Chrysalis (2007/I)

Director:

Julien Leclercq

Writers:

Julien Leclercq (scenario and dialogue) and
Franck Philippon (scenario and dialogue) ...

Release Date:

31 October 2007 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

In the near future Paris, a cop is searching for his wife's killer. The trail leads him to a high tech medical clinic where everything is not what it seems. |

Plot Keywords:

Medical | Future | 2020s | Mind Control | Bare Chested Male Bondage

Cast

Albert Dupontel	...	David Hoffmann
Marie Guillard	...	Marie Becker
Marthe Keller	...	Professeur Brügen
Mélanie Thierry	...	Manon Brügen
Claude Perron	...	Miller
Alain Figlarz	...	Dimitri Nicolov / Danis Nicolov
Smadi Wolfman	...	Sarah
Patrick Bauchau	...	Charles Becker
Guy Lecluyse	...	Kovacs
Cyril Lecomte	...	Le légiste
Francis Renaud	...	Yuri
Manon Chevallier	...	Clémence
Estelle Lefébure	...	Clara
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mika Cotillon	...	Malik
Franck Goumah	...	Agent DST 2
Patrick Hamel	...	Jacques
Virginie Jaspart	...	Aide soignante
Andy King	...	Gianni
Baptiste Leclercq	...	Fumeur de drogue
Sebastien Libessart	...	Infirmier
Rémy Roubakha
Claudia Tagbo	...	Infirmiere
Aline Tcheou	...	Infirmiere chinoise
Olivier Vergès	...	Professeur Brügen's Assistant
Alex Waltz	...	Agent DST 1

Also Known As:

Avatar (France) (working title)

Runtime:

94 min | Canada:91 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:18A | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | France:-12 | Portugal:M/16 | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Gaumont

Movie Connections:

References A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Let's hope Julien Leclercq STOP directing movies like this.

Watching this movie to the end was such a real torture for multiple reasons that I had to share about my pain and frustration from this horrible experience. First, the story is so empty, dull and finally stupid that it could have been told in 15 minutes max. But much worst is the directing style that is terribly boring. It starts nicely visually like for an advertising for any high end contemporary luxury product; as if it was the only intention of the director, to prove that he could do it nicely (with tons of cash). But having to watch this commercial for more than 30 secs but a full hour and a half becomes very painful after just 15 minutes. The directing is terribly boring with endless very useless slow camera moves on cold architecture, useless moving cars, actors walking in or out for 20 secs or elevators elevating for a good 20 or 30 secs. What the hell?!? Mixed with fistfights with no visual interest, a very dumb and not plausible shooting while running scene where one cannot shoot another from 2 meters, and endless slow paced and useless scenes that should have been cut out or not even be shot to start with. Very soon, it all appears very pretentious. Because when they finally talk, foreigners might not hear it but the tone is often horribly false, especially with the German accent of the blond actress. Her tone is SO wrong. It becomes a torture like with very bad amateur karaoke singers. I do not understand how a director cannot hear it when editing. like a musician without hears. Dupontel who I usually always love despite very strange (bad) career choices has no lines here and is only one color tinted, making his character totally dull and boring after 20 minutes. Melanie Thierry is not bad but a bit transparent here despite extraordinary facial features. No characters has any interesting point besides the villain just because he remains a bit mysterious but we'll quickly discover that besides his strange eastern accent he has nothing more to deliver than pure brute stupid violence. Sublime former French model Estelle Lefébure took an honorable chance to show some of her unknown acting talents and truly did not fall in many traps and delivers as much emotion as the script allows her to; maybe even a bit more. But of course there was not much to deliver from the script and to remember particularly to start with. Overall I had to push "2x" faster button many many (too many) times to not fall asleep for a third time. This movie can only be an excellent "berceuse", something to go to sleep in 10-15 minutes if you don't mind having to start over the next day to this where it goes. And there is no spoil here in telling that it leads NOWHERE. Good Luck. pass your way. PS: On this same SciFi topic of memory manipulation, I just watched Paycheck from P.K. Dick and John Woo and that was way much better even if really not good neither. Mandchurian Candidate seems to keep staying one good reference.