#91: Vidocq
Flashy French mystery flick more incomprehensible than illuminating
This review was originally posted to Twitter on April 26, 2019.
Initial release: September 19, 2001
Director: “Pitof”
What is it with turn-of-the-millennium French film and aggressively bad cinematography? What’s with the awful action sequences? I’m not saying all French cinema of the era is like this, but I do wonder if we shouldn’t call it “New French Stupidity.”
Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system, I should be fair: Vidocq, the absurdly flashy mystery flick from French director “Pitof,” is a somewhat better film than the willfully disappointing Brotherhood of the Wolf. But that’s not saying much. While the script isn’t horrible, and indeed it lends itself to a rollicking good detective tale, it’s saddled to what looks like a 90s music video.
This is probably no surprise given that “Pitof,” whose real name is Jean-Christophe Comar, is a well-known visual effects supervisor and director who’s worked on a number of big name films, like, uh…. Alien Resurrection and, uh… Catwoman. Yeah, that one. He directed it. Just so you know what you’re getting into here with Vidocq.
It’s 1830 on the eve of the Second French Revolution. When legendary real-life detective and criminologist Eugine Francois Vidocq is killed by a suspect he’s been tracking, a suspect who wears a mirror-like mask and black cloak, his young biographer tries to solve the case.
Much of the story is told through flashback as we watch Vidocq try to solve the mystery of two wealthy (and important) men being struck by lightning on the same day, one of whom is responsible for the armory that makes the weapons the government needs for the impending revolution.
The rest is our intrepid young hero following the trail of Vidocq’s investigations throughout Paris, taking him to such wonderful places as an opium den and a brothel (complete with 1830s nudie theatre!) all of it punctuated by rapid cuts, extreme closeups, and kung fu fighting.
The entire film is a monument to some some of the most seriously frustrating cinematography I’ve ever seen. Everything has a fake, green-screened look to it, especially exterior shots where the sky looks like chroma-keyed stock footage and people seem to stick out against obviously CGI backgrounds.
This is the very first feature film shot entirely on a digital camera, or at least it was the first one to theatres — it used the same camera as Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which wouldn’t release for another year. And that movie didn’t look that great either.
Don’t watch this movie expecting a sober murder mystery; while the twist of the supernatural masked villain’s identity is a good one, the movie is still largely a lurid, fast-paced action romp that’s mostly good for watching Gerard Depardieu, everyone’s favorite French rapist, kick ass as Vidocq. While some of the rest of the cast are decent actors in their own right, Etienne the biographer is absolutely horrible at times, which is frustrating given that he’s effectively the protagonist of the film and gets the most screentime.
As a historical thriller it’s largely forgettable, though it does sport some entertaining fight scenes better suited to another movie. The mirrored villain is entertainingly ludicrous in that Mortal Kombat kind of way (especially given his use of capoeira.)
In the hands of a different director the film could have been a stark realist take on the supernatural detective story. In Pitof’s hands it’s a glorified 90s alt rock video. Shit, even Apocalyptica used clips for it in a music video!
Still, though, in spite of bad cinematography, it’s an entertaining 90-or-so minutes that lets you have all the enjoyment of watching a supernatural murder mystery without having to think about it.
