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31 out of 35 people found the following review useful: A highly successful French thriller by Mathieu Kassovitz..., 10 May 2004 Author: decibelio from Bremerhaven, Germany
...who is famous for his intelligent films about social issues; such as 'La Haine'. The suspenseful story, IMO often wrongfully compared to David Fincher's 'Se7en' because of its seemingly similar thematic elements, is set in the French Alps, in the fictitious towns of Guernon and Sarzac. The marvellous scenery contributes a lot to the overall mysterious atmosphere of the film and is an ideal background for the movie's convincing cast. This is especially true for the leading roles which are portrayed by two of the most talented French actors: Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel.The plot is based on a novel by Jean-Christophe Grange who, together with director Mathieu Kassovitz, also developed the screenplay. With the book being quite complicated due to its many carefully intertwined lines of action, a lot had to be simplified, altered or simply cut out, a well-known issue with adaptations. Unfortunately, many of the novel's explanatory scenes were omitted, so that ,you end up with a film which is not boring but quite confusing', as main actor Vincent Cassel puts it correctly. The following is a basic plot summary that intends to spoil as little of the story as possible:Commissaire Pierre Niemans is called to the remote university town of Guernon to solve a gruesome murder case in which the victim - the university's librarian - was brutally tortured and mutilated. Neither the university officials nor the students prove to be too helpful during the investigation and Niemans soon gets the impression that there is something very suspicious about the whole situation. Meanwhile, Commissaire Max Kerkerian investigates the desecration of a grave in Sarzac. Soon it turns out that the seemingly unrelated cases are strangely connected with each other and, after a second corpse is found, the two very unlike cops team up to discover a long kept secret. This knowledge eventually gets them into life-threatening situations, the most deadly of them marking the end of the movie, which is set on top of a huge, snow-covered glacier.The acting is simply excellent: Jean Reno portrays Niemans as a surly, reserved but brilliant professional with an attitude that often offends the people around him, even if he does not mean to. Vincent Cassel is Max Kerkerian, a quite lively character, sharp-witted but at times lacking self-control and totally unconventional in his methods (the book even mentions him being a former car-thief). The third leading role, Fanny Ferreira, a glaciologist working at the university and the one to find the first corpse, is portrayed by Nadia Farés. Her enigmatic character is more involved in the mystery than it seems.The action is greatly enhanced by the spectacular panoramic views and camera trails used for the location shooting, even though the opening scene, where the camera follows Niemans' car as it approaches the first crime scene, is obviously a rip-off of Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'. One scene shows Niemans and Ferreira, the scientist, descending a glacier, a dangerous shot for which huge cranes had to be transported to the glacier in order to secure the actors. The wonderful score was composed by Bruno Coulais, who managed to provide each scene with the appropriate musical background.As stated before, major changes were necessary to transfer the complex novel onto the screen. The outcome was that many viewers felt puzzled by the movie's abrupt, confusing and seemingly illogical ending, as much is left out in the film where the book provides extensive background information. This is where the movie's biggest flaw lies. Other alterations include the renaming of Karim Abdouf (novel) to Max Kerkerian (film). While his characteristics remained more or less the same, it was the author's original intention to include a police officer of Algerian origin in the story. The characters in general are darker in the novel where Niemans even kills a hooligan before the actual story begins. The conspiracy revealed by the cops is larger and was also one of the aspects which were simplified for the movie.All in all, one could complain that some of the action scenes look rather out of place, like Kerkerian's fight with two skinheads or the obligatory car chase later on in the film. The 'mismatched-cop scenario' is not too innovative either, but since it is depicted in such a unique way, it would be unfair to dismiss it as a cliché. While I can only reiterate that it may be difficult to completely grasp the movie at once, it is not at all impossible to follow the storyline as some have claimed. ,The Crimson Rivers' is definitely a great movie in its genre, featuring spectacular camera shots and an excellent cast and is in this vein well worth a visit.
26 out of 32 people found the following review useful: Brilliant French thriller, 16 August 2001 Author: Mika Pykäläaho (bygis80@hotmail.com) from Järvenpää, Finland
I don't know why but I don't usually bother to go all the way to a movie theater to check out a French movie. This time I made an exception and I'm really glad I did. "Les Rivières pourpres" was an extremely nice surprise - truly a magnificent piece of first-rate acting (Jean Reno - man who touched us in Luc Besson's "Léon" and made us laugh in "Les Visiteurs" - is in one of his top roles and Vincent Cassel plays his clever sidekick) combined with a fabulous and dizzyingly surprising plot, maybe a bit complex but still so brilliantly built that story holds perfectly together and by getting wilder and wilder makes sure that the audience will not be bored at anytime.Film begins with an abhorrent close-ups of a slashed corpse that's being eaten by worms. If you consider yourself to be a a sensitive person I have to warn that it will definitely not be the only grotesque image "Les Rivières pourpres" offers, it's just the beginning. Sometimes movie looks almost like a horror flick but these tiny little shocks with gore here and there are still one of the key elements of the movie. It's partly what keeps the excitement alive.If I would have to compare "Les Rivières pourpres" to something even slightly similar, "Seven" is just about the only flick that pops into my head. Of course it's a completely different movie but it's the only one that I can recall that has captured exactly the same pressuring ambience as in here. "Les Rivières pourpres" is a very dark and dreary film that can easily make you feel anxious or even sick - just like "Seven". Both of 'em are still movies definitely worth watching in spite of anything. At the end of "Les Rivières pourpres" you'll be pleased you indulged yourself with a perfect thriller experience. Excellent movie, don't miss it!
21 out of 27 people found the following review useful: An okay story with excellence of execution., 16 October 2001 Author: George Parker from Orange County, CA USA
"The Crimson Rivers" tells of two French detectives on converging investigative paths leading to the "who" in whodunit as they leapfrog from one tense moment to the next in this good but not great macabre and sometimes gruesome serial killer mystery. What this flick lacks in story it more than makes up for in artistry and verve as it carves itself out of hauntingly beautiful vistas, superb cinematography, great sound and score, and, perhaps best of all for English speakers, excellent dubbed translations. Well worth the time for those with an eye for artistry in film and a taste for dark thrillers.
9 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Stunning thriller, good story and characters, marred by badly thought-out finale, 12 August 2001 Author: agc110 from Canberra, Australia
Echoes of "The Boys From Brazil" and "Name of the Rose" in this fast-moving, gorgeously-set (small alpine towns near Grenoble) French thriller, which has a really nasty conspiracy in a closed community as an underlying subplot. Two interleaved storylines involve two detectives in towns 100 km apart. Young, feisty Kerkerian (Cassel) is investigating the desecration of the tomb of a young girl. Meanwhile, supersleuth Niemans (Reno) is drafted in from Paris to assist local gendarmes in solving a nasty torture-murder of an academic at a small private University. More bodies turn up, suspects become victims, and eventually the paths of the two cops cross. Visually utterly beautiful, particularly the College, the Library, and the glacier/ice tunnel scenes. Characters strongly drawn and sympathetic. One pretty straight fight scene, little dwelling on active perpetration of violence, but much lingering on the unpleasantly gory aftermath. This is particularly the case with the rather gratuitous opening sequence, which is overdone relative to the rest of the film. My main cavil involves the poor ending, where a last-minute surprise twist creates more loose ends than it ties up. Nevertheless, so watchable that this one gets 9/10.
10 out of 12 people found the following review useful: I especially like the dialogue between the two detectives, 16 August 2004 Author: raymond-15 from Australia
The isolated University of Guernon specializes in the study of eugenics through which the researchers hope to produce academics of the highest calibre. Chief Inspector Niemans (Jean Reno) is called from Paris to investigate an horrific murder involving torture of the University's research librarian(close your eyes if mutilated bodies offend you)...At the same time a local police officer is looking into the desecration of a grave in the local cemetery. Some intriguing clues ( a bit far-fetched though)bring the two investigations together.The two policeman have a strange relationship. The Chief from Paris is rather a loner who has his own ideas while the energetic local officer is kept at arm's length until he producers a clue of his own. The dialogue between these two keeps the film alive. The rest of the characters behave in suspicious ways of course but on the whole play minor roles.Dissection of bodies and opening of grave sites are always gruesome and not every one's idea of entertainment. In this film they are important parts of the plot and certainly add to the atmosphere. It's strange when you come to think of it that police have to do so much of their work by torch light. But then the shadows are greatly enhanced and who knows what may jump out at them!The police get very little help from the suspicious-looking University staff, a fact which surprises me considering their lives are possibly in danger.For me the final scene when all is revealed is quite a let-down after a reasonably interesting investigation. The solving of the crime in this way seems just a little too convenient. The final avalanche was more exciting than the solving of the crime.
12 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Solid and compelling French thriller, 27 September 2005 Author: Max_cinefilo89 from Italy
The novel by Jean-Cristophe Grangè on which this film is based is simply one of the best thrillers ever written,in the same league as The Silence of the Lambs and Misery,and with the help of writer/director Mathieu Kassovitz(who was also supposed to be one of the actors)the author has successfully brought his masterpiece to the screen.From the very beginning,thanks to the location and Bruno Coulais'unsettling score,we realize French people can make good horror thrillers: Pierre Niemans(Jean Reno) is in Grenoble to solve a couple of weird and brutal murders,while Max Kerkerian(Vincent Cassel)investigates a damaged tomb somewhere else. Soon they discover the two cases are connected,and the two men have to run against the clock in order to uncover the awful truth about what's been going on in the local university for years.The book has been simplified(the first chapter is entirely missing,as well as some of the details about Cassel's case),but the movie manages to be very interesting,and the chemistry between Reno and Cassel is great.Special praise for Dominique Sanda,her creepy cameo being the film's best sequence(Sissy Spacek appears in a similar scene in The Ring 2).Only defect:why did they make the sequel?
16 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Great Movie, But With a Deceptive Conclusion, 28 August 2005 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In Guernon, an isolated mountain area where the local University rules the town, the Chief Inspector Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno) arrives from Paris to investigate a hideous crime, when the victim was tortured and mutilated before dying. Meanwhile, Detective Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel) comes to the same place, following the investigation of a profaned tomb of a young girl. They join forces and find a plot of eugenics in the University, with abductions, murders and revenge.Yesterday I saw this great movie again, trying to find some answers to questions I raised the first time I saw it four years ago. Unfortunately, they have no explanations along the story. "Les Rivières Pourpres" has magnificent locations, maybe the most beautiful landscapes I have seen in a crime movie. The cast is outstanding, highlighting the charismatic Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. However, the screenplay has flaws and presents a deceptive conclusion. My questions are: (1) If Judith was kidnapped in the nursery of the hospital, exchanged by the daughter of another person, what happened to the other child? (2) Who raised Judith, if her mother got crazy and went to a dark cell in a convent? (3) If her mother knew where her other daughter was, why didn't she go to the French justice and fight to retrieve the child? (4) How Judith found and approached Fanny? Anyway, usually worths watching serial killer stories and this one is very above the average. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Rio Vermelhos" ("Red Rivers")
22 out of 37 people found the following review useful: I really liked it, 25 June 2001 Author: (saschahallaschka@yahoo.de) from Kassel, Germany
I really liked LES RIVIÈRES POURPRES.When I first heard of this movie, I thought: "What an unusual, interesting and poetic title! I wonder what this movie might be all about! It could interest me." Then I saw this absolutely fantastic movie poster, which I still like a lot: a beautiful red - I had to think of the title again! - with the two protagonists in the background and some red blurs (the blood cells, of course, but I didn't know that then).Then I learned something about the movie's content and thought: "Usually, I don't like serial killer movies at all, because often they're too violent, but that mostly concerns Hollywood movies. So, let's see, what the French made out of it!" Which I did shortly thereafter.And what shall I say? I really liked the movie, because it was full of suspense. It had two great lead actors: Jean Reno at his best (Watch his face, as he looks at the first corpse!), and a great Vincent Cassel, whom I didn't know before. The two stories in Guernon and Sarzac were well intertwined (save for the end, on which I will comment later on).The cinematography was overwhelming (for example the shots in the mountains, when Niémans drives to the crime scene in the very beginning, and those, when he and Fanny climb through the snowy mountains before finding the second corpse). And finally the soundtrack by Bruno Coulais was brilliantly adjusted to each scene.Moreover, I liked the movie for not being too violent. Although the victims were drastically tortured, before they were killed, neither the torture nor the killing is shown. And the violence is not "celebrated", which means it's not shown, as if it were any kind of fun or something the viewer also should do.Once again: Watch Niémans' face, while he looks at the first corpse; this scene shows clearly what he thinks of the torture and the killing and that it's absolutely barbaric and immoral to do a thing like that. Hollywood movies often don't show that as clearly (e. g.: Is John Doe in David Fincher's absolutely disgusting and way overrated SE7EN not in a way shown as being "sympathetic"?).Are there any weaknesses in this movie? Yes, of course there are. Firstly, there are the first scenes of the movie, while the credits start: The camera shows a rotting human corpse, which was a) quite disgusting, b) totally unnecessary, and c) in no connection to the movie. Because, of the corpses in LES RIVIÈRES POURPRES not one had the time to rot! (Think about it for thirty seconds - you will see that I'm right!)And then there's the end of the movie; let's say the last fifteen minutes. I must admit that I didn't really understand it completely, which in other words means that I don't think it's absolutely logical. In my opinion, it's quite stupid and very disappointing compared to everything in the movie that happened before (though I can't and won't tell you about the end in detail here; go see the movie for yourself!).Shakespeare wrote: "All's well that ends well." Does that mean everything's bad that has a bad end? (And let's face it: The end of LES RIVIÈRES POURPRES can in my opinion only be described as really bad!) The answer is no! Because for 90 of 105 minutes the movie is absolutely great and worth a watch.Behind BILLY ELLIOT and CHOCOLAT it's my third favourite movie of 2001 so far. And if not for the end, it could have easily taken the first place of this list.I'd like to rate it an 8, but because of the end I can't. So I rate it a 7. But it's a strong one.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Cutting-edge thriller!, 10 February 2004 Author: mailtoby from London, UK
Although french, this movie is better than most hollywood churned wannabes. A gripping thriller with a slightly outlandish plot revolving around genetics and nazism. But dont let that turn u off. The film is absolute edge-of-the-seat fare. Jean reno is good as usual but vincent cassel dishes out excellent acting nuances which add to his character. Great acting! The scenes set in winter among the French Rhone Alpes are breath taking to say the least. The thrills keep on coming without having to take resort to loud background music, which make these moments even more rivetting. The english dubbing is good without too many quirks. RECOMMENDED! [Writing "Highly Recommended" would make you biased! ;-)]
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful: I'm talking about Demons, and you talk to me about the police?, 26 July 2007 Author: lastliberal from Florida
Mathieu Kassovitz's film featuring the incomparable Jean Reno (The Professional) and Vincent Cassel (Ocean's Twelve, Ocean's Thirteen) is a thrill ride that never stops.The French countryside with the spooky houses is a feast for the eyes. Thierry Arbogast's (The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc) camera made this entire film a joy to watch. The scenery was complimented by the music of Bruno Coulais (The Chorus).But, it was Jean Reno that brought me to this film. His Commissioner Niemans was just what I expected from him. He has a way that makes the perfect cop. That is not to dismiss Callel's Lieutenant Kerkerian, who was a perfect partner.The story was definitely creepy with some graphic scenes of tortured bodies, but it was not off putting. It was essential to the story, which really had some extremely interesting twists and turns.Niemans and Kerkerian prevail, of course, but it was the journey that was so satisfying.
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