Vidocq

This French film was much criticized for wasting it´s visuals in just an action adventure story wich i think its the most unffair thing it can be said on such a masterpiece like this. When an action movie has an empty plot, evcerybody complains, when it has a good plot everybody says it should have been better and not waste its potential. Are you critics nuts ?!! Some attack this movie claiming that its nothing like french a Matrix wannabe. Well i wish Matrix had been such a good movie and had such a good story as VIDOCQ has. And if this is just an imitation, i want a sequel ! As for the Sony Camera style, well it was filmed with one, what do you expect ?! Is that a bad thing ?! It made me want to go out and buy one just to try and make a movie like this. And those closeups look great and realy show how the personalities of some of the characters are distorted and nuts. Brilliant editing also.

I loved the story, the actors and graphicaly is one of the most inovative movies ive seen in recent years. It was not an expensive production, but looks better than most of Hollyood Blockbusters of the last 20 years at least. The genius of this movie is in actualy making us believe that much more money was spent on it than what actualy was. This is the proof you don´t need a big budget to make a big film. All it takes is imagination.

Visualy it couldn´t have been better. The settings are amazing, the computer graphics blend in and add to the visual feel and the atmosphere is incredible. Great action sequences, great mistery and great characters. Above all an original concept wich is something that Hollywood can´t say that it has nowadays.

I´ve loved this movie so much that i bought it from the French Amazon store just a couple of hours ago and i only saw it at the theater last night. It´s a double dvd edition and it has plenty of extra material and i can´t wait to get my hands on it.

One of the best European "fantasy" movies since La Citée des Enfants Perdus and another great french movie. French cinema nowadays has been a great alternative from Hollywood crap. Merci French guys ! :) After seeing such crap as the latest Arnie Shwarzenneger movie its great to have a REAL GOOD movie to watch and see how real cinema should be. Hollywood take notes. No, realy. Take notes, this is how you make a very interesting action movie with style but also with substance.

VIDOCQ is a true masterpiece. More please !

Vidocq is directed by the singular Pitof, who has worked with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on such films as Alien Resurrection and the superior City of Lost Children. Depardieu stars (his 116th film!) in a striking tale of 1830's supernatural murder, set in Paris which would make an excellent double bill with From Hell. Vidocq was a real historical personage, and a genuine founder of modern French criminology - though this is a highly fictionalised part of a part of his life, inspired by the 'orrible crimes of contemporary penny dreadfuls and the likes of Spring Heeled Jack, than by any real facts. The film is shot entirely on high quality video and so visually it is completely different to a regular film. The sometimes disconcerting loss of depth of field brought by the format is compensated for by an immediacy and high impact in close ups, as well as an amazing (and presumably inexpensive), flexibility in shots and special effects. Watching it I was reminded of what a BBC costume drama would be like on acid, and could also see indebtedness to Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes and perhaps Blade... All in all I thought this the best French fantasy I have seen since Brotherhood of the Wolf - admittedly a small field, especially if one draws a veil over the dismal Belphagor: Phantom of the Louvre. Worth seeing if you like your fantasy dark, Gallic and hectic. A notable credit in the art department on Vidocq is Marc Caro (another Jeunet collaborator), who creates a convincing and claustrophobic world of political upheaval, crowded streets, menacing glass works and a range of grotesques. Some great scenes, EG the two men set on fire by lightning bolts set to the elegant music of Vivaldi, while the three or four main fight scenes are handled excitingly. Vidocq is such a strong character that this film cries out for a sequel. But Pitof is now apparently working on Catwoman, and going by this, his is a stylish, if rather in your face, talent. The HK DVD is excellent, although there are occasional glitches in the subtitles.

I really wasn't ready to enjoy "Vidocq" having heard a friend of mine telling me he felt like throwing up in the middle of the movie, due to the peculiar camera angles and motion. But having some time to lose while waking up in front of TV, why not take a look?

And I was really taken in that old-Paris atmosphere, which I found strangely bewitching... I did not find the special FX better than in other big budget movies, but "different", finally something original, kind of an nightmarish, apocalyptic surrounding... The storyline had some nice parts to it, but we could have had more. Depardieu was pretty good, Dussollier as well, as opposed to a dreadful Guillaume Canet...

Overall, an interesting movie, with pluses and minuses, I was glad to see it but I won't buy the DVD.... 6/10

Pitof's style and design comes blazing through, in a kind of high-octane version of the work he did for Jeunet & Caro - a mixture of French garishness and Tim-Burton-esque gothic fantasy and detail. Also reminded me a bit of Alex Proyas' design on Dark City.

The plot gallops along, with Depardieu appearing in flashback scenes throughout while his biographer, the police, a decadent journalist and his sidekick all try to re-trace his steps, solve the bizarre murders and capture the Alchemist (if he or she even exists)!

There's so much going on on-screen that it's a complete feast for the eyes, especially once femme fatale Preah gets mixed up in the mystery.

I also thought it was so refreshing to see the investigative duo of Vidocq and Nimier, because they are both coarse, brainy & brawny (like two bears in top hats), whereas any Hollywood film would surely add numerous physical & character defects. You'd also lose the wonderful surreal Frenchness of the setting, and almost grotesque supporting characters.

The Alchemist is a great baddie - not superhuman, but you're not quite sure (for a long time anyway) if he/she is really supernatural or not - or of his/her motivation, and by the last half hour you think it could be virtually any of the main characters under the mask, which sets you up for a really good revelation or two & a battle at the end.

An exciting movie (complex, but not difficult), and not one dull moment. I'm not sure what some of the negative reviewers were watching, because if you liked Sleepy Hollow or From Hell, you'll adore this.

It takes place in 1830 in Paris. Vidocq is the name of the main character who's based on an actual French historical figure that's considered one of the pioneers of scientific police (think CSI). He's played by probably the most famous French actor living today: Gérard Depardieu. Rather originally, the title character dies in the first 5 minutes of the film. The rest of the story alternates between the investigation of a journalist retracing Vidocq's steps and flashbacks of Vidocq's last case. The original screenplay was written by best-selling French mystery writer, Jean-Christophe Grangé. It was his first original screenplay, and he says it will be his last, and not because he wasn't happy with it. This last case of Vidocq involves the murder of notables by lightning strike. The journalist's investigation takes us from person to person in a rather linear fashion. The investigation itself is not particularly gripping, but there are a couple of big twists at the end. The "bad guy" sports a very cool mirror mask. The fantastical elements originate from the mirror mask person, not everything is real or scientifically explained.

The special effects in general, with a couple of exceptions, are pretty well done, particularly the mask's reflections. It's apparently the first commercial feature film made completely with a digital camera (as opposed to a camera with film). This means that the picture quality, at the time, was crisper than usual, also giving it an unusual look. Lots of work has been done on lighting and colours. The colours are very vivid and favour the colours red, yellow and green. The decors are a mix of real life and digital trickery, they usually look very good and unlike your standard American films. Despite taking place in the 19th century, the editing is modern and very fast, with lots of very quick close-ups. I personally didn't like that style of frenetic cutting because the cuts often seemed unnecessary and made things either less involving or a little harder to assimilate. The characters seemed a bit on the shallow side to me, but then it's more about action, mystery and suspense with a touch of fantastical. Vidocq was compared to the film Seven but in 1830. It's nowhere near as good in any regard, except perhaps for visual style, very different anyway.

The director, Pitof, was a special effects supervisor for most of his career (City of Lost Children, Alien IV) and his following project was directing the infamous Catwoman. It's likely he got that job because of Vidocq. I find that the director Pitof is not very good at telling a story, has trouble with pacing and making us care about the characters. Vidocq is worth renting (or buying cheap) for the spiffy visuals alone. Overall, the movie is not bad but not memorable either. It's likely that a more talented director (Burton, Fincher, Jeunet, etc) with the same material could have done a lot better.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (Good) P.S. There are no portals, dark or otherwise.