Anthony Zimmer

In Paris, the international police force and the Russian mafia are chasing Anthony Zimmer, an intelligent man responsible for laundry of dirty money in France. Zimmer was submitted to a plastic surgery, and his new face and voice are completely unknown. The only means to reach Zimmer is through his beloved mistress Chiara (Sophie Marceau), who is under surveillance of the police and the mobsters. While traveling by train to the country nearby Nice, the common man François Taillandier (Yvan Attal), who has the same body shape of Zimmer, is select by Chiara as if he were Zimmer and used as a bait to lure those that are pursuing her. When Taillandier is chased by the professional Russian killers, he runs the French police when the real situation begins to be disclosed to him.

"Anthony Zimmer" is a great thriller, with a situation that recalls Hitchcock's classic "North By Northwest", i.e., a man mistaken for another and pursued by criminals. The attractive story has many twists, a nice cast with the gorgeous Sophie Marceau and the efficient Yvan Attal in the lead roles. The beautiful locations in France is an amazing tour in this wonderful country. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Anthony Zimmer A Caçada" ("Anthony Zimmer The Hunting")

...or she in his? Captivating, elegant little thriller. It's not spectacular in any obvious way, yet I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for just one second. It starts out almost exactly like "Mr Bean's Holiday": a guy on a southbound express train, headed for the coast, hoping for recreation. Which he won't find. That's where the the script leaves the common ground. It's rich in twists and turns, clever to the point of cunning. Production design and cinematography are among the most elegant you will find. Cool, minimalistic interior sets contrast with the time-tested cinematic sparkle of the Côte D'Azur. Similarly, wide-angle shots are inter-cut with extreme close-ups, e.g., of pills dancing on a shaking spiral staircase, the pulsing red halo of the caller light on a ringing telephone, or a pair of shades dropped casually into an earthenware bowl. Scenes you have seen a thousand times, this movie makes you see them with new eyes: a guy killing time watching TV, a car chase in an underground parking lot, or someone having coffee and reading the paper in the morning sun. Admittedly, Sophie Marceau helped to keep me interested. She plays a woman six years her junior, and she more than gets away with it. She is in the shape of her life. I think she may have had something done to her face, but it looks good and doesn't show. I can see why President Mitterand took her on his trips abroad as an icon of French allure. The five-second scene in which she wires herself for the showdown alone made it worth my while. The final plot twist may not be up to common standards of plausibility, but it doesn't subtract from 90 minutes spent in silent wonder at what the French can do with a little sunshine and lot of mascara.

First I have to confess Alfred Hitchcock is not my favorite filmmaker - perhaps partly due to the somewhat clunky exposition he sometimes used but there are elements of Anthony Zimmer which I enjoyed and which recalled Hitchcock at his best. As so many have said before me Sophie Marceau is very,very good in Anthony Zimmer but , for me, Yvan Attal was the standout. I have liked his somewhat deadpan style since "Les Patriots" (still one of my favorite thrillers) and here, as the 'ordinary' guy supposedly caught up in things beyond his knowledge he plays a much more realistic Cary Grant type than you would usually see in a Hitchcock movie. Sure, you can tell pretty quickly he's not really who he seems to be but then how long did it take you to figure that Grant wasn't all he seemed in "North By Northwest". That's part of the fun of films like Anthony Zimmer. I've seen "Zimmer" twice and I'll be more than happy to watch it again.

This is a story which we've seen many times in American movies. About the common gentle guy who without wanting so, gets involved in heavy things. And it could happen to all of us.

The plot is rather clever, but you have some unanswered questions in the end. Sophie Marceaux plays the mystic lady and you never know whether she really is good or bad. Not even when the movie is over.

What is a quite intelligent psychological drama, turns into a violent outburst. Anyway it's nice to watch such a plot in another environment; here the French Côte d'Azur. But it's too physical in the end and maybe the plot maker hasn't had any real good ideas about how to finish it.

Director Jerome Salle wanted this film to remind us Hitchcock's or Polanski's movies with the next door guy type getting caught into a web of mistaken identity. He actually tries more with a story which may have had a better chance if it decided whether it wants to play on the thriller or on the romantic movie line. Unfortunately he seems to try to do both and fails on both, because we are never sure what the director wants for us, and because the point of gravity where he takes us changes too sudden. We are left with a well acted film with Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal leading a good team of actors, but also with a feeling of in-satisfaction because despite the good ideas the film ends by looking too short and too superficial to give us time to be thrilled or to be moved.