Film Review
Les Mauvais joueurs is the first full-length film from French director
Frédéric Balekdjian, a Martin Scorsese-inspired crime-drama
set in Paris's densely populated immigrant quarter, Le Sentier. Being of
Armenian origin himself, Balekdjian had some obvious sympathy with the subject
of his film and in both his writing and mise-en-scène he shows some
promise. Where he is most successful is in getting across the abject
vulnerability of immigrants struggling to survive in present-day France,
a country that has become increasingly hostile to outsiders in recent years.
Immigration continues to be a hot topic for the French and has been the subject
of numerous films of late - from Abdellatif Kechiche's
La Faute à Voltaire
(2000) to Philippe Lioret's
Welcome
(2009).
Where the film falls down is with a hackneyed plot that is positively awash
with well-worn clichés. On the plus side, there are some credible
performances - Pascal Elbé and Simon Abkarian are both excellent and
give the film a real dynamism and authenticity - but the threadbare script
offers little in the way of plausible characterisation. At times, the narrative
feels painfully contrived and mechanical, with most of the characters reduced
to stock archetypes as they slide down an all-too predictable trajectory
towards disaster. After a satisfactory, albeit pretty aimless, first half,
Les Mauvais joueurs closes as a rather disappointing ambling variant
of the classic gangster film, sacrificing depth and realism for the tired
convenience of an unimaginative genre concept.
Frédéric Balekdjian's next directorial offering,
Un monde à nous (2008),
an intimate drama about a father and his son, is a far more considered and
laudable film that avoids most of the failings of his debut offering.
Then, in 2014, the director went on to turn in some notable work on two popular
television series -
Kaboul Kitchen and
Spiral.
© James Travers 2007
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Vahé Krikorian is an Armenian immigrant who lives in the crowded Sentier
district of Paris. Crippled with debts, his father is forced to close
the shop where he works and so, to make ends meet, he resorts to playing
three card tricks with Sahak and his brother Toros. His woes are compounded
when his girlfriend Lu Ann walks out on him and the latter's brother, Yuen,
shows up unexpectedly as an illegal immigrant. Yuen reneges on a deal
he made with the people traffickers who smuggled him into France and risks
getting himself into deep water as a result. Realising the danger that
he is in, Vahé takes Yuen's side, but in doing so he alienates himself
from his old friends and ends up having to take on a very dangerous adversary...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.