13 Days, 13 Nights: In the Hell of Kabul

This film was made possible by Joe Biden’s gross negligence and utter dereliction of duty. Even the French thought his incompetent surrender of Afghanistan was a disaster. That’s pretty bad. They also thought their Frenchness would earn them some slack from the new Taliban masters, but they too endured a harrowing evacuation. Hollywood might still be ignoring the national trauma of 2021, but French filmmaker Marti Bourboulon (of the Three Musketeers duology) gambled by adapting French Security Attache Mohamed “Mo” Bida’s memoir of the hasty exfiltration. Apparently, France did not embrace it, but maybe the film will find a second life in the USA with the recent theatrical and VOD release of Bourboulon’s 13 Days, 13 Nights: In the Hell of Kabul.

Things are already pretty much in a shambles when the film opens. Partly, that is because Bida has the remaining embassy staff burning and smashing everything they can’t take with them. The streets aren’t safe, but he briefly steps out to pick up Sediqi, a good friend who served in the fallen government’s intelligence service. Obviously, he is on the Taliban’s death list, as the stab wound in his stomach attests.

Getting him to the embassy is not exactly easy, but evacuating him, along with other vouched-for asylum-seekers will be even harder. To get them from the barricaded embassy to the besieged Kabul Airport, Bida will have to improvise. While the Ambassador and the national government in Paris dither, Bida assumes authority, deciding to beg forgiveness later, rather than waiting on permission. However, he needs help from Eva, a Franco-Afghan NGO staffer, to translate, even though the armed Taliban patrolling the streets automatically consider her “unclean.” Of course, we know only too well their convoy won’t necessarily be safe, even if they successfully enter the airport grounds.

Bourboulon vividly and viscerally recreates the fear and chaos of the Kabul streets. He never whitewashes the violent nature of the Taliban, or their misogyny. Every checkpoint and gunpoint pull-over becomes a white-knuckle nightmare. Yet, it is important to watch these scenes to understand the character of the regime we allowed back into power. (Yes, Trump signed an agreement with the Taliban at the end of his first term, but Biden repudiated every other Trump policy. Yet, this one was sacrosanct? Regardless, his watch, his responsibility.)

U.S. audiences should be prepared for the appearance of late Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee (one of thirteen American military service members murdered at the Abbey Gate bombing) as a minor character. Bourboulon and thesp Athena Strates present her in a respectful manner. Nevertheless, these scenes might be a bit of a shock for her family and comrades.

IFWES ’12: Armed Hands

There is not a lot of love lost between NATO and some Serbians.  An elite Marseilles police captain understands this only too well.  A group of Serbian gangsters has hijacked a shipment of the military organization’s arms, leading to a wave of violent hold-ups.  As it turns out, the Serb network also smuggles drugs, forcing the captain to make an uneasy alliance with the Parisian vice cop daughter he never took the time to know.  It is a dangerous game for all involved in Pierre Jolivet’s Armed Hands (trailer here), which screened as part of the 2012 In French with English Subtitles Film Festival, now underway in New York.

Captain Lucas Skali is a perfect fit for festival special guest Roschdy Zem.  Yes, he has played many diverse characters throughout his career, but he truly excels in hardnosed roles, such as those he played in Point Blank, 36th Precinct, Paris By Night, and even Anne Fontaine’s comparatively breezy Girl from Monaco.  Skali is not a superman nor is he always very sympathetic, but he is all business, so do not trifle with him.

Getting wind of the Serbian operation, Skali almost loses an informant when a set-up buy goes down badly.  Oh well, eggs will break when you’re making omelets.  Hot on the trail, they follow the gang to Paris, where his grown daughter Maya Dervin works for the corrupt Julien Bass.  The extent of Bass’s graft is not immediately apparent, but he seems to be at the center of a number of dodgy deals.  In fact, one of the more intriguing aspects of Armed is the way it depicts a sort of twilight economy shared by both the vice cops and the criminals they pursue.  Naturally, Skali and Dervin find themselves working different ends of the same case.  It is a serendipitous situation Skali tries to make the least of.

Without question, Jolivet is more interested in the procedural side of “policiers,” rather than shoot-out spectacles.  Frankly, Armed is somewhat reminiscent of 1970’s films, not in terms of superficial style, but for its jaded, anti-heroic vibe.  While not as chocked full of attitude as Paris by Night, it is decidedly moody all the same.

Again, that plays to Zem’s strengths.  Appropriately world-weary yet ruthless, Zem commands the screen as Skali.  Leïla Bekhti is also quite credible as Dervin, but her character’s inclination towards self-pity often feels a bit off.  Is she her father’s daughter or what?  Still, Marc Lavoine (excellent in Tony Gatlif’s Korkoro) is ambiguously sleazy in a rather effective way as Bass.

Armed is the sort of cerebral, detail-rich crime drama genre fans will relish digging into.  Given the commercial subject matter and Zem’s steadily increasing American art-house stardom, it should be a cinch for extensive festival play.  Recommended for connoisseurs of French cinema and those who appreciate intricate, multi-character procedurals, Armed Hands should have international legs.  It did not disappoint patrons when it screened at this year’s In French with English Subtitles Film Festival, which concludes today (12/2) with another full day of screenings.

French Rendezvous ’12: Paris By Night

Simon Weiss knows a side of Paris few tourists see. Well, some do. In fact, the clubs the vice captain polices might be the ultimate purpose of many visits. Whether high-end or low-rent, there is definitely something brewing in the city’s nightspots during the fateful night chronicled in Philippe Lefebvre’s wickedly stylish Paris By Night (trailer here), which screens tonight as part of the 2012 Rendezvous with French Cinema in New York.

The ambiguously corrupt Weiss knows someone is trying to jam him up with internal affairs. He intends to find out whom as he makes his nocturnal rounds. As he explains to Officer Laurence Deray, he must engage in a different sort of policing. She will be his driver tonight. It is considered a difficult assignment no cop wants to do twice. She will soon learn why. Indeed, it will be an eye-opening night for them both.

Granted, much of the film consists of Zem’s Weiss strutting through the red light district like a shark, smacking around punks as if they are little girls. Of course, that is also why it so seductively entertaining. Yet, Lefebvre steadily raises the stakes, slyly revealing details of the frame-up job Weiss is trying to slip out of.

Frankly, Weiss is the sort of role Roschdy Zem was born to play. Easily the baddest hard-nose making films today, Zem already has mucho street cred for his manly turns in films like Point Blank, 36th Precinct, and Outside the Law, but he kicks it up to a whole new level in PBN. This is not Eastwood coolness, this is McQueen coolness. While he could carry the film on his own, Zem still gets a head-turning assist from Sara Forestier as the somewhat incredulous but impressively poised Deray. Together, they are quite a dynamic pair.

True to its title, PBN gives viewers a memorable tour of after-hours Paris, whilst unfolding its surprisingly cerebral crime story. Cinematographer Jérôme Alméras vividly captures the glitz and grime, conveying the late night vibe in spades.

While the French-Moroccan Zem is already a major star in France, he is overdue for widespread acclaim in America. PBN is the sort of vehicle that could get the job done. It is a perfect showcase for his stone cold flintiness. Slick, taut, and brooding, PBN is one of the clear highlights of this year’s French Rendezvous. Highly recommended, it screens again tonight (3/6) at the IFC Center.

The French Fugitive: Point Blank

Don’t call it a discovery. Hollywood has already come calling French director Fred Cavayé. Unfortunately, it was Paul Haggis who remade his debut feature as The Next Three Days, but it still counts. He might have knocked the wind out of James Bond, but the jinxed former Scientologist should not derail Cavayé based on his sophomore outing, Point Blank (trailer here), which opens in New York this Friday.

In the tradition of Dr. Richard Kimball, Samuel Pierret is the wrong man—an innocent man. He also happens to be a nurse’s assistant with a very pregnant wife. After saving the life of a thug convalescing in his hospital, Pierret receives a grim ultimatum—either he delivers his shady patient, stone-cold safecracker Hugo Sartet, or he will never see his wife alive again. Pulled into a wider criminal conspiracy, Pierret learns Sartet’s kidnapping accomplice is the least of his concerns. A battalion of crooked cops are out to them both deader than dead.

There is something refreshingly old school about Blank. Rather than try to dazzle viewers with huge special effects spectacles or outlandish stunt work, Cavayé earns his thrills the honest way, forcing his characters to jump from ledges, bluff their way out of tight spots, and run for their lives through the streets of Paris.

A versatile actor, Lellouche makes a credible wrongly accused everyman in the Hitchcockian tradition. However, the film really belongs to Roschdy Zem as Sartet. Those who bemoan the paucity of masculine movies stars need to check out his filmography. Quietly intense and smoothly charismatic, Zem makes a killer noir anti-hero, occupying that rare cinematic zone of true moral ambiguity. As Sartet, he exemplifies screen presence. Overdue for international stardom after memorable appearances in films like Outside the Law, 36th Precinct, and The Girl from Monaco, Blank should finally settle the matter.

Cavayé also earns breakout props for Blank. Tightly paced and sharply executed, it is quite an agile thriller, even showing the occasional flash of mordant wit. He also demonstrates a legitimate talent for choreographing near riot scenes, deftly balancing the mass chaos with the need to show the characters’ action with clarity.

Indeed, it is easy to buy into Blank as it propels forward at a breakneck pace. Yet, it never loses sight of the gritty personal element. Even if he is not the major protagonist per se, the film is perfect star vehicle for Zem, as well as an effective showcase for Cavayé’s flair for the genre. Highly recommended, Blank opens this Friday (7/29) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.

On the Job, En Français: 36th Precinct

It’s a case of bad cop-really darn bad cop. That might sound hard on the criminals, but these Parisian policemen are more concerned with doing unto each other in former copper turned actor-director Olivier Marchal’s hard-boiled and hard-bitten 36th Precinct, now available on DVD and Blue-Ray from Palisades Tartan.

There is a crew taking down armored cars in Paris. There are good at what they do and frequently lethal. Neither the BRI or the BRB divisions of the Police judicaire have any leads. Even if they did, they are not inclined to cooperate. Léo Vrinks is definitely a paperwork flaunting corner cutter in the tradition of Dirty Harry. He is the good guy. The borderline incompetent CYA-ing Denis Klein is the bad guy. Unfortunately, he plays politics far better than his BRI counterpart.

Vrinks appears to gain the upper hand when an informant calls him with information. Naturally, it comes with a wicked catch. Out on a two day prison leave, Hugo Silien manipulates the mostly straight Vrinks into abetting the murder of the underworld figure who ratted him out. The intel is still good though. Of course, you know there has to be a witness out there somewhere and guess who takes on the case. As it turns out, it was Klein’s snitch that got whacked.

Klein is a transparent stand-in BRB head Raymond Mertz, who was protected and promoted by the police bureaucracy despite erratic actions which reportedly led to the death of a fellow officer during a shootout with the so-called Wig Gang. It is safe to assume Mertz did offer publicity support for 36th Precinct or 36 Quai des Orfèvres as it was known in France (sort of the Parisian equivalent of One Police Plaza). Well known for a series of French cop shows, Marchal has probably burned a few bridges with 36 as well, though he most likely represents the views of many rank-and-file on the job at the time. Indeed, there are scenes in 36 that crackle with visceral outrage at Klein/Mertz’s charmed ascent.

As Vrinks, Daniel Auteuil is so intense he looks brittle enough to snap in two. Gérard Depardieu, not yet as ballooned-up and wheezy as he is in the more recent Inspector Bellamy, radiates a sense of calculating villainy as Klein. As usual though, nobody can out do Roschdy Zem’s Silien for stone cold badness. A truly all-star French cast, André Dussollier also has some memorable moments as the patrician police chief Robert Mancini, while the director himself notably plays against type as the ailing ex-con Christo.

36 is quite well constructed, tying together what first appear to be episodic subplots into a rather tidy package. It also has armored carload of guns. An entertaining fix of shootouts and police corruption, 36 is far better than many French imports released theatrically over the last few years, very definitely worth checking out on DVD.

Tribeca ’11: Point Blank

Don’t call it a discovery. Hollywood has already come calling French director Fred Cavayé. Unfortunately, it was Paul Haggis who remade his debut feature as The Next Three Days, but it still counts. He might have knocked the wind out of James Bond, but the jinxed former Scientologist should not derail Cavayé based on his sophomore outing, Point Blank (trailer here), which screens at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival kicking off today.

Scheduled to hit American theaters in earnest a few months from now, Blank is notable as one of two films at Tribeca starring Gilles Lellouche. A complete change-up from the predatory financier of Cédric Klapisch’s My Piece of the Pie, Lellouche makes a credible wrongly accused everyman in the Hitchcockian tradition. However, the film really belongs to Roschdy Zem as Hugo Sartet, the stone-cold safe-cracker who inadvertently pulls Lellouche’s innocent nurse’s assistant into a major criminal conspiracy.

Quietly intense and smoothly charismatic, Zem makes a killer noir anti-hero. As Sartet, he truly exemplifies screen presence. Overdue for breakout international stardom after memorable appearances in Outside the Law and The Girl from Monaco, Blank might finally settle the matter.

Cavayé also earns breakout props for Blank. Tightly paced and sharply executed, he has helmed quite an agile thriller, while also showing the occasional flash of mordant wit. He also demonstrates a rare talent for choreographing near riot scenes, deftly balancing the mass chaos with the need to show the characters’ action with clarity.

There will be plenty more written about Blank in the future, but for now it is safe to say it is one of the more satisfying selections at Tribeca this year. Highly recommended, it screens during the festival this Saturday (4/23), Monday (4/25), and Wednesday (4/27).

Band of Brothers: Outside the Law

Two brothers are Algerian revolutionaries. The third is gangster. You might have trouble telling which is which—and not because of any family resemblance. While explosively controversial in France, Rachid Bouchareb’s portrayal of the post-War Algerian separatists ironically might be construed as politically incorrect on these shores. Regardless of whether you consider it a political drama or a crime film, Bouchareb’s Outside the Law (trailer here), Algeria’s official submission for best foreign language Academy Award consideration, is an entertaining film worth checking out when it opens in New York this Friday.

Law opens with its two most incendiary scenes. First, we watch as the brothers’ salt-of-the-earth father is dispossessed of his ancestral land. Then we witness the Sétif massacre of independence protestors by the French-Algerian police. Having thus firmly established his anti-colonial street cred, Bouchareb then commences to tell a story.

The years following Sétif have separated the brothers. Saïd has done his best to look after their mother, but Algeria is a tinderbox primed to explode. Facing limited opportunities, they immigrate to France, hoping the other two brothers will soon join them. Messaoud has been serving in Indochina with the French Army. Abdelkader has been serving time in prison for his revolutionary activity. With his scholarly look and ideological fervor, he definitely projects a Robespierre-like vibe.

Eventually, the prodigal brothers make their way to France, but it is a tense reunion. No longer on speaking terms with their mother, Saïd has worked his way up from pimp to Pigalle nightclub impresario. While nobody in the family considers this an appropriate activity for a proper Muslim, somehow they are all still willing to take his money.

The irony of Law is that of the three brothers, Saïd acts the least like a gangster. By contrast, Abdelkader ruthlessly employs strong-arm tactics to impose discipline within the FLN and to cow the Algerian expatriate community into compliance. Of course, he is not the only one willing to break a few eggs. A veteran of the French resistance, Col. Faivre has a free hand to do whatever it takes to crush the FLN, which he has no reluctance to exercise. Frankly, Law is one of those films that works surprisingly well, because the filmmaker somewhat loses control on the political implications through their greater commitment to telling a good story.

In truth, Law is a sweeping sibling saga that sets up an archetypal conflict between the brothers, playing Saïd’s materialism against Abdelkader’s zealotry, with Messaoud, the self-denying family man, caught in the middle. Though he is made-up to practically resemble Lon Chaney, Roschdy Zem is a riveting figure of pathos in Law. One of the best French-speaking actors working today, Zem is compulsively watchable in every scene. Likewise, Jamel Debouze captures the flair and swagger of a slick operator, while maintaining the appropriately flinty edge of a recent immigrant of uncertain position. Unfortunately, Sami Bouajila is the weak leg of the triad, always coming across more as a symbol than a flesh-and-blood character.

Though Law wears its anti-Colonialism on its sleeve, it hums along quite briskly as an epic historical seasoned with strong thriller-gangster elements (and really, after the last eight years, does anyone on either side of the aisle care to carry water for the French?). Indeed, it holds its own with the Mesrine duology and the Carlos roadshow, even though it is a relatively short 138 minutes by comparison. Even those well-attuned to ideology in films are still likely to be caught up Law’s unvarnished, action-driven depiction of the violent brothers. Definitely recommended, Law opens this Friday (11/5) in New York at the Paris Theatre, Manhattan’s single-screen landmark.

The Girl from Monaco

Fortunately, the weather is usually quite nice in Monaco, because their local cable weathercaster is not much of a meteorologist. Still, it is pretty clear why her station hired her as on-air talent. Her beauty also thoroughly seduces and unnerves one of Europe’s top defense attorneys, which leads to deadly serious consequences in Anne Fontaine’s The Girl From Monaco (trailer here), opening this Friday in New York.

Bertrand Beauvois is in the Principality to represent Edith Lassalle, an established member of the community, accused of murdering a local adventurer. Since the alleged victim had reputed ties to the Russian mafia, he reluctantly accepts the round-the-clock bodyguard paid for by his client’s son, who seems a bit shady, himself. However, once he establishes a working relationship with the zealously protective Christophe Abadi, minimizing the constant frisking and perimeter sweeps, he starts admiring his bodyguard’s uncomplicated approach to life.

While Abadi is a man of action, Beauvois has always been a man of words. That has served him well with the law but not in romance. So when Audrey Varella, the local weather lady with an outrageously skimpy wardrobe, initiates a flirtatious relationship, he falls hard. Abadi tries to dissuade the advocate, insisting Varella is bad news, and he should know, considering they were an item at one time.

Monaco coyly keeps secret just what Varella’s intentions truly are regarding the hopelessly smitten Beauvois. She can seem sweetly innocent and coolly manipulative, all at the same time. Regardless, her attentions are not helping Beauvois in the courtroom, so they are perceived as a threat by Abadi.

Fontaine’s approach in Monaco brings to mind some of the films of Claude Chabrol and Claude Miller. It would appear to have all the elements of the noir crime drama, at least according to a strict synopsis of the film. Yet, instead of driving the narrative, those plot devices are de-emphasized in favor of exploring the central characters’ evolving personal dynamics.

Roschdy Zem emerges as the unlikely star of Monaco. Previously seen in reasonably well-distributed imports, like Live and Become and Alias Betty, Zem is an intense screen presence as Abadi, conveying the rough charisma and the potentially dangerous instincts that so impress his client. Fabrice Luchini’s performance as the tragically punctilious Beauvois is also convincingly nuanced, showing the allure of chaos for such a rigorously structured personality. It seems like Fontaine deliberately keeps the true personality and motivations of the lovely, hedonistic Varella a cipher to the audience, but Louise Bourgoin certainly fills out the wild femme fatale costumes very effectively.

Like its lawyer protagonist, Monaco seems breezy and voluble on the surface, but it has a distinct sadness at heart. It is an intriguing drama, elevated by Zem’s electric performance and Bourgoin’s considerable appeal. It opens this Friday (7/3) in New York at the Angelika and Beekman theaters.