Une affaire d'état (2009)
Directed by Eric Valette

Film Review

With Une affaire d'état, director Éric Valette makes his first foray into thriller intrigue, having had some success in the fantasy-horror genre with his debut feature Maléfique (2002) and American remake of Takashi Miike's One Missed Call (2008).  This is a comparatively modest transition given that Valette cut his directorial teeth on France's premier satirical show, Les Guignols de l'info, in the late 1990s.  Adapted from Dominique Manotti's novel Nos fantastiques années fric, Valette's third feature is a bold, compelling but somewhat over-worked variation on the classic French polar (in the Yves Boisset line), viewed through the prism of the American western.

Une affaire d'état is a stylish, intelligently scripted production that succeeds in holding the attention, in spite of its increasingly hard-to-fathom plot contrivances and recurring waves of  slightly off-putting self-conscious artistry.  With its allusions to corruption in high places and sinister state-orchestrated intrigue, it is a knowing homage to the murky neo-polars of the late 1970s, and Valette's attempts to beef things up with some liberally applied modern tropes (including all-pervasive music that soon becomes distracting) serve merely to weaken the film's impact and credibility.

With his penchant for ambiguous character portrayals,  André Dussollier is a superlative choice for the role of the slippery government official who cannot separate his professional duties from his private ambitions.  His is as compelling a performance he has ever brought to a film of this kind, and there is hardly a scene in which he doesn't manage to send cold shivers down your spine with his cynically motivated manoeuvres.

Thierry Frémont makes an effective contrast as Dussollier's strong-arm man - a more transparent manifestation of evil, the hired killer who is so lacking in moral awareness that he would dispatch his own grandmother for the price of a pint.  Admittedly, the characterisation does tend to lean towards the Hollywood blockbuster stereotype, but the villainous lead portrayals have such a chilling resonance (it is so easy to see real-life counterparts in Dussollier's character) that you forgive this faux pas.  Une affaire d'état isn't flawless - inevitably, it gets snagged on its plot convolutions and Valette is trying perhaps a little too hard to impress his audience - but for all that it offers one heck of a ride.

Film Synopsis

Nora Chayd is a redoubtable police inspector who has more on her plate than she bargained for when she begins investigating the murder of a prostitute in the Pigalle district of Paris.  Nora's suspicions that she is getting herself into very deep water are borne out when her investigation leads her to Michel Fernandez, a one-time operative in the French secret services.  Fernandez has quit his former job and is now employed as the right-hand man of Victor Bornand, a senior government official concerned with African affairs.  Nicknamed 'Monsieur Afrique', the latter is doing everything within his power to contain a diplomatic crisis after an aeroplane laden with arms explodes over the Gulf of Guinea.

Encouraged by her immediate superior, Christophe Bonfils, Nora persists with her inquiries.  These lead her to the conclusion that the murder of the escort girl in Paris is in some way connected with the destruction of the arms carrying aeroplane thousands of miles away.  As she comes ever nearer to the truth, Nora finds her efforts are increasingly frustrated by some powerful shady individuals acting from the sidelines.  It would appear that someone high up in authority is going to a great deal of trouble to prevent the truth from coming out.  And no wonder - since this is an affair of state...