Déjà mort (1998)
Directed by Olivier Dahan

Film Review

Déjà mort is the film which earned its director Olivier Dahan his reputation as a film director to watch out for.   It is a brave attempt to push the film noir genre into new territory, providing a shocking portrayal of the destructive effect of that deadly cocktail of ambition, money and drugs.  To the familiar character-based French thriller the film mixes in the sickening brashness of the youth culture movie and the graphic hard-edged violence of the latest breed of American crime thriller.

The result is not entirely satisfactory - despite generally good acting from its young cast (which includes rising stars Clément Sibony, Benoît Magimel and Zoé Félix), the film is marred by its excesses and an unconvincing plot.   In places the cinematographic gimmickry gets very tiresome, the soundtrack is excessive in places, and a number of scenes appear either badly directed or badly acted.  The film's violent ending also just fails to hit its mark, appearing somewhat gratuitous, drawn-out and more comic than tragic.  Despite these blemishes, Déjà mort it is nonetheless a fairly impressive early effort from a director who clearly has a great deal of flair and imagination.

Film Synopsis

In Nice, pizza-delivery boy Andréa introduces Laure, a 20-year-old girl he barely knows, to his friend David.  A wealthy layabout, David has just started up his own pornographic photo agency with his friend Romain and is looking for new models. Tired with her routine and monotonous life, Laure is hopeful that he might put some work her way.  With his parents away from home, David invites Laure and Andréa to his sumptuous Riviera villa.  As David and Laure become lovers, Andréa distracts himself with hard drugs and strong drink.  Mallo, a producer of hard core pornographic movies, takes a liking to Laure and suggests she might want to work for him.  When he starts to take advantage of the naive young woman, Andréa murders him and takes Laure prisoner.  He then returns to David's villa and brings about Romain's death...