Truands

'Truands' as it is named in French, somehow passed unnoticed and has been disregarded by audience. Simply said, people just do not know about it. But from many angles, this movie is a great piece of cinema, in the likes of other 'new, dark & violent' french movies. If there was a proper story telling component, it would be easily comparable to the Melville's cinema: deep dive in the criminal underworld and its ramifications; nightlife and violence, switching alliance and evolving relations of criminals competing for power.

And this is what it is about: the struggle of a boss to maintain its position on top, while fighting back challengers and suffering from a decadent organization. The figurehead of this clan - Claude - is greatly portrayed - as a dangerous megalomaniac. Its protégée, soon to be its own 'brutus' is brilliantly played by Magimel. Violence is omnipresent and could be a bit overwhelming sometime. The movie could have won by showing less and suggesting more: it leaves a 'print' that divert from the story. Story that searched itself for some time before one of the thread is followed up till the end. The lack of rhythm is disorientating and montage - after a great first 20 min - lacks imagination.

I still like and have seen this movie multiple times. The atmosphere of crime and the presentation of the protagonists are excellent, the exploration of nightly and forbidden Paris is also attractive. A clearer script, a bit of aesthetic work could have made a much classer movie about the fall of a Crime boss. I still give a 8 out of 10 for the entertainment and the courageous project (it s a bit rare if French Feature films nowadays) On a similar topic of crime boss fall, I recommend ''Le Second Soufflé''.

A Parisian crime-boss ensures that nobody ever double-crosses or undermines him or his business by using extreme methods. He ruthlessly deals with any of his gang who he even suspects of wrong-doing and similarly deals with other gangs trying to muscle in on his territory. However, his activities have not escaped the notice of the police.

An action-packed but empty film. We have the usual assortment of gangsters, doing gangster stuff, including torturing and murdering people and being involved in extravagant shootouts, and the usual edginess of this characters. So far, so good, as the characters and their methods seem set up for a decent crime-drama.

However, that's all there is: edgy characters, murders and shootouts. The plot is largely non-existent and superficial at best. The background setup IS the plot. There's no arc to the story or the characters: things happen (largely, people get murdered) but that's it - there's no buildup to it and nothing developing from it.

Disappointing.

IMHO this is one of the best and most hardcore gangster flicks out there.

It's grisly, sure, but also produced in a very realistic way, and the characters are extreme, most of them are utter nuts.

It has french humor, sex, drugs and violence in abundance.

But it also has an impressive array of characters and quite a complex story line.

In short, prepare for a hell of a ride.

I rank this one a masterpiece.

Check it out!

I enjoyed watching this film. Powerful acting from the cast and specially from "Philippe Caubère". I hope he does more films in the future in the "crime" category. I would cast him as the villain, bad guy anytime : )

I don't understand the negative reviews not finding a storyline here :) A good film needs to have your attention for its duration, and believe me this film does that.

I'm from LA, the movie capital of the world. Nowadays films are made by the kilo here :) but there is no quality. Give me a dozen "Truands" per year and I'd be a happy audience!!

I just don't understand... Where is the story, where are the characters ? Well, this is a strange movie. I'm still wondering whether is was good or not... This could have been a classic but the characters are so flat: They all live for the same things (i.e. drugs, alcohol, money and Hungarian whores) they get doing some "business". None of the characters seems to have something unique or original. The story is really completing this. Whith no-personality-characters you get a no-personality-story or just a no-thing. On the other hand if you really haven't got anything to do today. Just go. There is a lot of dumb mafia guys shootin' and drinking all film long. Really interesting ;-) Fortunately I didn't pay for the cinema so I can't regret it !