Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)

It has already been told before, but the director Cedric Kaplish is delinitely a comedy film maker, a pretty good one, and certainly not a crime flick specialist; nothing to do with Olivier Marchal for instance. But here, I was amazed, stunned, jaw dropped after the watching of this gritty French film, where Kaplish did not dropped everything from his own style, but where there is a slight touch of Jean Pierre Melville. Just remember the two US directors Richard Quine and Blake Edwards, both comedy specialists, and among the best, both gave us tremendous film noirs: PUSHOVER for Quine and EXPERIMENT IN TERROR for Edwards. Don't miss the very last second of the movie, and Marie Gillain's face and glance. It means so many unsaid things, so many....

Ni Pour, Ni Contre is a very good film noir, witch combines agreeably well, humour, suspense and drama. The Klapisch Touch is there, but it's also in a kind completely different for what we knew him before, like Chacun Cherche son Chat, or L'Auberge Espagnole. For example, the last scene of break-in is so intense, that I was really afraid for the characters. Some movies do not leave you any impressions, but with Klapisch, the emotions and the feelings seizes the spectator.

Side of the distribution, the actors are great, especially Vincent Elbaz, who is great and credible, Zinedine Soualem, who try to stay in the right side, and Marie Gillain at the same time strong and fragile who can be seen in a quasi similar role in L'Appat directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

A really good Polar, a must see movie...

Cédric Klapish is one of my favorite director. I like when he writes about the themes he is the best at such as individual vs. Group identity, family stories, etc.

I am not sure what he tried to do here. A bad comedy or a botched thriller. Either way the characters are shallow and disoriented. Still some good acting (M Gillain, Z Soualem).

Not at all a film noir, Klapisch's "Ni pour ni contre" is a run off-the-mill "heist", "coup du siècle" movie, with no original standpoint. The story is a poor justification for a series of beautifully filmed, very bright, colorful and sunny photographic scenes that parallel the aesthetics of this "more than perfect" gang, their associates and their "Appat" film heroine.

There is no justification for the use of a camera in the first "coup" scène, other than the set up of how this very particular innocent girl is being recruited by this band of criminals. Other incoherent sequences appear through the movie that one doesn't get to criticize for fear of sounding too realistic nowadays. Contrarily to other heist movies, nothing goes unusually wrong after the robbery to justify the mess up that ensues.

The attempts at building a camaraderie between the gangsters also falls short and shows clearly that too many people were involved writing this movie.

All and all, this movie is Klepisch's take at a genre he never tried before (american crime movies, not film noirs by any means, and surely not thrillers or polars), and he succeeds less-than-averagely.

Bit of a disappointment really - after a good start in Goodfellas mode (where the anti-hero's life of crime is linked to his love of good shoes) and an initially mildly intriguing set-up that never pays off, the film just gradually flat lines. It isn't terrible, but it isn't particularly good. Performances are fine but not outstanding and the plot ticks along on the usual robbery goes wrong lines without ever threatening any surprises. The biggest surprise is a bit part for Diane Kruger as a hooker, much more attractive here than in Troy.

The one thing which does impress is Klapisch's Scope framing. This is a man who really knows how to fill the wide, wide screen, and he throws in the greatest shot of Cannes' Carlton Hotel ever. It's just a shame that the script never rises to the level of visual invention.