De sang et d'encre (2008 TV Movie) User Reviews

Good acting, pretty faces, predictable tale with WWII roots

[adrianovasconcelos · 6/10 · 6 May 2024]

I do not know anything about Director Charlotte Brändström's work but from DE SANG ET D'ENCRE one can tell that she pays attention to detail. Cinematography by Pascal Gennesseaux is top drawer, restrained acting by the exceptionally good looking couple of Florence Pernell, as publishing house owner, and Stéphane Freiss as police captain Marc Simon, deserves praise, and the script by Lorraine Lévy is the only element that disagrees with the quality evident in the rest of this opus: it suffers from excessive predictability, and the gimmick of lumping in Jewish concentration camp survivors more than 60 years after the end of WWII just seems too pat, too used, too contrived.

Anyway, it warrants a watch but certainly nothing too involved or that anyone would remember a week later. 6/10.

Old sins casting long shadows

[myriamlenys · 5/10 · 15 June 2023]

Julie Martial is one of the owners/managers of an independent publishing house. She's very fond of her job, just like she's very fond of the idea of belonging to a hard-working dynasty. Out of the blue, she starts receiving ominous letters that speak of real-life crimes being committed. Meanwhile the police are struggling to get a handle on the motives of an unusually bold and determined killer...

"De sang et d'encre" is a made-for-television "polar" about the hunt for a serial killer whose motives, at first, are as mysterious as the abyssal depths of the sea. When his motives do become clear, they turn out to be related to a particularly sad and shocking event dating back to World War II. The movie tries to combine a truly tragic subject matter with the trappings of a modern thriller of the glossily violent variety. The combination of subject and packaging isn't all that successful. The movie is probably best watched, and appreciated, for its lively performances and its interesting professional setting.

I'm sorry to say that I took a serious dislike to the supposed heroine, not because of the way the character was acted but because of the way the character was written. This must be one of the most stupid and irresponsible characters in modern "polar" history - she's literally pushing people into the maws of death by not sharing her knowledge with the police. It's heroines like that who set the cause of feminism back for a century.