LE TUEUR - THE KILLER begins exclusive run at AMC Yonge & Dundas on November 28th
From Evokative Films, the company that is bringing ScreenAnarchy faves Adrift in Tokyo and Hansel & Gretel to Canada, amongst others will present the French noir thriller Le Tueur/The Killer on screens of the AMC Yonge & Dundas here in Toronto on November 28th. It will also find a screen in Vancouver on December 12th.
The job for Dimitri Kopas is as simple as can be in his line of profession. In his hotel room he finds an envelope with a picture and a DVD in it. The man in the picture in shown on the DVD shopping for clothes with his daughter. This man's name is Leo Zimmerman and he is Dimitri's next contract. Dimitri has been hired to kill Leo. But Leo has become aware that someone is watching him. Racked with anxiety, looking over his shoulder and unable to sleep Leo discovers Dimitri is the killer hired to do the deed. Leo has no choice but to confront his soon to be killer and make him an offer. If Dimitri can grant him a couple days to complete one more deal that will take care of his daughter for the rest of her life he will go willingly and allow Dimitri to fulfill the contract out on his life.
For the greater part of the film we, and Dimitri, are kept in the dark about the reason why there is a contract out on Leo. We can forgive Dimitri for not knowing nor particularly giving it any thought because his job is to pull the trigger. Cédric Anger's script though is clever enough to lead us to think the contract is out on Leo for an obvious reason but then his script goes in an unexpected direction. What we end with is a tidy little thriller that gets more interesting as Dimitri tries to uncover more about his target and learn the real reason why Leo has a contract out on his life.
Directing only his second feature film Anger presents a unrecognizable Paris, a 'City of Lights' washed in the glow of neon and fluorescent lights. There were some post production effects that were unnecessary but for the most part it was shot well enough and largely restrained; well suited for this quiet thriller. This is is not your tourist trap Paris. Anger takes us into the darker regions of the city, the streets at night and the drug dens. Anger does display great skill when it came to lighting his characters at night choosing barely warm filters in contrast to cooler ones. I think it shows good promise. So far Anger has only directed his own scripts which are easy enough to envision how they would be shot as the scripts are written. I would be interested to see what he could do with someone else's script.
What did I get out of Anger's script? No matter what we do with our lives or how hard we may try to hide it our humanity is going to come through and we can be overwhelmed by emotion and feeling no matter how cold we may try to be. Dimitri may be a hired killer but he longs for an intimate relationship with a woman. So much, that he drives through the streets of Paris admiring young couples walking the streets at night and finds a beautiful young woman in his hotel room bar and starts a relationship with her. Leo on the other hand has a troubled marriage and can only artificially stimulate his wife sexually. These two men are fractured and fragile men trying to hold on to any relationship they can no matter how unhealthy it may be. Yet through this fragility they manage to create a bond and it is this bond that starts the ball rolling for both of them and brings about change.
A good sophomore effort that is worth checking out.
