Point Blank (A Bout Portant)

French cinema has got a big problem. After the new wave which made it famous worldwide, it became something boring that has necessarily to talk about politics. Why have an elaborate script? A directing ? The most important thing became to please the intelligentsia critics first, not the audience. This is the main difference between French and American cinemas.

On the other hand, the American cinema is an industry where the main goal is to entertain the audience, to make it thrill or even afraid. In France, it's an art with all pretentious things that come with it. Genius directors like Steven Spielberg, Tony Scott or James Cameron aren't recognized in France as they represent money, the evil. All of this because they do good stuff; stuff that people enjoy and that are now a full part of popular culture.

Happily, there is another new wave coming in France with young geek directors who grew up watching Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Die Hard and so on. They are Florent Emilio Siri, Alexandre Aja, Xavier Gens, Yannick Dahan, Benjamin Rocher, Eric Valette,... They love movies and they want to direct some real action flicks. Next to French comedy or "films d'auteur", we currently see more and more horror films and hard boiled polar.

Fred Cavayé belongs to that band. His first movie was Pour Elle; a well done French polar where a husband has to get his wife out of jail. His new movie is A Bout Portant and for a second movie, IT ROCKS !!

The story line is half a remake of Pour Elle. At the exception, that the main character is an average man,  like you, me so the audience assimilate to him right now. His pregnant wife got kidnapped after he has saved the life of a gangster : Sartet (Rozchdy Zem, our badass guy) in emergency. He has three hours to get the Hugo Sartet out. But nothing is going to happen as scheduled.

The first half hour of the movie is very well written. It sets the bases of the story, making sure that no question will be later asked regarding who's who and why they act like this. The action is then unleashed and, what a thrill  The huge chase in the French subway without shaky cam made me totally stunned, YES WE CAN !!!

The Nest and Une Affaire D'Etat re-opened a long time forgotten way  for French action movies. I hope A Bout Portant will be a success so we can have more of this. The emotion is purely sensitive for the last hour, it's almost primary, really brilliant.

It is like Friedkin's Hunted, where few words are spoken, so the audience's reflection isn't insulted. No flat message like "Money is bad" "Sarkozy is evil",... That is just the story of a man who wants to get back his wife. That is a reborn for French polar; like if Henri Verneuil and Jean Pierre Melville were back in town. And never Gerard Lanvin has been so badass on screen. After ten years of stupid movies, this guy shows an amazing potential. USE IT !!!!

5/6 a must see!

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