Hi folks... Edgard here with the come-back of Grozilla with a brand new review of VIDOCQ (+ interview of Pitof, the director) and a look at LE PETIT POUCET. As I wrote in the last edition of the Euro AICN news, these 2 films are the 2 event films of the next weeks... still the first echoes we receive are not entirely positive, far from it anyway. Still VIDOCQ's trailer is really cool and I'm looking forward seeing this film... now that Grozilla & Champagne 2000 warned us on this film, we can go & see it without too high expectations, this is the best way to enjoy it I guess... And while you're at it, check the French Premiere website (www.premiere.fr) there's the first teaser for Asterix 2 !! (I haven't seen it yet but I saw it was there)... And here's now Grozilla on VIDOCQ and LE PETIT POUCET...

At first, I just wanted to share with you what Vidocq¹s director Pitof answered at a press conference today (unfortunately, you¹ll read only half of it, my MD recorder erased the first part). Then I read Champagne 2000 reviews about "Vidocq" and "Le Petit Poucet". Then I couldn¹t resist to tell my feelings about it too. I quite agree with my fellow (I assumed he¹s French too) about "Vidocq" : some good stuff (some very beautiful scenes from a visual point of view, the fights, the look of The Alchemist, which indeed was to me a kind of rip-off from "Spawn" but in a far better way than the Mark Dippe¹s turkey) but a strange feeling about the use of digital camera. It often looks like a demo for this camera more than a caper movie. I¹m sure I would have more enjoyed it if made on real locations. I was also disturbed by the "science-fiction " touch of this film. As the mix of newest technology and classical French serial, I felt that mixing the mood of 1830¹s Paris and the fantastic parts doesn't make any sense. Anyway that¹s not what upset me the most. For fuck¹s sake, does anyone tell those guys that the most important thing in making a movie is the script ? This one is sometimes as dull as possible. More than the dumb explanation of why the Alchemist is killing people, the mystery resolution, the identity behind the mask of the Alchemist is one of the most laughable I ever seen. Pity when some characters are really well written and/or played : of course André Dussolier¹s one, but also Moussa Maaskri as Nimier the sidekick of Vidocq. Those characters are the only ones who seem not to be some special effects. Dussolier and Maaskri¹s acting give some depths missing in any other part here. Even if I have to admit, that I enjoyed Gérard Depardieu. I really can¹t say the same of the truly insipid - as usual - Guillaume Canet. "Vidocq" is an interesting product, not an interesting film, because it failed to have a good story.

On the other side, I liked a lot "Le Petit Poucet". Maybe because it¹s the anti-Vidocq in its conception. Here too all is fake but special effects aren¹t the star. I enjoyed the way Olivier Dahan gives life to an all made on studio set world. Yes, this is a truly transcription of Tom Thumb¹s tale, but I found it moving in many ways. Overall because of its relationship to Japanese work like Miyazaki¹s one (Laputa and Mononoke Hime are sure influences here, without telling about the great Hisaishi¹s score...) or Kobayashi¹s Kwaidan. Anyway, if I like more this film than Vidocq because it¹s all focused on the human part of the project., I regret that Dahan made a truly film for children. And played that way by the actors. Except Romane Bohringer as the mother who acts on an adult way, all other adult characters are overacted (like when people overact a tale when they read it to kids). If "Le Petit Poucet" had been made on a first degree point of view, it could have been a truly masterpiece instead of a very cute film.

But from now here are some bits (sorry again, because this guy seems to be a smart one) Pitof, director of Vidocq, chat yesterday morning... :

* Grozilla : The heart of "Vidocq" is about the physical self conscientiousness : from the Alchemist¹s mirror-mask to those three men who want to keep the eternal physical youth. But also with these many shots on faces or this "depth of field" who forces the audience to get a twisted point of view. Is this film narcissistic ?

Pitof : Not for me. I indeed dealt in this film with the sensation of physical point of view, overall in placing my camera into the action. But it was more to get the audience inside it that by narcissism. I intended to make a film that would work like a videogame, that would make the audience in a game player position. The technology I used in "Vidocq" has not been invented to force a point of view, but why not use it this way?

* G : The fights scenes are truly astonishing. Partly because they don¹t use this fashion feeling about kung-fu...

P : That was the big question when I started to think about these scenes. I tried to get as far as possible from this feeling. But I was stuck between two things : The spectacular side any fight scene must have and the visual culture we nowadays have about fight scenes, which makes kung-fu style kind of obligatory, even if all the techniques used in these scenes are Europeans ones. We tried to do different things than "Matrix" or "Crouching tiger, hidden dragon". If they were making today a western with fist fight, they couldn¹t use anymore the way John Wayne did fights. In this film, there¹re only two characters fighting : Vidocq and The Alchemist. The first is fighting French 1830¹s style, the other one is lighter. Because I wanted this opposition : heavy & light. For the opening fight, I told the stuntmen to think about "corrida". I wanted to get back to the essence of martial arts : the way animals fight. Vidocq is a bull, The Alchemist is a bullfighter. That was the way to give the audience the only needed information of this opening sequence : Vidocq is a powerful character fighting an anonymous one. One of them is gonna die. I wanted the movement of these characters to be the more realistic they can be. No cable, no tricks in this scene. We just cheat by having two people under the Alchemist¹s cape : one hip-hop dancer and a stuntman for fists and foot movements.

* G : One of the main influence on this film is Marc Caro…

P : I asked him to work on the design creation of the characters. As well as on their faces than their costumes. We took the problem backwards in relation to the actors as we choose them from their faces first. I asked Marc to look into documents from this period to try to elaborate a prototype look of the characters by using the script and these documents. From there came the link to find and make-up the actors. His second job was on the aesthetic of the costumes, especially the one of the Alchemist which would later define the way this character would move. Caro's work was the first creative support on this project. For the general aesthetic of the film, his influence is indeed there but it is probably because he's a friend for many years and we developed common tastes…

* G : Vidocq is a character from literature, in the tradition of French serial, while the references in your film are purely visual…

Grangé (writer) : There's also a general reference to the literature source of Vidocq, like the " Boulevard du Crime ". Furthermore it is a character that really existed. The challenge was actually to do a science-fiction movie based on a classical period and classical characters. You could not put references that were too obvious. This project was anyway born when there was a strong tendency to adapt TV series. I was first contacted when The Fugitive was released… but in this case, if the TV serie was at the origin of the film, it was to make a totally different project.

G : Looking at the reactions to the trailer on different websites, it seems there are a lot of expectations on this film in foreign countries. Do you have any expectation about the foreign public on this film ?

P : I even have huge expectations ! Indeed I would like to know how the film and the characters will be perceived outside France. But even I have been influenced by all the foreign films I have seen, my culture is first of all French. I am curious to see if other cultures, Asiatic, American or British, will bring the character and story with them.

GROZILLA