Revanche (2017)
Directed by Stéphane Roquet

Film Review

The actor Stéphane Roquet made his directing debut in 2016 with Revanche, a hardboiled urban thriller closely modelled on the American film noir model - Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (1971) being an obvious point of reference.  His main protagonist, Franck Bériat is an odd conflation of Harry Callahan and Philip Marlowe - a cynically minded outsider who, having sampled life on both sides of the law, now ekes out his existence as a private detective.  Like the hero of Siegel's film, Bériat (played with considerable gusto by Yves Bourgeois) is driven by an overriding sense of justice to act as a kind of avenging angel, dispensing his idea of judgement regardless of whether the law sanctions it or not.

Revanche is classic B-movie material and at times feels like too slavish a homage to the films that have gone before it, in both the classic American and French film noir moulds.  Admittedly there's not much in the way of originality on the writing side, but Roquet directs the film with flair and manages to sustain the tension and viewer interest throughout, showing particular skill with the well-choreographed action sequences.  Alas, the spectacle of gratuitous violence does become somewhat wearying towards the end, and the dearth of original plot and convincing characters ultimately prevents the film from making as much impact as it should.

Film Synopsis

Franck Bériat's life continues its relentless downwards trajectory when he embarks on a new career as an unlicensed private detective.  He has already screwed up his career as a cop and has spent several years in prison.  Now in his late thirties, he is hoping for something better.  Unfortunately, the gods do no seem to be on his side.  His latest saga of woes begins when a prostitute named Camille Dessonge contacts him and begs him to find the men who murdered her sister.  Franck immediately senses danger and his instinct is to reject the commission at once.

But the down-at-heel ex-cop needs the work and, more than that, he needs to prove to himself that he is capable of achieving something, so he reluctantly accepts the worrying assignment.  It proves to be another in a long, long line of stupid mistakes.  Before he knows it, Franck is caught up in fierce personal combat against the merciless Bando family, a criminal gang that seems to revel in mayhem and destruction.  As the bodies begin piling up around him, Franck has good reason to think that his luck has finally run out - not that he ever had any to start with.  He is one of life's natural born losers...