Point Blank (Fred Cavayé, 2010)

An ordinary Gérard Depardieu looking man gets pushed to the limits when his very pregnant wife gets kidnapped. Despite its incredibly generic plot structure and script the film offers some sort of saving grace in its construction and, perhaps too literal, social commentary. With an incredible sound design, in the hospital scenes you can hear the machines physically keeping people alive, made for the big screen. The pace of the film is ultimately where its merits lie. So brilliantly paced that it'll make non-French speakers forget they are watching a foreign film and reading subtitles (this happened to the person I watched the film with who doesn't watch many films, let alone foreign films). A film that you can't quite dislike because you have no time to. By the time you start watching the film you realize its over and that you were never once bored. Its social critique may be too blunt and literal but it's there. It's always a good sign when the police are the antagonists and the heros of the film are ordinary nobodies and even cultural outsiders (safe cracker). The police system is portrayed as deeply flawed, all the scenes that take place in the precinct are very chaotic and corrupt cops can hid kidnapped women in there and even throw them out of a window (or attempt to) without anyone noticing. Still, the film lacks any sort of directorial style, any sort of advancement of cinematic language, so it's kind of hard to fully endorse.

Point Blank is showing at Ciné (on 35mm) as part the FRENCH CINEMA SERIES. Anyone in the Atlanta/Athens area should definitely make it out to catch some of these fine films, all on 35mm. More coverage on this series this week and next. It runs through the April 5. Other films are: Tomboy, Declaration of War, and The Father of My Children.