Film Review
In view of the acclaim that was lavished on director Christophe Ruggia
for his first two features -
Le Gone
du chaâba (1998) and
Les Diables (2002) - it is
surprising that he has kept such a low profile for the past
decade. Ten years after he inflicted on us one of cinema's most
disturbing portrayals of adolescence, Ruggia is back with his third
full length-film, one that shows a marked departure from the rigorous
auteur realism of his earlier work.
Dans la tourmente is a valiant
attempt to combine two strikingly different genres, the hard-edged
social realist drama with the stylised modern thriller - a marriage
which
may have worked if only
Ruggia had dreamed up a slightly more convincing plot...
Dans la tourmente begins in a
promising vein, in territory that Ruggia evidently feels most at home
with, that of social realism. Set in sunny Marseille but
confining itself to the interests of the poor working class, the film
has an obvious connection with the work of Robert
Guédiguian. Like Guédiguian, Ruggia is wholly on
the side of the common man and does not disguise the fact that his film
is intended to be an assault on the injustices of the capitalist
system, specifically the way in which the system is exploited by an
unscrupulous minority to enrich themselves at the expense of decent
working people. Eric Guichard's striking photography effectively
conveys the impression that capitalism (at its worst) is a kind of
social plague. The sterile, soulless factory setting makes a vivid
contrast with the unspoiled natural splendour of the surrounding
region, a potent visual metaphor for the way in which we allow our
society to be disfigured by an over-greedy entrepreneurial class that
fails to recognise its moral obligations.
There is little to find fault with in the first thirty or so minutes of
the film. Ruggia manages to get his political messages across
without labouring the point and the main characters - played by an
unlikely trio that comprises Clovis Cornillac, Mathilde Seigner and
Yvan Attal, all cast against type - are convincing drawn and easy to
engage with. Where it all starts to go wrong is when Ruggia
suddenly decides he has had enough of social realism and changes track
so that he can churn out an approximation to a Hollywood heist movie.
At this point, the characters become less convincing and, as the film
progresses and the plot spirals increasingly out of control, they
gradually turn into comicbook caricatures. Whatever credibility
the film had at its outset is shot to pieces by the time we get to its
final act, a convoluted political thriller about gun-running and a
government cover-up. Faced with this fierce onslaught of
clichés and plot contrivances, the only sane thing to do is to
break into maniacal laughter or start hurling choc-ices at the
screen.
Dans la tourmente feels like
three completely different films that have been welded together - it is
as if Ruggia started out with the best of intentions, but somehow got a
little money conscious halfway through and decided to turn his modest
auteur drama into a glitzy mainstream action thriller. He would
perhaps have done better to follow the example of Lucas Belvaux's
La Raison du plus faible
(2006), which covers virtually identical ground, but does so without
betraying its social realist context and undermining the credibility of
its central characters. Ruggia's film, by contrast, feels like a
lazy cop out.
The film does at least allow its director to show his versatility and
move beyond the limiting confines of the realist drama. It is
easy to ridicule the egregious scripting deficiencies in the thriller
part of the film, but Ruggia's mise-en-scène holds up well and
effectively sustains the tension right up until the nerve-wracking
denouement. Equally, there is some fine work from the three lead
actors, and whilst their characters become less believable with every
plot twist Ruggia throws at us, they hold our attention and allow the
film to cling on to some vestige of coherence. Eric Guichard's
expressionistic cinematography - which is so evocative of classic film
noir (Nicolas Ray's
They Live by
Night being an obvious influence) - contributes much to the mood
and tension of the thriller sequences and, whilst the plot ends up as
an unholy mess, visually the film can hardly fail to impress.
Michael Stevens's score lends a suitably operatic feel to the piece as
it crashes and burns in spectacular style. Whilst it has its
moments and is moderately entertaining, overall
Dans la tourmente is something of a
muddle, lacking both direction and a sense of purpose. Christophe
Ruggia may succeed in finding a wider audience with his first genre
film, but at the price of sacrificing his reputation as a serious
auteur filmmaker.
© James Travers 2012
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Next Christophe Ruggia film:
Les Diables (2002)
Film Synopsis
Franck just about manages to make ends meet by working as a welder at a
helicopter manufacturing plant in Marseille. His friend Max is
less fortunate and is drowning in debt since he lost his job, a victim
of a large-scale downsizing programme a few years previously. One
day, Franck happens to overhear his bosses planning a covert relocation
one weekend. Not only will the factory employees lose their jobs,
they will be totally unaware of the fact until it is too late to
act. The factory manager Charlier is to receive a two million
euro payoff for his part in the operation. Franck's first thought
is to notify his colleagues and the media, but Max has a better
idea. They will steal Charlier's bounty once it has been
delivered. The heist is successful, but Franck's wife
Hélène wonders where the money has come from. The
drama is only just beginning...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.