Roberto Succo

"Roberto Succo" is a rarity in French cinema: a movie featuring a teenage girl who isn't the craziest person in it. The fact that the girl is played by Isild le Besco, who used to specialise in crazy teen girl characters, further underlines this point.

Aside from that the movie is pretty negligible. It's too long winded, or perhaps just too plain long, to really hit any notes. It's about a crazy psychopath, and he was surely well cast, with his piercing, bulging eyes. But the movie doesn't have any shocks, any suspense, or much of anything. You know the guy's crazy but he doesn't feel dangerous. I think "crazy", when not married with danger, is merely annoying. I wanted the guy caught or killed, but wasn't into waiting two hours for it to happen.

Stefano Cassetti, who was living in France, red on a newspaper that a director was looking for a beginner, Italian mother tongue but fluent french speaking, to shoot a movie as leading actor; then he decided to go to the casting. He was "obviously" signed on. I suggest that all of you should stare at his almost unbelievable without-expression look. A real perfection! In my opinion the movie shows the natural capabilities of a young actor who proves to be completely at his ease in the complex role of a multi-identity psycho killer who's capable to commit unexplainable crimes but also to act as a nice and sensitive guy. Noteworthy also the dialogs.

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.

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.

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.