Le démoniaque

A thriller set in Cannes,during the festival ,which allows us to spot a lot of celebrities :Gina Lollobrigida,Sophia Loren, Ursula Andress,Jean-Paul Belmondo ,Jean Marais ,and more ....

But none of them is featured in René Gainville's offbeat psycho killer story ,with shades of a Gothic past (the killer' s beloved mom , whose memory is only skimmed over ,on a photograph). The young principal's career was short-lived ,as his director's was ;his playing is minimal ,but it inspires its bizarre attitude ; he rarely takes off his sunglasses to show his piercing eyes .The stepmom ,on the other hand ,is played by seasoned actress Anne Vernon , who worked with Jacques Demy and Jacques Becker; in a part unworthy of her talent,she's always undertaken by events , a puppet in stepsonny's hands ;the rest of the cast is odd : Jess Hahn ,an American who never played in his native land ,as the absent papa ,Alice Sapricht as a blackmailer and Genevieve Grad ,who was De Funès's daughter in the "gendarme de Saint-Tropez " franchise.

Though directing looks amateurish ,and the lack of means is glaring ,the screenplay ,based on a Hadley Chase novel ,is not devoid of interest : the photographs with the revealing clock ,it's a good trick ;on the other hand ,the visit to the actor on the dole ,so as to make him out to be the criminal does not bring anything to the plot.

Very different from the average French thriller of the era;if it were only for that ,it would be worth a watch.

Well, I will be frank, I watched this movie only because it is adpated from one of my favourite writer's novel: I mean James Hadley Chase. This film is rather bland, but also rather faithful to the book atmosphere and plot. I have seen worse, in terms of adaptation, especially from Chase. The director René Gainville gave us much better with LE COMPLOT, which has nothing to do with this one. An agreeable thriller time waster, but it is not PEEPING TOM either. For movie buffs in love with the French cinema from the sixties - 1968 especially and after - and also the James Hadley Chase fans. So, to summarize, it is worth watching.

From the start Jay Delaney overacts, which hurts the movie's believability. It's been shot 40 years from now, and it begins to show. Not in the music, clothing or women's hairdos, but on the way things are shown. The madman is mad from the start. He may somehow get along in a party, but 90% of the time he looks like "a deranged murderer", so it's truly unbelievable the police doesn't get their claws on their prime suspect, well, sooner. Some hints of the psychopath's personality are still there: callousness, lack of empathy, delusions of grandeur, wanting "thrills" at all costs, manipulativeness ("You are my accomplice now" -to Sophie-), and a total detachment from reality. Anne Vernon was the only great actress, she carries her role with grace. Like the scene when he talks Jay around well... not being murdered :)! Jess Hahn as Floyd, his dad, has a nice scene near the end. Before, he's just stereotyped. Like Jay's whole story: too rich, neglected by his parents, only son, very strict/ religious mum, Jay obsessed by her ("Psycho" overtones, anybody?), mix well, and you have yet another pulp fiction. J. H. Chase is no Shakespeare, but from the books I've read from him, I feel R. Gainville could have done better, way better.

Hungarian born Anna Gaël as the starlet Lucille Baller has an on screen time like a video clip, but is pretty much what we all expect to watch, so I guess she's finely casted, right? It's interesting to know through IMDb of course, that she ended up a highly-regarded war correspondent. So much for a change of scenery! "Lise", on the contrary, didn't seem to fly so high (her career as an OSS woman is remarkable, though :)). Photography is very good, like the scene of him opening the windows or the pans of "frivolity in the upper classes" at the happening/ party. The music is obnoxious, but that's part of the idea, so it's fine! The film Floyd produces is as bad as some of the crap we endure on film festivals, so I guess it's a good pun on us "cinema goers" :).

Watch if you are interested in the subject (absurd murderers, and or cinema frivolity) this is fun.

PS: Near the end when he tries to win time, he tells Lise "everything she wants to hear", just like the murderer to his loving wife in "L'Adversaire", the best of class by far. Psychopaths use words as tools, delivering the highest sounding declarations of love without feeling a thing. That is well shown in this odd film.

PS2: From what I've heard the starlet's surname is "Ballu", not "Baller", please IMDb community of native French speakers, help IMDb and us out :)!