Total Kheops (2002)
Directed by Alain Bévérini

Film Review

For his first film, actor-turned director Alain Bévérini opted to adapt a respectable crime novel by Jean-Claude Izzo. The result is a stylish but ponderous crime thriller which has all the qualities of the classic French policier but tends to get somewhat bogged down in cliché and convention.  The post noir cinematography and menacing musical score help to make up for the deficiencies in the mundane script and Bévérini's distinctly unadventurous mise-en-scène, lending the atmosphere and tension the film badly needs to maintain our interest.

Total Kheops complicates what is already a complex plot by inserting into the main narrative flashback sequences depicting the principal characters' rebellious youth.  This obvious attempt at cobbled-on sophistication serves merely to undermine the pace and dramatic thrust of the film, preventing it from being the first-rate thriller it ought to have been. Not only do the flashbacks disrupt the narrative flow, they contribute practically nothing to the story and could so easily have been omitted.

On the plus side, there is a superb central performance from Richard Bohringer, who is at his best in the kind of taciturn, thick-skinned role that the film offers him - a modern variation on the classic film noir hero. In a part that calls to mind the actor's role in Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva (1981), Bohringer alone rises above the overall mediocrity of the production - his co-stars Marie Trintignant (one of her last films before her untimely death in 2003) and Daniel Duval fail to have much of an impact and deserve far better. The film's location, present day Marseille, is well-chosen and contributes a great deal to the claustrophobic mood of the piece - it is hard to believe it is the same location as the one featuring in Robert Guédiguian's films (Marius et Jeannette (1997), etc.).

Film Synopsis

Present day Marselles.  On the day of his release from jail, Manu is shot down after a nocturnal safe-cracking job.  His death is mourned not only by his girlfriend, Lole, but also his two long-standing male friends, Ugo and Fabio.  Ugo avenges the death of his friend by killing Zucca, a gangster boss, before being shot dead himself by armed police.  This leaves Fabio.  Whilst investigating the murders, he recalls the wild late adolescence he shared with Ugo and Manu.  All three were in love with Lole and passed their time by perpetrating petty crimes.  Whereas Ugo and Manu went on to pursue a career in crime, Fabio decided to become a law enforcer.  The death of his friends provides Fabio with a reason for taking on some powerful enemies - the mafia and right-wing extremists - with predictable consequences…