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The Snake review
:. Director: Eric Barbier
:. Starring: Yvan Attal, Clovis Cornillac
:. Running Time: 1:59
:. Year: 2007
:. Country: France
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The Snake certainly looks like a departure from the director who first brought us social commentary in Le Brasier, a film about the harsh life of mine workers. A thriller about a photographer (Yvan Attal) being harassed by a vicious former classmate (Clovis Cornillac), The Snake is a genre exercise, dark and intense like an espresso.
Writer-director Eric Barbier built his film on the tension between his two actors, using suspense and atmosphere to envelop the audience. His film is emotionally brutal and directed nervously enough that it successfully captures your attention all along.
The issue, however, is that The Snake belongs to a formulaic and fading sub-genre - think Cape Fear -- where everything has been seen before. More disturbing than its lack of originality is the fact that The Snake isn't as much a French film as it is a Hollywood film. If it weren't for the language, the look and feel of The Snake is like that of an American flick, and I don't see the interest in copying artistically-challenged U.S. productions which already abound on screens internationally -- unless of course, Barbier wants to use his film as a key to enter Hollywood.
I'm not sure why filmmakers insist in casting comedy actor Clovis Cornillac in tough guy roles. While I didn't buy him as a head of police in the misfired Brigades du Tigres, he proves to be more convincing as a sociopath here, but mostly because he uses overacting to get into the character.
While you feel the effect of the bite momentarily, the venom of this snake is inoffensive afterwards.
Fred Thom
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