETY kind of film but it's much more than that. And it was shot in a beautiful black and white... a great film.... Last but not least, I want to see that one for the actors : Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel (HATE, DOBERMANN)... two actors with a really powerful presence on screen... it can only be good to see them together...

So let's hear now from Grozilla....

I guess other reviews should follow soon but here's my CRIMSON RIVERS (LES RIVIERES POURPRES) review after its first screening yesterday morning. Let's say right the way that it was not as good as expected. Between the different rumours that this film would revolutionize the genre French cinema; between the obvious talent of Kassovitz, even shown in ASSASSIN(S), a failure but still exciting enough to be defended; and between the Jean Christophe Grangé's novel (probably one of the best thriller written in France in years); without forgetting a very attractive trailer, CRIMSON RIVERS was a challenge... Only half won...

The main weakness of the film is the script which has used all its munitions after only 40 minutes. What has been kept for the film is a big simplification from the novel (which might be also understandable if you look at the novel's structure : two parallels investigations meet in the last quarter of the novel; or at the half of the film; still you wonder why some key sequences - important for the story and the tension - in the novel have been dropped here... maybe some budget reasons) : very often the film takes the simpliest way, hoping that the actors charisma will do the rest. Meaning that there's not much characterization in the different characters. It works with Vincent Cassel who can bring a lot to his role with 2 or 3 details; but not for Jean Reno who seems just like another cop used to all the bad cases (in the book, his character is a used cop, much older and at the edge of getting fired from the police). But the chemistry between the two actors, from the moment they meet, is really ideal. You really think to see the creation of the perfect buddy movie duo.

For the story, I had the feeling that Kassovitz and Grangé, the two script writers, took the option to fill a precise time table, just in order to respect the conventions of the genre cinema : the movie lasts 100 minutes so everything has to be explained in that time. Which brings you to several explanatory sequences where the film litteraly stops to explain clearly to the viewer what's going on. It's of course a heavy way to function : every time the two cops walk by a clue, they stop, look at each other, nods their heads (of course, that's it !!) and then get to the clue... The film would have been better with a "free form" instead of this structure step by step...

On the technical point of view, nothing bad to say... except on two points : too many crane/helicopter shots for no specific reason and the music is way to present (70 minutes for 100 minutes of film !). Bruno Coulais has taken the bad habit to make you listen to his music instead of associating the music to the film it represents. The opening titles is an obvious example of gap between what is shown and what you hear. The sets are amazing (especially the multiple rooms in a massive university).

Except the very good direction of the actors, the best of the film lays in three astonishing action sequences; especially this long sequence ending by a chase by foot, which not only leaves you breathless, but also contains really personal ideas of direction, which is lacking in the rest of the movie. Of course, Kassovitz always said it was not a personel project but more an "ordered film". There's also a very disturbing scene between Cassel and a nun in a dark alcove. Which could remind you the interrogation scene in Jaume Balaguero's THE NAMELESS. That film was released only a few weeks ago here in France and its shadow is all over the CRIMSON RIVERS as the two movies have almost the same subject. Except that the Spanish film could stay scheming, what the Kassovitz movie can't do. Following a report from one of the crew member, Kassovitz reworked the first editing, which was as the rumour says really bad, at the last moment only 10 days ago...

At the end of the screening, most of the journalists seemed ready to destroy the film. Which would be unfair. Even if it's a dissapointment, it stays a very honnest entertainment piece as a genre film. And I have the feeling that the articles will attack more Kassovitz than the film itself...

GROZILLA

My last word on CRIMSON RIVERS is that the first "professional" reviews are coming and it seems that it goes in the same way than Grozilla... I read two different French magazines today... both reviewers seem disappointed by the film (the story - especially the ending, the secondary characters are the main flaws) but both agree also on the "good look" of the film; on the energy from the actors and that as a genre film it succeeds to entertain... which is good (and too rare in French cinema unfortunately).

That's it... just enough to make us more curious on that film... As for me it's over for tonight but keep sending us reviews, pictures, comments... to our Euro AICN offices in Paris at euroaicn@yahoo.com