The Taiwanese director Hsiao Kang is tasked with making a film about the
Biblical character Salome on the premises of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
To his way of thinking, nobody is better suited to play the role of King
Herod than the veteran French actor and Nouvelle Vague icon Jean-Pierre Léaud,
but whilst Kang gets his way with this casting choice, the selection of the
actress to play the title role of Salome is entirely in the hands of the
film's producers. Anxious that the film should make as much money as
possible, the latter opt for a famous and highly photogenic celebrity, namely
a top model. It isn't long before the film's production starts to go
horribly awry. Kang's inability to speak either French or English doesn't
exactly help matters, but when he learns that his mother has just died the
director seems to go into a deep trance from which nothing will awaken him.
Left to their own devices, the actors wander about and soon lose their way
in the strange, undiscovered world beneath the ancient palace...
Cast: Kang-sheng Lee (Kang, the director),
Yi-Ching Lu (Kang's mother),
Fanny Ardant (The producer),
Jean-Pierre Léaud (Antoine),
Laetitia Casta (The Star),
Norman Atun (Man in the boat),
Jeanne Moreau (Jeanne),
Nathalie Baye (Nathalie),
Mathieu Amalric (Man in bushes),
Samuel Ganes (Le garçon du buisson),
Olivier Martinaud (The young father),
François Rimbau (Régisseur),
Shiang-chyi Chen,
Chao-jung Chen
Country: France / Taiwan / Belgium / Netherlands
Language: French / Mandarin / English
Support: Color
Runtime: 138 min
Aka:Face
The very best French thrillers
It was American film noir and pulp fiction that kick-started the craze for thrillers in 1950s France and made it one of the most popular and enduring genres.
In the 1940s, the shadowy, skewed visual style of 1920s German expressionism was taken up by directors of American thrillers and psychological dramas, creating that distinctive film noir look.