Chrysalis [DVD]

Set in the near future this stylish French thriller is more crime drama than SF extravaganza as the police doggedly hunt for the criminals behind the abduction of young women in Paris, illegal immigrants highly vulnerable to exploitation. Coming across as a hybrid of Harry Callahan and Sam Spade the film’s protagonist is a damaged individual, a police lieutenant hell bent on revenge and uncompromisingly determined to bring to justice the man responsible for the murder of his wife and partner. However, as the narrative progresses a more sinister conspiracy is unearthed involving a state-of-the-art trauma hospital carrying out pioneering scientific research. Although there are a couple of impressive bone-crunching fist fights the action is minimal as the director confidently presents us with characters behaving in ways which are believable. In some ways the film reminded me of the under-rated 2002 movie Equilibrium with its stunning visuals (the lighting predominantly shades of gunmetal grey and cool icy blue) and futuristic technology with the CGI used sparingly but nonetheless effectively. A solid piece of work by a first-time director which merits at least one viewing.

20 years into the future the technology to remove & implant memories is discovered & an unscrupulous doctor looking to keep her badly injured daughter alive decides to misuse it. She is involved with a shady Russian gangster who earlier killed a policemans wife. The same policeman is now tracking the doctor and he and his rookie partner struggle to piece together what is happening.With all sorts of references including 'Minority report', 'Blade runner' & 'I robot' this still manages to keep its own identity & style. In fact style is the key word as the director really has a flair for visually impressing. For instance a Hitchcock like tracking shot follows a character from room to room with one long take while she is shown in time lapse, a similar tracking shot follows an elevator as it ascends through a hospital and we see what happening on each floor as it travels upwards. The near black and white images are subtly laced with washed out blues, silver & yellow to give a sense of other worldliness and it works very well. The acting is of a standard that Hollywood is incapable of on such a tight budget.There are some bone crunching scenes as policeman and villain go head to head but they seem to blend in seamlessly with the whole dream like atmosphere.The ending is tight and avoids the usual cliches and neat finishing to leave a satisfying conclusion to a well executed story.This could so easily have been another Z grade sci-fi straight to DVD effort but just about everything here has been planned and executed with precision and a delicate touch. As with all the best scifi the less dialogue the better and there is a real sense of comic book styling here as so many times the visuals are just left to say what needs to be said without a single line of dialogue.Quite how the budget doesn't show is little short of miraculous as the sets and whole feel of the film are solid and believable.There is a 25 minute 'making of' which alongside a trailer are your only extras. However it has to be said that this documentary is superb as it shows behind the scenes in depth and shows the director to have had a clear and determined vision of what he wanted and how he set about getting it.The picture is mostly grey and white with a few very muted colours but it is pin sharp and extremely atmospheric. The sound is very well placed with some settee rumbling sub action throughout.Don't let the subtitles put you off, there isn't much talking anyway, this is a very strong entry into the sci-fi catalogue and makes for a very enjoyable 90 minutes. Strong acting, fast pace, good plotting and a strong sense of its own identity easily make this much underrated release a winner that is well worth a watch.

The French have a real knack for near-future noir, and Chrysalis is a smart, stylish example of the genre. It’s presented with sufficient visual panache to overcome the few flaws in the plot, and features a couple of simply superb close-quarters, no-holds-barred fight scenes.If you’ve become bored with the sight of two blokes simply thumping each other for half an hour – watch this. You’ll wince and flinch with the gripping, gouging and grunting as two evenly-matched opponents tussle for survival.But the action sequences are just the icing on a clever cake, one which presents series of interwoven plot threads against a bruised, blue-black palette of Paris, someday soon. A chunk of military super-tech has been stolen (this is one of the weak point in the plot so don’t think about it too hard) by an agent turned rogue, who happens to have recently killed the hero’s wife. The tech can be used to create / destroy super-soldiers or special agents, by replacing their personal memories with artificially induced ones. One of the scientists now experimenting with this tech has a very personal reason for doing so…Chrysalis uses this theme to explore the nature of memory and personality, with a couple of clever twists which serve to confuse / develop ideas about who is who. At one level it’s a straightforward police investigation, using underworld contacts to trace the missing tech. On another level it’s a debate about the nature of love and loss, about living with grief. Or not.The director can’t resist some moments of grandiose filming, either: there’s a chase sequence through a warehouse which is absurdly complicated and captured in one long sweeping shot. Another scene shows future-tech surgery, beautifully rendered in virtual reality, which demands a near-perfect performance from the actress involved. The two male leads are likewise excellent; simmering kegs of barely-contained aggression. But the female cop, partnered with the hero to nudge his investigation along, is a lot less credible.Overall, Chrysalis is imaginative, inventive and cleverly presented. It’s not outright action-adventure, but instead blurs the boundary between sci-fi and Eurocrime... which is fine by me. The French dialogue is subtitled in English, and the ‘making of’ documentary is interesting too.8/10