Déjà mort

"Déjà Mort" tells the story of young and lost mid 20 year old people getting started with photoshootings and porn. Everything begins nice and it's becoming a trip to hell for them.

I found this movie spontaniously and didn't hear anything about it before watching it and I was surprised. Such a shame that this movie is so unknown because it is really worth the watch! The Actors are fabulous. Some of them are great actors in France today. Especially Magimel, Duris, Felix and Sibony are a great and convincing ensemble. The movie is well done and produced and has a nice Score. What I really appreciated is, that even if the movie is about the porn industry, it's not showing unecessarily nudity the whole film long. It's only showing what needs to be shown. The Story is gaining intensity with each minute and even if the movie does not necessarily tell and show you new things, it has this little something. This little something that is giving you a punch in the face. This little something, where you cannot say what it is, but it makes you like this movie.

This is a gem of a "noir" movie showing various character in a self-destructive descent into hell. This is not really a portrayal of the porn business, but much more. A young guy is fascinated by two poseurs taking snapshots and agrees to introduce to them a girl, Zoé, he watches from afar. The two rich brats accept him as Zoé's "chaperon", but they soon turn her to the porn business. This could be sub-Tarantino territory, but Dahan actually fleshes out his characters, introduces real humanity and, if we know this will all end in tragedy, the "how" remains fascinating. This is great, sincere stuff.

This is not for all audiences and what I want to emphasize on is Carlo Brandt's character, one of his most impressive ever. This dude has the perfect face of the perfect nasty, cruel, f...up motherf.... and he is a brilliant actor. Watch out for him in LA SIRENE ROUGE, FRANCK SPADONE,and many other films too. A real heavy in the French movie industry. A topic about porn underground industry, disturbing, violent, hopeless scheme, not Olivier Dahan's best but worth the view anyway. Good young actors whose careers were here launched. But, again, look out for Carlo Brandt....

Too bad, that not many people have seen this movie. It just happened that I lived in Paris when the movie came out - and it was the right movie at the right time - exactly reflecting certain feelings I had. It's hard to explain a certain mood to others, for me this movie was just perfect ... if you get the chance to watch - take it ... maybe you will like it as much as I did.

Although not perfect, this movie is indeed a noir. The ambiance is here, as well as good acting and direction (most of them now have achieved notoriety). Of course Déja Mort is kind of immature in essence, but what do you expect teenagers, rich & wannabees, having parties, sex drugs and alcohol to act like ? Noir is about flawed characters making mistakes. It's a noir by a young writer/director aimed at a young audience, and as that, it is quite good.

And PLEASE don't compare it to Requiem for a Dream, dummy. I know Dahan is not Aronofsky, but unless you think the 1933 King Kong is a remake of Peter Jackson's, check out the release dates.