Truands

Paris Lockdown: this one-man army of a wet paper bag of poor excuses of a wannabe gangster film, this is as empty as a crêpe Suzette in a nunnery on a Sunday morning. As rich as poor taste goes, yes there's boobs, bottoms and nodding heads galore but takeaway the sleaze, the flying bullets and the flash cars then all we have done is landed on the square that tells us to "Go Back To GO, do not collect £200...start again".

This is as deep and meaningful as gutters will allow it to rise, while an insight of Parisian lowlife drug smugglers, pimps and killers, there is just nothing to add to the narrative. Nothing. The characters are living the life of a one-dimensional caricature. We are given a so-called gang leader who simply is not memorable, and his pet dogs are just as easily put-down and unmissable as the whole sorry affair.

The entire episode here seems too have been pulled out of any sequence in their life, it is a Soap Opera of blood and thugs. This is a basic rise and fall of a Paris crime boss who lives his life whoring, shooting and, again, shooting. The development of these people is as far as your next bus stop to Plainville, even the Robert De Niro look-alike and his greased-up hair looks too pastiche, too…already done.

Frédéric Schoendoerffer, director, has placed the action in the seedy side of town, the bars, strip joints and night filled streets of Paris, France, Europe and to be fair, any self respecting Parisian gangster seeing this sad debunkle would be, allegedly, embarrassed.

With just a touch of bewilderment, this crime-caper has no direction apart from up. It is not a poorly made film, it's, forgive the pun, executed well, nice offensive language, great looking girls and mean mothers' doing their job, only too well. Some nice, forgive the pun, once more, location shots and bad attitudes, the odd torture sequence, done very nicely too, ouch. However, it is the putting together of this work that to make any coherent sense a plot, let alone a sub-plot would have been acceptable.

These guys are hard-core but when the spotlight of the good-cop, bad-cop is shining on their sorry backside, it is the whole main feature that will give the game away and get you busted, sent-down and sent to solitary

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 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 !

If you enjoy gangster movies, this is a must see, it's top notch! It's the hard and gut wrenching rendering of the hollow, treacherous life and risks you take being a proper gangster, and I've had the dubious privilege of meeting some in my time. The best gangster is the one with the biggest balls, there is no aber dabei. The message of the movie is clear as a bell; menace is the order of the day, by surprise or default. There is no glory, there is no deeper meaning, simple pleasures have no meaning and it's dog eat dog. Ugly life at best and it's really portrayed expertly by the players, shallow and unreliable, but reliably unpredictable, terrifying and perfectly psychotic bar a couple who are a bit 'smarter' than the rest and hold actual dreams for better things. The gallery is typical and every type is in place and proper form. The subtleties are really minute but they are absolutely included, look away and you'll miss it as a whole! I will watch this many more times. You might have a tough time digging it out, but well worth the effort. Now if you'll excuse me I'll go watch some other favourites!

And to those reviewers who were mystified or felt let down by the plot or the characters, may I suggest they watch the more mainstream movies and actors, because the fabulous subtleties of 'Truands' were apparently lost on them. They've never met real gangsters! Even the loot is realistic, just enough 'pennies' to make a new life!

'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''.