Truands (2007)

Director:

Frédéric Schoendoerffer

Writers:

Yann Brion (scenario)
Frédéric Schoendoerffer (scenario)

Release Date:

17 January 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title | Paris France

Cast

Benoît Magimel	...	Franck
Philippe Caubère	...	Claude Corti
Béatrice Dalle	...	Béatrice
Olivier Marchal	...	Jean-Guy
Mehdi Nebbou	...	Hicham
Tomer Sisley	...	Larbi
Ludovic Schoendoerffer	...	Ricky
Anne Marivin	...	Laure
Alain Figlarz	...	Mourad
Cyril Lecomte	...	Simon
André Peron	...	Ramun
Ichem Saïbi	...	Johnny
Christophe Maratier	...	Marco
Nicky Marbot	...	Jacky
Olivier Bartélémy	...	Le chauffeur (as Olivier Barthélémy)

Also Known As:

Crime Insiders (International: English title)
Gangsters (Canada: English title) (DVD title)
Paris Lockdown (UK)

Runtime:

France:107 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | France:-16 | Japan:R-18 | Germany:18 | Finland:K-18 | Norway:18 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Dakar, Senegal

Company:

Carcharodon

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Carnets de Truands: Dans les coulisses de 'Truands' (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

A Lean and Hungry Look

You can be put away for things like this, you know.

Paris Lockdown: this one-man army of a wet paper bag of poor excuses of a wannabe gangster film, this is as empty as a crêpe Suzette in a nunnery on a Sunday morning. As rich as poor taste goes, yes there's boobs, bottoms and nodding heads galore but takeaway the sleaze, the flying bullets and the flash cars then all we have done is landed on the square that tells us to "Go Back To GO, do not collect £200...start again".

This is as deep and meaningful as gutters will allow it to rise, while an insight of Parisian lowlife drug smugglers, pimps and killers, there is just nothing to add to the narrative. Nothing. The characters are living the life of a one-dimensional caricature. We are given a so-called gang leader who simply is not memorable, and his pet dogs are just as easily put-down and unmissable as the whole sorry affair.

The entire episode here seems too have been pulled out of any sequence in their life, it is a Soap Opera of blood and thugs. This is a basic rise and fall of a Paris crime boss who lives his life whoring, shooting and, again, shooting. The development of these people is as far as your next bus stop to Plainville, even the Robert De Niro look-alike and his greased-up hair looks too pastiche, too…already done.

Frédéric Schoendoerffer, director, has placed the action in the seedy side of town, the bars, strip joints and night filled streets of Paris, France, Europe and to be fair, any self respecting Parisian gangster seeing this sad debunkle would be, allegedly, embarrassed.

With just a touch of bewilderment, this crime-caper has no direction apart from up. It is not a poorly made film, it's, forgive the pun, executed well, nice offensive language, great looking girls and mean mothers' doing their job, only too well. Some nice, forgive the pun, once more, location shots and bad attitudes, the odd torture sequence, done very nicely too, ouch. However, it is the putting together of this work that to make any coherent sense a plot, let alone a sub-plot would have been acceptable.

These guys are hard-core but when the spotlight of the good-cop, bad-cop is shining on their sorry backside, it is the whole main feature that will give the game away and get you busted, sent-down and sent to solitary…