Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Red-Barracuda A job goes wrong for two safe-crackers and a security guard is murdered. The thief who committed the murder escapes punishment and his partner is convicted for the crime he was responsible for. After being sentenced to twenty years, he uses his skills to escape and winds up befriending a man who owns a cafe/filling station in the mountains. When his young wife discovers the safe-cracker's past, she blackmails him into opening her husband's safe. Needless to say, the husband catches them in the act and is accidentally killed in the process. Not long after the ex-partner hooks up with his colleague on the run and the plot thickens further.This French crime-drama is an example of a very dark neo-noir. Every character we encounter in the cast is bad on at least some level. It's a world populated with people of different shades of dark grey, with greed and lust the main emotions of motivation. At the centre of the drama is an anti-hero who is caught in a web spun by a femme fatale, who is out to get all she can. But these are no one dimensional characters, for example the gold digging young wife acts very selfishly, yet you do sort of sympathise with her powerless position in life as a possession of her old and unattractive husband; while at the same time we understand the reasons why everyone does what they do, they all seem to be caught in traps of some kind or other. Acting is very good with Robert Hossein leading the piece and Jean Sorel his partner in crime, but perhaps it is Catherine Rouvel who is most memorable as the femme fatale whose actions propel the drama into tragedy.

morrison-dylan-fan With having become a fan of the under rated BollyWood Noir genre after seeing the terrific 2008 adaptation of James Hadley Chase's There's Always A Price Tag film Maharathi,and also interested in taking a look at the work of Robert Hossein,after being left breathless from co-writer/actor/director Hossein's tragically overlooked Spaghetti Western Cemetery Without Crosses,I was shocked to recently discover that Hossein and Chase's paths had crossed,thanks to Hossein starring in co-writer/director Julien Duviver's Film Noir adaptation of Chase's Come Easy-Go Easy.Excited about seeing Hossein enter Chase's Noir world,I decided to pull up a chair so that I could hopefully witness the Poule enter a dark,and deadly Noir world.The plot:Suspecting a recent customers's safe to contain some very high- priced item,friends and work mates Daniel Boisett and Paul Genest decide to take advantage of their job as safe repairmen,and plan a heist of a client's safe that they have recently repaired.Entering the clients apartment under the cover of darkness,Daniel and Paul skillfully open the safe,and are delighted to find more valuables than they ever could have imagined.Sadly for Boisett and Genest,their moment of joy is stopped in its tracks,when their now betrayed customers makes a surprise early return.Pushing their former client out of the way,Daniel and Paul attempt to make a joint escape out of the hotel,but are sadly forced to go their separate ways,when the hotel security guard shoots one of Boisett lungs and stops him from reaching Genest's getaway car.Staying loyal to his only friend,Daniel refuses to reveal in court who the person was that teamed up with him for the attempted robbery.Sentanced to 20 years, Boisett begins to get himself ready to live the next 2 decades of his life behind bars.On the long train journey to the prison,the guards decide to take a short break,which leads to Daniel using his wits and escaping from the guards as quickly as possible.Fearing that he is a marked man,Boisett starts to walk to a small village,where Daniel hopes he will be able to find an isolated safe house that will keep the cops off his tracks.Walking to the village,Boisett runs into a man called Thomas,who is in desperate need for help in re-starting his car.Helping Thomas to fix his car,Boisett is left speechless,when Thomas tells Daniel (who is using a fake name) that as a thank you for the help Boisett gave him repairing the car,he would be more than happy to stop Daniel "drifting" for a few days,by giving him a room at a petrel station/café/motel that Thomas runs with his second wife,Maria. Relived about being given a place of residence on the outskirts of the quiet village,Daniel begins to suspect that things may not be as quiet in the Thomas's workplace as they appear on the outside,when Thomas introduces his second wife Maria,who Boisett soon begins to fear may have gotten married to Thomas,for something other than love…View on the film:Setting off a Film Noir mist across the movie within the first 5 minutes,director Julien Duviver and cinematography Leonce-Henri Burel stylishly reveal the near total lack of "light" that will be allowed to enter any of the character's lives,by making sharp,lightning like burst of raindrops be the only source that brings to light how disastrous Genest and Boisett heist goes.Keeping all of the character's in the grip of darkness that is released at the start,Duviver gives the daylight scenes a chilling atmosphere of a storm erupting at any second,thanks to Duviver expertly over exposing the light in this terrific Film Noir,which help to give the scenes a razor's edge intensity of the darkness decaying the signs of light in the movie.For the night scenes in the film,Duviver gives the the movie a tremendous Gothic feel,by using thundering showers to reveal the muddying waters that are bubbling away,which contain Maria's real reason for being in "love" with Thomas.Along with his expert eye for stylish lighting,Duviver also uses long,well handled tracking shots to subtle show,that instead of being an "escape to freedom",Boisett's acceptance of Thomas's kind offer,gradually transforms into Boisett finding himself corned by far deadlier things than those that he attempted to escape from.Appearing unexpectedly fresh faced looking in the film,Robert Hossein gives an excellent performance as Daniel Boisett,with Hossein peeling away Boisett's dreams & desires with an unflinching rawness,which gradually uncovers,that behind Boisett's "innocent" face,lays a man who is literal prepared to laugh into an inferno of hell.Joining Hossein,Georges Wilson gives an extremely well balanced performance as Thomas,with Wilson making Thomas kindness never feel forced,whilst also setting Thomas up to be the unlucky fall guy,due to being the only person in this shadowy world who has any sign of optimism.Contrating Wilson's cheerful performance,the gorgeous Catherine Rouvel gives a wonderfully icy performance as femme fatale Maria,with Rouvel curling the corner of her lips ever time Maria declares her feeling for Thomas,that quickly changes into a wicked smile,as Maria unleashes the deadly venom that she has saved for Thomas and Boisett.

writers_reign What constitutes noir? Urban setting, check. Rain-splattered street, check. Larceny, check. Gunshots, check. All the above are present and correct in the opening MINUTES of Chair de poule and a femme fatale isn't far behind. This was Julien Duviviers penultimate movie in a career spanning seven decades and coming as it did at the tail end of the new wavelet I like to think it helped to see off that pretentious hiccup which temporarily blighted a Great Film industry. Having opened on two men sitting in a car as torrential rain lashes the city streets Duvivier has them proceed to break in to a private home, get caught in the act of opening the safe by the owner, engage in a struggle involving gunshots and flee the scene. Then, taking a leaf out of Jacques Tourneur's book he moves the whole noir genre to the great outdoors (Tourneur shot most of Out Of The Past in a rural setting). Robert Hossein, fleeing the crime scene is given a lift by a somewhat naive filling station owner who offers him room, board, and a job which involves access to his sultry wife. You may be ahead of me here because yes, it does smack of The Postman Always Rings Twice but we're talking Duvivier here and he turns the whole thing up a notch introducing a fourth character where Postman was confined to three. He keeps the thing moving remorselessly to a climax that's Greek in its inevitability. Not to be missed.

dbdumonteil In France ,nobody did film noirs like Duvivier.They say he invented the genre with his "Pepe le Moko" (1937).Duvivier's films noirs are as pessimistic as it can be.His characters are pitiful at best or evil.All along his brilliant career,from "Poil de Carotte" to "La fin du Jour" to "voici le temps des assassins",Duvivier was the poet of the blackness of the human soul,he used to paint the inmost depths of greed and perversity.Chabrol has sometimes equaled him ,never surpassed.Along with Clouzot,he reigns over the French film noir."Chair de poule " :those were the days of the Nouvelle Vague and Duvivier's work was dismissed as cheesy "cinema de qualité".Those were the days.But Duvivier's work survived.Hadley Chase's book resembles "the postman always rings twice" but Duvivier manages to take its noir side to new limits.In Cain's work,love did exist between the two leads.Here greed ,rapaciousness.Nothing else.Welcome to Duvivier's world.As I wrote above ,Duvivier's characters are either pitiful and meek (Daniel,Thomas) or pure evil(Maria,the old man and his ugly offspring ,Paul).The odd couple (the not-so-handsome hubby and his sexy wife) was already in "Voici le temps des assassins"(1956).The only living being we can trust seems to be a dog ,an animal that plays an important part in both movies.Maria (Catherine Rouvel) recalls often Catherine (Danielle Delorme) but her sensuality is more aggressive .Duvivier 's directing is perfect :he treats one of his scenes like a true western:"this is the Wild West" Paul says while entering the eating-house.And Rouvel ,trying to learn the combination of the safe from a wounded Hossein,reminds me of Von Stroheim's "greed". Duvivier avoids all the easy way outs ,all the Hollywood tricks, and his movies are among the few we can call "genuine" film noirs.The last part,which drags all the characters towards doom,culminates in an apocalyptic scene ,with the final pictures depicting Hell's antechamber.Although not looked upon as one of Duvivier's best,"Chair de poule " was great ,coming from a sixty-something who had perhaps never made a truly bad film.A remake was filmed in Thailand.