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French Improvement
In his review of Guillame Canet's Tell No One, a superb French thriller that I finally saw this afternoon, New Yorker critic David Denby writes that he "realized I was very happy that everyone was speaking French. The reason is simple: an American version of this material would have had too many explosions and far too much violence in general, and it would have been similar to 30 other thrillers made here during the past ten years."
Tell No One director Guillame Canet (left, holding steadi...excuse me, a mojocam) shooting chase chase sequence with Francois Cluzet (right).
Truer words have rarely been spoken. It's not that Tell No One, which involves murder, thugs, cops, gangstas, shootings, chases and the like, lacks thrills and intrigue. But it doesn't brandish the cloddish brute machismo that you have to accept with if you're going to watch a thriller made in this country.
American crime pics are about their stories and characters, sure, but they're also about topping the last successful thriller in terms of visceral impact or stylistic panache. Their producers don't want 15 year-old kids telling each other, "The shoot-out scene in that movie last month was a lot cooler."
Tell No One is aimed at viewers who've had a year or two of college, read a book occasionally and have made it past the grand old age of 25. It plays its own game and sets its own standards. A little quieter, a lot smarter and much more riveting than...now I'm trying to think of a recent American murder-mystery I've really liked. It's been a while.
Tell No One is based on an American mystery novel by Harlan Coben, but director Guillaume Canet, working with the screenwriter Philippe Lefebvre, "has set Coben's material in a realistic social and working world where good-looking, intelligent, and articulate people find one another interesting," as Denby notes. "La belle France! This emphasis on sociability is not unusual in French commercial filmmaking, but it's virtually unknown in genre movies made here these days. There is violence -- some of it startling, all of it significant -- but that's not what the movie is about."
It's also interesting as hell because the lead actor, Francois Cluzet, is almost a dead ringer for Dustin Hoffman, or rather Hoffman as he looked around the time of Rain Man, Family Business and Dick Tracy. It's like watching Hoffman's twin brother since he has a similar acting style, keeping the tension tucked inside but always radiating intelligence and paying close attention, etc.
It's doubly fascinating that Canet puts Cluzet through a terrific foot-chase sequence in Paris, since it recalls the nocturnal running-through-Manhattan scene that a bare-chested Hoffman performed in Marathon Man.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 4, 2008 at 3:53 PM
comment #1
Nick Plowman
says ...
"Their producers don't want 15 year-old kids telling each other, "The shoot-out scene I saw in that movie last month was cooler." I hate the fact that people my age have such a pathetic reputation.
I saw "Tell No One" ages ago on DVD, before all of you that are "past the age of 25" - and I must agree with you, riveting stuff indeed.
Posted by Nick Plowman
at July 4, 2008 4:49 PM
comment #2
CinemaPhreek
says ...
(Spoilers)
Wells, truer words could not have been spoken. Want proof? Easy, take a French thriller that was remade here: LA FEMME NIKITA vs. POINTless OF NO RETURN.
Every little interesting nuance or subtly in the original was put through the usually "crank it up!" machine, destroying it.
Case in point: "Nikita"s first assignment versus Fonda's. In the original, the have an entire operation at the hotel just so they can get a "bug" into the room. They are after information. And the filmmakers have punked the audience, because we've come to respect Nikita as a weapon.
Yet, in the American version, what is the end game of all this clever masquerade work? They blow up the top half of a hotel to kill one guy.
And if you know the story from Art Linson's book about what Buck Henry says to him after he got the rights ("Did you hear? Some asshole is going to remake..."), you can have a very bitter laugh at it.
Posted by CinemaPhreek
at July 4, 2008 5:29 PM
comment #3
NDH
says ...
I saw this about a year ago and was very impressed. The foot chase was one of the best I've seen in recent years, and was merely one of many highlights that I remember about the film. Why did it take so long to bring it Stateside?
Posted by NDH
at July 4, 2008 6:57 PM
comment #4
otakuhouse
says ...
That is so not a steadicam.
Posted by otakuhouse
at July 4, 2008 7:16 PM
comment #5
lawnorder
says ...
I bought this on Region 2 DVD a while back based on good reviews. I didn't realize until I started watching the film that I had read the novel. While skillfully directed, I have enormous problems with the plot -- as I did with the novel. I just could not suspend disbelief over a certain reveal in the last act. It's so over the top and hard to believe. Like the novel, the film starts out really well and then descends into an absurd potboiler.
Posted by lawnorder
at July 4, 2008 11:19 PM
comment #6
jjgittes
says ...
Haven't seen "Tell No One" yet, but Cluzet is one of my fave actors and yes, quite the dead ringer for Hoffman - although when he was younger he sometimes looked like the younger Pacino looking like Hoffman (!).
"Olivier, Oliver", Claude Chabrol's "L'Enfer", "Round Midnight", "Too Beautiful For You", "Story of Women" "The Apprentice",.....lots of good roles in his fine career.
Posted by jjgittes
at July 5, 2008 2:51 AM
comment #7
nola
says ...
I agree something gets lost in translation when we try to remake french thrillers. I loved the move "Read My Lips". I know the remake was set up at Paramount. Whatever happened to it?
Posted by nola
at July 5, 2008 11:54 AM
comment #8
Edward
says ...
Anyone know what camera he's using? Was it all shot digitally?
Posted by Edward
at July 6, 2008 3:01 PM
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