Total Kheops (2002)

Total Kheops is a French thriller film first released in 2002, directed by Alain Bévérini.  The film is based on a novel by Jean-Claude Izzo and stars Richard Bohringer, Marie Trintignant, Daniel Duval, Robin Renucci and Maurice Garrel.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Present day Marselles.  On the day of his release from jail, Manu is shot down after a nocturnal safe-cracking job.  His death is mourned not only by his girlfriend, Lole, but also his two long-standing male friends, Ugo and Fabio.  Ugo avenges the death of his friend by killing Zucca, a gangster boss, before being shot dead himself by armed police.  This leaves Fabio.  Whilst investigating the murders, he recalls the wild late adolescence he shared with Ugo and Manu.  All three were in love with Lole and passed their time by perpetrating petty crimes.  Whereas Ugo and Manu went on to pursue a career in crime, Fabio decided to become a law enforcer.  The death of his friends provides Fabio with a reason for taking on some powerful enemies – the mafia and right-wing extremists – with predictable consequences…

For his first film, director Alain Bévérini opted to adapt a respectable crime novel by Jean-Claude Izzo.  The result is a stylish but ponderous crime thriller which is richly evocative of the classic French policier, but which fails to break away from the familiar cinematic clichés.  The post noir cinematography and menacing score are two of its better points, giving the film atmosphere and tension which is sadly lacking elsewhere.

Bévérini complicates what is already a complex plot by inserting into the main narrative flashback sequences depicting the principal characters’ rebellious youth.  This kind of stylistic embellishment might have worked in a simpler film or one which was less constrained by the rules of its genre.  However, the main reason why the flashbacks do not work is because their link to the present feels too tenuous to be justified.  And the reason for this seems to be that the lead actors are not permitted to give anything other than a superficial performance.

Richard Bohringer is the only actor in the film who comes close to portraying the kind of introspective angst that is needed to make it work, but even he ultimately comes across as just another bland film noir hero.  Likewise, the talents of Marie Trintignant and Daniel Duval  are somewhat wasted.  However, the film’s location, modern-day Marseilles, is well chosen and is portrayed with a genuine chill factor, a far cry from the banal sunny metropolis of Robert Guédiguian’s films.

© James Travers 2004

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