Les aliénés

This psychological thriller pulls the viewer through the various scenes of our alienated and isolated hero. Trapped in a meaningless and uninspiring job with friends who are just as alienated. Our hero has one friend who uses his creativity in music to find escape into a happier acceptance of life. But our hero is trapped in his own slowly grinding inertia, for what reason we do not know, but that his fate seems sealed mentally. Even romance does not motivate our hero till finally his awareness of a friend's betrayal and his own survival awakens him to rise above the garbage heap of modern ennui.

Shot in black and white this modern everyman triller pulls us through a colorless view of modern life. The music and film technique do not show beauty, but create a setting to convey the inner tension and awakening that makes our hero rise above his own, and by implication, our circumscribed existence to a more aware and fulfilled life in spite of the colorless world that is often forced upon us.

The main originality of this so so thriller lies in the fact that its hero is a garbage man.Shot in black and white,to create a bleak and austere landscape.The cinematography is much too clean for the purpose though;a dirty grainy color treatment à la "seven" would have been more appropriate.

As for the screenplay,it's the umpteenth hackneyed story of a serial killer.And the main interest is this burning question:is the hero,Damien,( a tribute to "the omen"??)the monster?Actually we do not care that much,because the movie is never really exciting,failing twice,both on suspense and on social comment:all these garbage men seem to despise their job,and display a lack of self-esteem which borders on masochism-of course a woman will help the hero cope!-.the director could have paid more respect for their thankless but how much important for the human community task.In order to give the movie the HItchcock touch,Damien's over possessive mother-played by an actress famous for her bleach commercials!-appears for just one pointless scene.

Gautier is another example of these French directors that have gotten hung up in trying to catch the American thrillers (or the American indies).They 've forgotten that the Frenchie's metier has always been the psychological thriller ,à la française:I think all these two-bit directors should watch the best Chabrol,Clouzotand Duvivier works,not to ape them,but to build their work in the French great tradition.