PARIS — Daouda Coulibaly’s Mali-set “Wulu,” Sebastian Marnier’s “Faultless”and Thomas Kruithof’s “The Eavesdropper” form part of a gaggle of crime thrillers and sci-fi/fantasy movies which unspool from this Thursday at the 19th UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema , France’s annual national film showcase.
In volume, they certainly do not represent the most numerous film type at that market: That crown belongs to comedies, accounting for 32 of the 76 movies screening there. But a clutch of these crime thrillers are certainly among the best-reviewed at the Rendez-Vous market.
“Who doesn’t love a good sociopath? In novelist-director Sébastien Marnier ’s feature debut “ Faultless ,” he conjures up a doozy,” Variety wrote, calling “The Eavesdropper” (aka “Scribe”) “a timely political thriller told with flair” and “Wulu” “an auspicious debut.”
These suspense titles are joined at the Rendez-Vous by the only now=seen “Alone,” a bold departure for French cinema, a fantasy teen survival thriller, from “IT Boy” director David Moreau, and “Toril,” Laurent Tessier’s rural drug-trade thriller.
They come fast on the heels of three Cannes standouts: Alice Winocour’s “Disorder,” with Matthias Schoenaerts (“Rust and Bone”) as a ex special-ops bodyguard suffering PTSD; Houda Benyamina’s Golden Globe nominated gangster movie “Divines”; and Julia Ducournau’s campus cannibal movie “Raw.”
At November’s American Film Market, Paris-based production house Vixens announced a new slate of elevated genre movies, including “Rosemary’s Baby”-ish “Housewife,” Turkish director Can Evrenol’s follow-up to his hit “Bakin”; H. P. Lovecraft adaptation “Beyond the Wall of Sleep,” the second feature from Christophe Deruo; and Vixens’ first French-language movie, Martin Scali’s crime drama “Un Prince.”
This is not a huge number of titles: France, after all, produces way over 200 features a year. But it does suggest that genre, especially French crime thrillers, one of France’s greatest film traditions, is making a niche comeback.
“‘Raw,’ is a masterpiece. There are great young filmmakers with a strong viewpoints and vigorous takes on the genre,” Kruithof maintained.
The comeback comes, moreover, thanks to an exciting new generation of directors, producers and sales agents now linking to some of France’s top players – Gaumont, Wild Bunch, Haut et Court – and despite often adverse market and funding conditions.
Made 50 to 80 years after Marcel Carné, Henri-Georges Cluzot and Jean-Pierre Melville were at the top of their game, this new wave naturally moves the tradition on. The trio of Cannes standouts were all directed by women, conspicuously absent from the good and great of French policiers, film noir, heist and gangster movies of the past.
France’s new thriller wave is often set in opportune contemporary contexts. “The Eavesdropper,” Kruithof’s feature debut sold at the Rendez-Vous by WTFilms, unspools during the build-up to presidential elections in France. It stars François Cluzet as a mild-mannered book-keeper hired by a shadowy head of a political espionage network working for a populist far-right politician who aims to make France great again. Though reminiscent of U. S. ’80s teens movies, “Alone” features a gaggle of fast-talking French teens, and a French new town cityscape, its hypermarkets, highways and plush hotels.
France’s new thriller build also unspools on a broader canvas. Produced by and sold at the Rendez-Vous by Indie Sales, “Wulu” charts the inexorable rise of a sharp-witted Mali bus driver to drug-courier kingpin. It has been called a Malian Scarface.” But unlike Pacino’s character, “Wulu’s” anti-hero is always unhappy. He earns enough cash to buy a villa, hobnob with rich. But he loses his soul.
Genre in France is a push phenomenon, supported often passionately by a new generation of directors. Few are much over 40 in France.
“Lots of directors love genre, thrillers. Through them, we can renew cinema in France,” said Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, producer of “A Perfect Man” and “The Eavesdropper.”
The movies reveal a string of largely unknown young directors in sure command of their craft and able to elicit tremendous performances from their star leads.
But French genre production, especially of straight horror films, also faces huge challenges.
Horror genre’s status in France is a “disaster,” says Matteo Lovadino, at Reel Suspects, a Paris-based sales agency specialising in genre and fantastic cinema. Institutions steer clear of financing straightforward genre both in production and distribution, he said, citing the case of Lithuania’s “Vanishing Waves” which did not receive French stare support for its theatrical distribution in France. Straightforward horror genre cannot play primetime free-to-air genre – though thrillers and sci-fi titles have more of a chance reducing revenue opportunities for their distributors, he added.
France has been here before. A French splat pack – Alexandre Aja (2003’s “High Tension”), Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (2007’s “Inside”), Pascal Laugier (2008’s “Martyrs”) – made a clutch of extreme gore movies which delighted French fan boys, caught critics’ attention ; and largely bombed at the French box office. French audiences couldn’t take the extreme violence, decried horror movies as commercial crud.
“There was a wave of great genre directors. But Aja and that generation realised they couldn’t make those fouls in France. Most left for the States,” Gregory Chamber at WTFilms recalled.
“Now there’s a new wave of directors trying to get back to genre,” he added.
The large question is what business models France’s new genre practitioners can adopt, allowing directors to grow their careers with ever most ambitious projects.
One is to attempt to open up to new audiences. In “A Perfect Man,” a blocked writer played by Pierre Niney claims authorship of a novel left behind by a dead man. French audiences skew 40-plus, said Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, producer of “A Perfect Man” and “The Eavesdropper.” With Niney, “beyond the 40+ plus demography, “A Perfect Man” also brought in “a younger, more female crowd,” he said.
The current rash of thrillers also have to be made with one with an eye on international market potential, Chambet argued. One way to achieve that is of course is to rack up international sales. “The Eavesdropper” has sold to Japan (At Entertainment(, the U. K. (Arrow), Latin America (California), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Europictures), Scandinavia (Njuta), Switzerland (JMH), Canada (TVA) and multiple other territories.
Another strategy is to structure movies’ financing so that they are not totally dependent on the French market.
