Vidocq (2001 film)

Vidocq
Film poster
Directed by Pitof
Produced by Dominique Farrugia
Written by Eugène François Vidocq
(memoirs)
Pitof
Jean-Christophe Grangé (screenplay)
Starring Gérard Depardieu
Guillaume Canet
Inés Sastre
André Dussollier
Music by Bruno Coulais
Cinematography Jean-Pierre Sauvaire
Jean-Claude Thibout
Edited by Thierry Hoss
Distributed by UGC-Fox Distribution (France)
Lionsgate (USA)
Release date
 September 19, 2001 (France)
January 2, 2007
(USA)
Running time
 98 minutes
Country France
Language French
Budget €23.2 million[1]
($21 million)
Box office $13.2 million[2]

Vidocq (North American DVD title: Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq) is a 2001 mystery film, directed by Pitof, starring Gérard Depardieu as historical figure Eugène François Vidocq pursuing a supernatural serial killer.

It is notable as being the first major fantasy film to be released that was shot entirely with digital cinematography, using a Sony HDW-F900 CineAlta camera.[3]

The band Apocalyptica used scenes from the film in the music video for their song "Hope Vol. 2", from their album Cult.

Plot

In 1830, in Paris, a private investigator Eugene Francois Vidocq is pursuing a man, who is masked with a mirror, throughout the city. The chase eventually leads them to a glass factory. The masked man lures Vidocq into a furnace room and, after a brief struggle, manages to push him into the furnace. Hanging onto the ledge, Vidocq asks him to reveal his face. The masked man obliges, and Vidocq lets go of the ledge, falling into the fire.

The news of Vidocq's death spread through the city, greatly upsetting his co-worker, Nimier. A young journalist named Etienne Boisset comes to Nimier, stating that he is writing Vidocq's biography, and asks Nimier to recount the events leading to Vidocq's death. Although Nimier is reluctant and hostile at first, Boisset states that he plans to find Vidocq's murderer and reveal his name, thus avenging Vidocq. Nimier starts to tell his story.

His story begins with Lautrennes, chief of Paris police, asking Vidocq and Nimier to investigate the deaths of two rich men - Belmont and Veraldi, who both died after being struck by lightning. Lautrennes believes that this is an attempt to undermine the French military, since without Belmont and Veraldi, the cannon factory has halted its production, and the country is on the edge of a riot due to resource shortages. Reluctantly, Vidocq obliges. He and Nimier head on to the cannon factory where Belmont and Veraldi were working, and interrogate the crew. They see one of the workers catch fire from his clothes being drenched with powder and realize that the victims didn't die due to the lighting strike, but instead due to catching on fire from the lightning strike. They interrogate the servant who cleaned their suits, and he confesses that he received a letter written in blood, ordering him not to clean Belmont's and Veraldi's jackets, along with some money. The investigators realize that the lighting was directed to hit them and ignite the powder, but in order to do that, a metallic object would have to have been inserted into the hats of the victims. They search the hats and discover metallic pins decorated with monkey heads. At this point in the story, Nimier passes out from his drinking, and Boisset leaves.

Meanwhile, Lautrennes orders another one of his investigators, Tauzet, to investigate Vidocq's death. Tauzet interrogates the workers at the glass factory who recall seeing Vidocq, but fail to recall anything else, leading Lautrennes to suspect that they are hiding something.

Boisset waits until Nimier leaves his office, and then sneaks in to obtain the pins that were used to direct the lightning. He later visits Preah, a dancer in the brothel, and tells her he tracked the pins to her due to their unusual design. Preah tells him that Vidocq also tracked her down via those same pins, and that she told Vidocq that she received a letter, seemingly written by a woman, asking her to put the pins in the hats of Belmont and Veraldi, along with some money. She also told him that the letter included the third target - Ernest Lafitte, a manager of an orphan home. According to Preah, Vidocq hurried into the city to rescue Lafitte, but was unable to save him from the masked murderer. Vidocq pursued the murderer who seemed to possess unnatural magical powers. The murderer was able to escape using his mask, which appeared to be made from a strange reflective surface. After this incident, Vidocq continued the investigation alone - he did not want to attract the attention of the police to Preah, since they were involved romantically. Preah thus blames herself for Vidocq's death.

Boisset continues his investigation, leading him to Sylvia, the brothel manager, a journalist named Froissard who was also investigating the murderer with the mirror mask, and Marine Lafitte, the wife of Ernest Lafitte. Boisset interrogates them and they tell him that Lafitte, Belmont and Veraldi were self-obsessed naricissists, who only had one concern on their minds - to prevent death by aging. A man with a mirror mask, who called himself the Alchemist, offered them an elixir of eternal youth in return for their cooperation in capturing young maidens from all around France to be used in his experiments. The three rich men went along at first, but later refused to cooperate due to an immense sense of guilt. The Alchemist, therefore, turned on them and killed them. After Boisset finishes his interrogation and leaves, the Alchemist arrives, killing both Froissard and Marine Lafitte. Boisset's investigation attracts the attention of Tauzet, who notices that the Alchemist keeps disposing of the witnesses, and suspects that Boisset will be next. He also informs Lautrennes that it is unlikely that the murders were motivated politically, because Lafitte had nothing to do with cannon production. Still, the city falls into chaos, with royal armies unable to hold the rebels back without Belmont and Veraldi.

Boisset comes back to Vidocq's office for his final notes, where he encounters Lautrennes, Tauzet and several policemen. Lautrennes attempts to arrest Boisset, implying Boisset's and Vidocq's connection to murders, but Boisset manages to escape. As he reads Vidocq's notes, it is revealed that Vidocq managed to find the Alchemist's lab. He discovered that the Alchemist was using the maidens' blood to create substance for his mask, which is used to suck the souls out of his victims, granting the wearer of the mask eternal youth. The Alchemist showed up and attacked Vidocq and they fought. During the fight, the Alchemist showed off some more magical powers while sometimes grunting like a man, and sometimes moaning like a woman. The fight ended with Vidocq breaking a piece off of the Alchemist's mask and the Alchemist disappearing. Vidocq's final note states that the Alchemist would need an ally, who would shape the mask from the raw substance, leading him to the glass factory. Boisset meets up with Nimier and Preah, and they head to the place of Vidocq's death. Tauzet and Lautrennes also arrive, having followed Boisset's trail. Nimier reveals that the workers are ready to confess collaborating with the Alchemist in exchange for protection, and they all decide to join forces to figure everything out. When they reach the factory, Vidocq himself comes out of hiding - he reveals that he jumped into a secret hole in the furnace, having seen its reflection in the Alchemist's mask as he was taking it off. Vidocq states that he faked his own death to confuse his enemy. He also identifies Boisset as the Alchemist, stating that he figured the Alchemist's plan to poise as a journalist to destroy clues that might implicate him, and to find out who knows what about the case. Boisset puts on a mirror mask, transforming into the Alchemist. Nimier attempts to shoot him, but the Alchemist kills him using his magical powers. Vidocq then pursues the Alchemist into the hall of mirrors, which he has specially arranged in advance. Upon entering, the Alchemist is stunned by his own reflection. Vidocq forces him to look into a mirror, thus freeing all the souls trapped inside the mask, before impaling the Alchemist with a shard of mirror and throwing him into a river. Although the other characters insist that the Alchemist is dead, Vidocq is not satisfied, wanting to see the body.

Later, a funeral is held for Nimier, attended by all the surviving major characters. It is revealed that the revolution turned out successful, and that Lautrennes is going to be either jailed or executed, though he is not too worried about his own fate. As the characters walk away, the Alchemist's laugh can be heard in the distance.

Cast

Technology

The film featured 800 shots modified in post-production over a period of eight months,[4] for a cost of over €20 million.[5] As the final PAL DVD release shows, the film was shot 25i (interlaced), and only special effects shots were deinterlaced by means of smart field blending (imitating a progressive-type amount of motion blur due to a different shutter speed of progressive modes) during post-production, as the special effects crew obviously was in demand of progressive frames which are easier to process for special effects, before for the final release all normal shots were deinterlaced by means of simple line interpolation instead. The result are video-like appearance of motions in normal shots, and distinctive film-like motions for all effect shots due to the different amount of motion blur resulting from the different deinterlacing methods.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Vidocq (2001)". JP's Box-Office. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "Vidocq". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  3. ↑ Charles Masters (February 15, 2000). "French 'vidocq' A High-definition First". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  4. ↑ "Vidocq — Filmreview". Cinergy AG. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  5. ↑ Laurent Ziliani. "Vidocq review". La Plume Noire. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
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