Switch (15.)
Directed by Frederic Schoendoerffer.
Starring Karine Vanasse, Eric Cantona, Karina Testa and Mehdi Nebbou. French with subtitles. 100 mins
The poster for this French thriller is a thing of delight. Eric Cantona, bearded, holding an upwardly pointing gun next to his head, striking the time honoured pose of the washed up star reduced to playing the action hero in straight to DVD schlock – the former hero of Old Trafford following the career path of Jim Belushi, Andrew Dice Clay and any number of TV stars. Oh ah, oh ah, indeed.
Except Switch isn’t straight to DVD (it is being afforded a one day cinema release) and it isn’t quite action hero schlock. Instead it is a lesser example of the popular modern French trend for making thrillers that take ridiculous airport novel plots and film them with enough gloss and seriousness that they scrub up as classy – Tell No One, For Her, Point Blank.
Here a French Canadian woman (Vanasse) find herself arrested for murder soon after arriving in Paris on a home switch holiday; trapped in a frame so lovingly and meticulously crafted the Mona Lisa would be lucky to be contained within.
Cantona is La Plod, and watching him on the case is to realise just how absurd any notions of him as an action hero are. His legend is built around the stationary reception of praise. It was there in his goal celebrations, in his film roles (as himself in Looking for Eric or a French philosopher in French Film) and even in his appearance in a documentary on Manchester football where he appears in the home of a Manchester City fan and just stands there silently waiting for his presence to provoke a reaction.
Even as a footballer he didn’t really indulge in running about and Switch only asks him to break sweat once, and with ridiculous results. In a chase sequence in which the detective is chasing the suspect through a series of houses and gardens the two actors are hooked up with a special rig that fixes the camera about a foot in front of their faces, in the hope of getting some good shots. Vanasse looks great but Eric looks distressed and alarmed by the exertions – like one of the boy scouts trying to eat a packed lunch on a rollercoaster in Jim’ll Fix It.
Switch (15.)
Directed by Frederic Schoendoerffer.
Starring Karine Vanasse, Eric Cantona, Karina Testa and Mehdi Nebbou. French with subtitles. 100 mins
The poster for this French thriller is a thing of delight. Eric Cantona, bearded, holding an upwardly pointing gun next to his head, striking the time honoured pose of the washed up star reduced to playing the action hero in straight to DVD schlock – the former hero of Old Trafford following the career path of Jim Belushi, Andrew Dice Clay and any number of TV stars. Oh ah, oh ah, indeed.
Except Switch isn’t straight to DVD (it is being afforded a one day cinema release) and it isn’t quite action hero schlock. Instead it is a lesser example of the popular modern French trend for making thrillers that take ridiculous airport novel plots and film them with enough gloss and seriousness that they scrub up as classy – Tell No One, For Her, Point Blank.
Here a French Canadian woman (Vanasse) find herself arrested for murder soon after arriving in Paris on a home switch holiday; trapped in a frame so lovingly and meticulously crafted the Mona Lisa would be lucky to be contained within.
Cantona is La Plod, and watching him on the case is to realise just how absurd any notions of him as an action hero are. His legend is built around the stationary reception of praise. It was there in his goal celebrations, in his film roles (as himself in Looking for Eric or a French philosopher in French Film) and even in his appearance in a documentary on Manchester football where he appears in the home of a Manchester City fan and just stands there silently waiting for his presence to provoke a reaction.
Even as a footballer he didn’t really indulge in running about and Switch only asks him to break sweat once, and with ridiculous results. In a chase sequence in which the detective is chasing the suspect through a series of houses and gardens the two actors are hooked up with a special rig that fixes the camera about a foot in front of their faces, in the hope of getting some good shots. Vanasse looks great but Eric looks distressed and alarmed by the exertions – like one of the boy scouts trying to eat a packed lunch on a rollercoaster in Jim’ll Fix It.
