Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
adonis98-743-186503
A murder detective must follow the footsteps of a brutal killer within the secrets of a classist college. Take out the dubbing that is pretty obvious and this is an underrated thriller that is non stop action but also is surrounded by a great mystery movies like this is how thrillers should look like not only jump scares and things like that they should be smart, action packed if they have to and make you care about the characters. The Crimson Rivers also packs by 2 strong performances by Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel who play 2 cops that have to work together in order to find the killer also the murders and the way the bodies are being found is something pretty smart and even tho not original it's still some disgusting in a good way always.
SnoopyStyle
Parisian police commissioner Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno) is called in to investigate a murder of 32-year old single professor Rémy Caillois of mountain-side picturesque university in Gueron. He's been horribly beaten left naked in a fetal position on the side of a mountain. The university is an isolated self-sufficient incestuous place. Meanwhile volatile inspector Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel) is investigating a grave desecration and a school break in.I really like the start with the creepy isolated location and the vicious murder investigation. I like the tone of it and I love Jean Reno's work. Then they split the movie into two investigations. I have nothing against Vincent Cassel or his side of the story. I just couldn't wait for them to get back to Reno. It just breaks up the movie and takes away the tension. The two investigations give off different tones anyways. Around midway, the two detectives are forced together but it needed to happen sooner. They form a fine combative duo. With more time together, they could create more chemistry in the relationship. The mystery is a convoluted one and not altogether satisfying. There is just one too many craziness going on.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
This film was shot in English for the main actors and not dubbed afterwards, or if it was it was by these main actors. That gives them a sort of flat accent, without being French, yet not quite natural. The film is an action film in the Alps, in winter, with breath-taking scenes in the mountains, even an avalanche. The plot itself is simple but at the end only. They keep us in the blue or the dark all along. A French university that was trying to produce the perfect race by manipulating the genes of people by organizing their births and shifting babies around in a maternity to make sure the selection worked. That required quite a lot of planning and secrecy and all of it criminal to the utmost. Till twin survivors of these swamps arrive on campus and start cleaning up the plate and that's when the police comes into the picture. All that is rather simple as I said but with the French art of hiding up the truth as long as possible and transporting us from right to left and dumping us in the middle so that we are finally amazed by the simplicity that we had not seen of course. And the eyes being an essential element in this criminal case we are those who are tickled around the gills. But for a bunch of girls they did a good job at keeping the police at bay and us panting.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
Graham Greene
The best detective stories allow their central arc of enigmatic mystery to unravel slowly, leaving behind a trail of clues for the audience to follow. Therefore, it is important when adapting the story to a medium such as film that the clues aren't signalled too early, giving the audience the chance to search in the dark with only a few subtle elements of light to work with. It is also important that the film and its various strands of character, theme and narrative all eventually lead to the same place, confounding but also confirming what the viewer had expected all along.The Crimson Rivers (2000) by La Haine (1995) director Mathieu Kassovitz sticks to this method fairly closely for the most part; giving us the usual archetypes familiar from this kind of heavily investigatory detective fiction alongside the usual contemporary preoccupations with dark, gloomy, atmospheric visuals and intriguing, idiosyncratic characters. It is also refreshing to see a director intelligent enough to allow the film's location to become the centre of their story; framing his scenes so that the ominous presence of the towering French Alps casts a foreboding and omnipotent shadow across these characters and the story itself to perfectly set up a certain sense of the foreshadowing of later, thematic events. As the Alps hold a serious significance over the direction the narrative will take, Kassovitz understandably exploits the set up perfectly; using forced perspectives to give the impression of the characters gradually being surrounded, even asphyxiated by the landscape, to create a more potent feeling of suffocating claustrophobia.The idea of claustrophobia is mirrored by the interior production design, which dwarfs our protagonists against low ceilings cracked with damp, drab, monochromatic tones and deeper shades of autumn, and stark, naturalistic lighting with plenty of shadows. These visuals complement the narrative beautifully, going beyond the obvious and somewhat lazy comparisons to David Fincher's classic detective thriller Se7en (1996) to create a style and atmosphere that seems just right for this kind of twisted, slow-building set up. The story is admittedly fairly well worn, with two seemingly mismatched cops thrown together in the pursuit of a vicious serial killer and slowly developing a strong bond as their lives and rank are thrown into jeopardy and confusion. So essentially we're dealing with the typical buddy-cop clichés, though with more believability and less reliance on comic relief, with any real attempt at humour usually undercut by the explicitness of the violence and that fantastic air of dark, disturbing dread.The central performances from Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel are both very good, with Reno portraying the older, wiser, more intuitive detective paired off with Cassel's headstrong loose cannon. Combined with that fantastic build up of slow burning tension, the intricacies of the plot and the thick air of pure atmospheric dread, we should be looking at a standout, A+, modern-day crime thriller. Unfortunately, the last ten minutes of the film suffer from a serious drop off, creating a dénouement worthy of the worst kind of late night B-movie or TV thriller. It's a real shame too, with the first hour of the film creating such a searing and enigmatic sense of mystery that really draws us, in before the pieces of the puzzle are blown away by a bizarre climax that stretches plausibility beyond breaking point. As a result, the ending seems like an anachronism within the film's post-modern framework; offering us all the answers presented at once in a manner that seems incredibly lazy and unfair given the great sense of mystery that was previously unfolding.In this respect, I would draw comparisons to two of the most recent films by Italian horror/thriller director Dario Argento, in particular Sleepless (2000) and The Card Player (2004). Both of these films feature a great first half rife with mystery and suspense, but loose it in the final act with a complete disregard for logic, character or the thrill of expectation. In similar fashion, the first hour of The Crimson Rivers is excellent; great style, great characters and a story that pulls us in. Unfortunately, the pace cannot be maintained and the end of the film will no doubt leave many viewers angry, confused and severely disappointed.
