Les morsures de l'aube

Guillaume Canet was brilliant as the night-life addicted charmer, reminded me a lot of Gabriel Macht. They are almost the same age, too. If you take these guys and make a film where they are brothers raised in different countries, you will make a buck. I also liked Asia Argento, although her role wasn't much, while Gérard Lanvin is always a delight, regardless the role. The star of the film was the mood, the stylized view of the night life (in 2001), and the actors just filled in.

The weak point was the story, which was sometimes needlessly convoluted and sometimes too simple. A lot of setup was used to promote the main character, but almost no characterization or growth was used for any of the others. The villain, if one can call him that, appears for a few minutes in overly theatrical scenes that make little sense.

Bottom line: a noir kind of experiment, with good actors and great visuals, but a lame storyline. Matters not, because the story itself is meaningless to the experience.

Antoine De Caunes is a clever and funny TV-man who became a fairly good cinema actor. "Les morsures de l'aube" is his first movie as a director, and for me, not unforgettable. The storyline was a good start : a young nightclubber (by day, he sleeps in a swimming pool) tries any trick to go inside fashionable places. One day, he pretends to know a mysterious man called "Jordan". Another mysterious man gives him money to find this Jordan, the enquiry starts. First of all, Jordan has a sister, Violaine, played by Assia Argento. The brother and the sister are known as a scary couple, the live by night only, they bite people's neck and have weird manners... This story was not a bad idea I guess, and there is a lot of funny scenes, even some absurd situations. The photography is not bad, it looks like a long length advertising for a perfume or something. Assia Argento has a strong seduction power, Gérard Lanvin (the hero's great friend) plays as a real actor, but I'm afraid he is the only one ! When people talk, they quite don't open their mouth, the audience does not understand what they say, the best dialogs get lost by a poor or too indulgent actor direction. The end is a waste... I'm afraid that any "Buffy" episode is better than this movie. I gave it a 6/10 because I'm too kind.

This is a splendidly produced, directed, acted and scripted modern vampiresque tale carved into the underbelly of raucous French night life. There's plenty of glitter, pizzazz and charm mixed with a heaping dose of grit, filth and decadence that adds a unique realism to a captivating mystery of a ne'er-do-well (the "innocent" Antoine played by Guillaume Canet) thrust into a quest for the enigmatic Jordan "the lord of the night" and his alluring goth girlfriend/sister Violaine (sexy erotic-horror vixen Asia Argento). The audience follows the young Antoine on his spiral downward into nether regions of disturbing violence and despair, but he presses onward, transfixed by the memory of his recent collision with Violaine that left him physically empty and weak but spiritually rejuvenated. With newfound purpose and desire, he braves life-threatening dangers to peel away the fragile skin of ambiguity and uncover the truth about Violaine and the rumors of vampirism. This film diverts from the trappings of Anne Rice influenced romanticism and repetitive classical vampire motifs without resorting to modern-day drug metaphor. This film is better compared to Larry Fessenden's 1997 HABIT than any other recent vampire film. It is an intriguing mixture of the urban (ie. Fessenden's Manhattan), yet one cannot escape the thought that it draws on the somewhat surreal French vampire films of Jean Rollin. It is visibly quirky and riddled with moments of dark humor that serves to undercut some of the more disturbing (and mildly gory) scenes, but it is no comedy. It's unique and interesting throughout - and the mystery is fun to watch unfold.

Based on the novel by Tonino Benacquista, Les Morsures de l'Aube follows the misadventures of a ne'er-do-well whose unique brand of social climbing results in his pursuing, and being pursued, by gangsters, a very unusual pair of vampires, and a wealthy vampire hunter. Backed by hard-driving techno music, sudden violence and gunplay in a Tarantino-esque style, and liberal dollops of black comedy, the movie offers few sympathetic characters. Guillaume Canet's protagonist, while something of a boyish rogue-type, is often as violent as his pursuers. His best friend and closest ally, played by Gérard Lanvin, is a sleazy "photographer." The only character we encounter who is likeable from the start is Asia Argento's gothette vampire. Nonetheless, as our hero spirals deeper into the seamier side of the nighttime world he inhabits, his attempts to pull himself out succeed in giving the audience something to root for.

By presenting us with vampires almost entirely devoid of supernatural powers, who must use drugs to incapacitate their victims and guns or knives to kill, this film attempts what so many films of recent years have also tried to do; reinterpret the vampire mythos for a modern-day audience. That it actually succeeds for the most part is no mean feat, but the reversion to the usual conventions at the film's conclusion leaves a jarring taste in one's mouth. What has been a pretty decent gangster flick with some supernatural overtones suddenly tries to pass off a straight horror movie ending, and it doesn't work, not even if taken as a parody of those kinds of endings.

Too confused about what it wants to be in order to be a really good film, this is still a decent enough way to spend an evening.

This film has atmosphere, no doubt. But something is missing, I'm not so sure what. Guillaume Canet does not convince as a tough guy who goes from bar to bar. He's got a face too pretty and doesn't look like a party animal. Asia Argento however is perfect. Sure, her role is more physical, she has not much to speak in French. I knew a girl with exactly the same Italian accent, sounds nice by the way. The whole movie is nice to look at, but somehow, you don't get too much involved. The end could have been more dramatic.