Roberto Succo

Cedric Kahn's films have been character-based, rather than action-based (I'm thinking of L'Ennui and Feux rouges) so it is jarring to see this series of really expert car chases interspersed with some plodding attempts to give character to Succo. I don't find Stefano Cassetti to be an interesting actor; he reminds me of pro athletes who are coaxed into movies, like Bret Favre. That blank stare looks like a really vicious deer caught in the headlights. A real actor would have forced us to reflect more on Succo's personality, rather than admiring his skill at carjacking.

The little acting there is comes mainly from Isild le Besco as the needy schoolgirl Succo takes by storm. The interview at the police office is a marvel of bland obstinacy with a little fear of the future blended in. Le Besco apart, there is little to recommend this film.

This film is stunning but really.

Everything is great; cast's performances, cinematography, plot, score and soundtrack, editing, and of course directing. All this makes you gaze at the empty screen after the movie's over for some minutes and think 'wow!'.

Maybe the film might be a bit too violent for some people. The violence in this motion picture is actually quite interesting. On the one hand there is graphic violence, gore; on the other hand the violence is underneath. It is how easily and spontaneously Succo kills that really shocks, more than the blood. And the fact that Roberto Succo really lived should really frighten.

The director Cédric Kahn in fact tried to show as less blood as possible, but still wanted the audience to be shocked. To do this he stays objective, he never tries to condemn Succo's acts or even to explain them. No, he just shows them. This gets even more ambiguous with Succo's love affair. Through this romance he seems to be quite a nice guy, strange but nice. So, on the one hand he is a really bad killer, and on the other hand he is a usual man in love. And this really killed me, I loved that effect. You don't really hate this guy, Succo, but you don't really love him neither. Kahn pushes this effect even further. The whole movie is structured that way. There are funny parts or love scenes and there are violent parts. So you can't just put this film in some category. The film is ambiguous in itself.

Then the cinematography. That is really great, especially in a scene where Succo climbs up on the prison's roof to kill himself (but the building isn't high enough he complains, actually this is one of the funny scenes). Most of the shots look like paintings. Really great job the director of photography did here.

The cast is great. Stefano Casseti had never acted before! He was discovered in a café by a friend of the casting director. But his performance is stunning! He has such great eyes, really scary, but also sad.... Islid Le Besco is perfect as usually and Patrick Dell'Isola should be mentioned also for his great acting.

So, I could go on and on that way, but just get that movie watched guys, it really is worth to be seen and you sure won't regret.

Roberto goes by many names. At times he is a terrorist on the run, other times he is a spy, some times he is English, other times he is Italian. However his most dangers switch is the one he makes regularly between being an unusual young man with normal girlfriend before becoming a murdering thief who kidnaps his victims and occasionally rapes and murders them. He sets off with new girlfriend Lea – who gradually begins to realize that 'Kurt' is not all that he first appeared. Meanwhile the police continue their manhunt after finding several bodies in various states of decay.

Thanks to the free-to-air digital channel BBC4, I was able to see this film despite having never heard of it nor the situation that it is based on. The film starts with two mangled bodies being discovered then jumps forward 5 years to find Roberto living in France and making up interesting lives for each person he meets in clubs etc. In a way it should be fascinating but in reality this guy comes across as a disturbed young man who has no care of other people – hence he is free to kill. The film never really gets to the core of this character and, as a result, it is hard to care enough about him to be consistently interested in his story, leaving just a pretty unpleasant young man running around on the screen. I wouldn't go as far to call it dull or boring but it isn't the most engaging film I have ever seen and I found it hard to find something to hold on to (narrative-wise anyway).

The film is violent at turns but not in a gory, glamorising sort of way but in a rather matter of fact fashion that I felt suited the almost docu-drama presentation style. The violent scenes and car chases do provide some excitement but the majority of the film is rather talky. This is not a problem when we are being told a story or things are happening, but the slow development of his relationship with Lea seemed meandering without contributing anything or helped me learn anything more about Roberto or his story. Like I said, I would hesitate to call it dull but it wasn't delivered very well. The wider structure is a problem as it does jump around in time; I'm not sure about the real story but it felt like the film had a lot of ground to cover and that it was stretched to turn events into an engaging narrative for the sake of this film. The cast are OK but it is only really Cassetti who makes an impression; as much as I disliked his character, it was to his credit that I believed him as a dead-eyed, callous killer who seemingly had lost his true sense of self, and it is not his fault that the script didn't help him by building a better sense of character for us. Besco is OK but is not as important to the film as I suspect she was in real life – I felt she was a little bland but that may have been the fault of the material more than her. The support cast aren't bad, but none of them really made an impression on me and I have little to say.

Overall this is an OK film – it is interesting but it never really manages to be engaging in the way it should have been. The structure and delivery suck the life out of the material and make it feel rather plodding at times and it is easy to be uninterested in it for long spells. The story itself sounds compelling but the script never really tells us very much about the title character – meaning he could be any callous youth on a spree, why should he get my time over any other? Worth seeing but many will struggle to care about the story as the delivery is poor and the material is less than it should have been, even if it got the downbeat mood spot on.

For a film about a killer this is surprisingly dull.

Nothing much happens and even when things do happen they don't generate any real excitement or interest.

The acting is good from the two leads, Cassetti in particular delivers a great performance combining the certainty and stupidity of Succo but the rest of the cast also do what they need to.

The problem is that there is poor writing and direction and the fact that as a true story it isn't interesting, Succo is not a unique character, he isn't interesting or exciting.

Films of this sort normally try to generate tension or empathy or outrage and this generates nothing except a feeling of regret that you wasted your time watching it.

Wow. I am still struggling to reconcile this film; a man so amoral, so interesting, unstable, cute and unpredictable. The film is a masterpiece of storytelling and a lesson in how to use subtlety to frame extreme and horrific violence. Let me give you an example. At one point, Roberto/Kurt is cutting his nails and is told by Lea that she wants to end their affair. In that moment his hand slips and he cuts his foot badly. The audience jumped and sucked in air more at that point than at any other in the film; the splash of blood was so unexpected and surprising that it made me gasp.

The director, writer and actors seem to be trying to tell a story without sensationalising or sympathising, there are no moralising "I think we have all learnt something today kids" sections. Roberto Succo is not analysed and explained, the audience is told a story and left to draw their own conclusions. It feels so good to be regarded as an intelligent individual with a degree of perception and a mind of my own.

Two things stuck me after the film. Firstly, that Succo was like a child with tantrums and utter lack of regard for consequence, easily angered and distracted. Capable of charm and unbelievable cunning, his danger came in his lack of restraint when it came to violence.

The other thing that I realised an hour or so after watching the film was that nothing is made up. Every scene features someone who can corroborate the situation, there are no scenes with Roberto on his own, or with a victim that died without a witness. From this I surmise that a conscious decision was made not to fictionalise sections of his existence that had no witness to verify the event. Yet, this is done effortlessly and without being forced. By the end of the film you know as much as anyone else alive about Succo, and no extraneous conjecture, constructed to aid the narrative. This is astounding in its audacity and spectacular in its execution.

The car chases are some of the most stomach wrenching I have ever seen; forget Bullett, Ronin (high speed through Paris...unbelievable driving) and Blues Brothers, this is some of the most tense high speed driving I have seen on film. You have to pity the Police, maybe they were slightly inept, but only because there was no motive for so much of the crime, how often do you come across a criminal so ruthless, pointless and deadly?

Any gripes then? Well, perhaps the film could have been a bit bolder with its camera moves, but then perhaps that would have detracted from the style. I didn't like the soundtrack; I thought the whole film could have done without any music apart from that in clubs and bars. But that is just because I think the film didn't need the punctuation of Marianne Faithful's (OK, very moving) voice.

I understand the outcry in France at this film, and you could take away the impression that the police were at fault. However, the Italian cops came over like fools, and the Germans made such monumental errors that Succo was obviously that thing a police force fear most; insanely dangerous - dangerously insane, but with such a honed fight or flee instinct he was like nothing they could have prepared for. Sad man, pathetic situation, tragic victims; what a film.