Aux yeux de tous (2012)
Directed by Cédric Jimenez, Arnaud Duprey

Film Review

For their directorial debut feature, Arnaud Duprey and Cédric Jimenez start out with a brilliant and daringly original concept - to construct an entire film narrative from images captured by CCTV cameras and webcams - but fall down spectacularly in the execution.  As a producer, Jimenez already has a reputation for taking on risky projects, such as Scorpion (2007) and Eden Log (2007), but Aux yeux de tous is his biggest gamble yet: a modern urban thriller assembled in Cyberspace.  Doubtless there will soon be a stampede of filmmakers rushing to repeat the exercise, and whilst Duprey and Jimenez's film has its shortcomings, it deserves to be recognised as an innovative and possibly groundbreaking piece of cinema.

There are several things that prevent Aux yeux de tous from being the gripping thriller that would allow it to capitalise on its superb concept.   First and foremost, it requires you to be complete idiot if you are take any of its plot seriously.  There is a breathtaking gulf between the realism implied in the film's visual style (simulated security camera and webcam footage) and the lack of reality in the actual dramatic content.  The biggest offender is Mélanie Doutey's character, who could hardly be less convincing if she was made of Plasticine and went around with Mickey Mouse ears. Doutey is a more than capable actress (as she has already shown in La Fleur du mal (2003) and Une petite zone de turbulences (2010)), but here her acting skills are completely confounded by a character that is patently ridiculous - her naivety and sudden crisis of conscience after planting a lethal bomb appear laughably absurd after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  The failings in the script are too many to enumerate and are amplified by the generally sloppiness of the direction, which gives most of the simulated camera footage a horribly amateurish feel.  The filmmakers' attempts to build tension falls flat because we just don't have any emotional involvement with the characters. At no point is the spectator given the opportunity to engage with any of the protagonists and, as a result, watching the film is a pretty hollow and unrewarding experience.  With a tauter, more intelligent script and more disciplined direction, this could have been an exceptional film, rather than a missed opportunity.

The one thing that Aux yeux de tous does having going for it is that it prompts us to reflect on the extent to which our society has become excessively monitored and question how much freedom we have left as a consequence.  What we have now is far in excess of the nightmare vision presented by George Orwell in his famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.  If the film is to be believed, privacy is well and truly a thing of the past.  Everything and everyone is being caught on camera,  our every waking moment available for anyone to watch at any time.  It is as if the harmless little box that used to sit so innocently in everyone's living room has suddenly grown and swallowed us all.  Day and night, every day of the week, we are all being continuously observed, and the scariest thing of all is that we have absolutely no idea who is watching us and for what purpose...

Film Synopsis

There are around half a million security cameras in France, a huge surveillance system that could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands...  When a hacker finds a way to access this system he witnesses a terrorist attack on the Gare d'Austerlitz, an attack that results in the deaths of several people ahead of the French presidential election.  The police are convinced that an Islamist terror group is behind the bombing but the hacker has evidence that proves the contrary.  Using the network of cameras that he has at his disposal, he follows the real bombers across the city and discovers that the attack on the train station is part of a much bigger campaign...