Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Benoit Magimel, Philippe Caubère, Beatrice Dalle, Olivier Marchal, Mehdi Nebbou,
Tomer Sisley, Ludovic Schoendoerffer, Anne Marivin, Alain Figlarz | Written by Frederic Schoendoerffer & Yann Brion
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 107 minutes | Directed by Frederic Schoendoerffer
A very nasty thriller about a bunch of very nasty men who do some very nasty things indeed, Paris Lockdown is not the sort of film that pops into your mind when you think of French cinema. It's extremely violent, very foul-mouthed and is oft-times confusing as to just who is screwing whom (in both senses of the word).
The publicity blurb says: "Paris Lockdown is a stylish and brutal glimpse into the intense violent underbelly of the ruthless Parisian underworld." I'd have to agree with that. Yes it's stylish, indeed it's brutal; and if this is just a glimpse into the Parisian underworld, then I'd hate to get a full-on view. But the film's biggest crime is that it's soulless and at times pretty dull.
Plotwise, it's basically about crime boss Claude Corti (Caubère) and his minions. Corti runs nightclubs, sells drugs and owns a fleet of high-class whores. He's also a very nasty, violent thug — in one scene, he uses a power drill on the knee of an underling who has displeased him, before gouging out one of his eyes with a knife. In another scene, he rams what appears to be a baseball bat up the anus of yet another person who has displeased him in some way. Get the picture? Yes, he's not a very nice guy. What's most surprising is that with all this sort of stuff going on — including some very fierce gun battles, with high-powered automatic weapons, in shopping centre car parks — none of the crims ever seem to be bothered by the police. Except for a scene about halfway through when Cotri's house is stormed by the French equivalent of a SWAT team and he is arrested. For dealing in dodgy car registrations. But forget the huge body count, copious amounts of blood and heaps of sex and nudity. What bothered me the most was the general misogyny of the whole piece. ALL the women in Paris Lockdown are coke-sniffing whores, strippers or gangsters' wives who are having affairs. The women are consistently sworn at, beaten, abused and raped. If you thought the toughest French films ever were Baise Moi and Irreversible, well these guys are going all out to top them.
EXTRAS * A making-of featurette called Diary of Paris Lockdown, plus the English and International theatrical trailers.