Chrysalis (2007/I)

Director:

Julien Leclercq

Writers:

Julien Leclercq (scenario and dialogue) and
Franck Philippon (scenario and dialogue) ...
(more)

Release Date:

31 October 2007 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Some Memories Can Never Be Forgotten

Plot:

In the near future Paris, a cop is searching for his wife's killer. The trail leads him to a high tech medical clinic where everything is not what it seems. |

Plot Keywords:

Medical | Future | Hairy Chest | One Word Title | Mind Control

Cast

Albert Dupontel	...	David Hoffmann
Marie Guillard	...	Marie Becker
Marthe Keller	...	Professeur Brügen
Mélanie Thierry	...	Manon Brügen
Claude Perron	...	Miller
Alain Figlarz	...	Dimitri Nicolov / Danis Nicolov
Smadi Wolfman	...	Sarah
Patrick Bauchau	...	Charles Becker
Guy Lecluyse	...	Kovacs
Cyril Lecomte	...	Le légiste
Francis Renaud	...	Yuri
Manon Chevallier	...	Clémence
Estelle Lefébure	...	Clara
Mika Cotellon	...	Malik
Andy King	...	Gianni
Sébastien Libessart	...	Infirmier
Patrick Hamel	...	Jacques
Virginie Jaspart	...	Aide-soignante
Rémy Roubakha	...	Opérateur Europol
Claudia Tagbo	...	Infirmière
Alex Waltz	...	Agent DST 1
Franck Goumah	...	Agent DST 2
Aline Tcheou	...	Interprète chinoise
Olivier Vergès	...	Assistant Brügen
Baptiste Leclercq	...	Fumeur peep-show
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Susanna Brisk	...	Mikayla's mom

Directed by
Julien Leclercq

Writing credits
Julien Leclercq		(scenario and dialogue) and
Franck Philippon		(scenario and dialogue)
Nicolas Peufaillit		(participation) and
Aude Py		(participation)

Produced by
Jean-Philippe Blime	....	executive producer
Franck Chorot	....	producer

Original Music by
Jean-Jacques Hertz
François Roy

Cinematography by
Thomas Hardmeier

Film Editing by
Thierry Hoss

Casting by
Franck Jouard

Production Design by
Jean-Philippe Moreaux

Art Direction by
Alexis McKenzie Main		(senior art director)

Set Decoration by
Sandra Conti
Gianfranco Protopapa

Costume Design by
Fabienne Katany

Makeup Department
Elisa Angiulli	....	makeup artist
Annalisa Bellucci	....	makeup artist
Silene Monti	....	makeup artist
Simone Pasqualini	....	makeup supervisor
Mélanie Queyrel	....	additional makeup artist
Françoise Quilichini	....	key makeup artist
Chloé Van Lierde	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Philippe Desmoulins	....	production manager
Marie-Paule Ester	....	assistant production manager
Stéphane Riou	....	assistant unit manager
Bernard Seitz	....	production manager
Tourdjman Valentin	....	assistant unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pascal Salafa	....	first assistant director
Olivier Vergès	....	second assistant director
Aurélie Jasnot	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Clément Chapelle	....	assistant property master
Jeanne dit Fouque Damien	....	graphic design
Florent Maillot	....	property master
Olivia Martin	....	maquettiste
Katell Rolland	....	carpenter

Sound Department
Lucien Balibar	....	sound
Julien Bourdeau	....	dialogue editor
Nicolas d'Halluin	....	sound recordist
Pascal Dedeye	....	foley artist
Franck Desmoulins	....	sound editor
Daniel Gries	....	foley artist
Sylvain Lasseur	....	sound editor
Alexis Leverve	....	co-sound mixer
Alain Lévy	....	post-synchronization
Vincent Montrobert	....	sound editor
Joël Rangon	....	sound re-recording mixer
Valerio Stirpe	....	sound
Jean-Alexandre Villemer	....	sound recordist
Stéphane Vizet	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Olivier Afonso	....	special effects makeup
Simone Pasqualini	....	special effects makeup

Visual Effects by
Odile Beraud	....	scan and shoot
Emmanuel Chapon	....	modeling supervisor
Annie Dautane	....	visual effects producer
François Dumoulin	....	Flame artist
Luc Froehlicher	....	cg supervisor
Guillaume Laforge	....	3D digital artist
Bruno Maillard	....	visual effects supervisor
Michael Marques	....	Flame artist
Matthieu Royer	....	animation supervisor

Stunts
Laurent Alexandre	....	stunts
Oumar Diaoure	....	stunt coordinator
Alain Figlarz	....	fight choreographer
David Genty	....	stunts
Laurent Larrieu	....	stunt coordinator
Laurent Larrieu	....	stunt coordinator: divers
Franck Merenda	....	stunts
Sébastien Peres	....	stunt double

Camera and Electrical Department
Jacques Ballard	....	submarine camera assistant
Fabrice Bismuth	....	first assistant camera
Elodie Boulard	....	camera trainee
Thomas Brémond	....	still photographer
Fanny Coustenoble	....	second assistant camera
Jean-François Dubut	....	cable camera technician
Jan Gagnaire	....	grip
Pierre Garnier	....	key grip
Laurent Héritier	....	gaffer
Gary Pachany	....	first assistant camera: "b" camera
Alain Souffi	....	submarine cinematographer

Casting Department
Géraldine Mouton	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sandrine Douat	....	assistant costume designer

Editorial Department
Fabrice Blin	....	colorist
Frederic Jupin	....	digital conformation
Philippe Reinaudo	....	digital intermediate technical director
Géraldine Rétif	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Amélie de Chassey	....	music supervisor
Delphine Mathieu	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Ghislaine Cauet-Martinotto	....	production assistant
Rachel Corlet-Soulier	....	script supervisor
Françoise Della Libera	....	production administrator
Romeo Julien	....	avid conformation

Production Companies

• Gaumont (co-production)
• TF1 Films Production (co-production) (as TF1 Films Production)
• Sofica Sogécinéma 2 (in association with)
• Canal+ (participation)
• CinéCinéma (participation)

Distributors

• Gaumont (2007) (France) (theatrical)
• Gaumont Video (2008) (France) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Christal Films (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Klock Worx Company, The (2009) (Japan) (theatrical)
• MFI (2008) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Universum Film (UFA) (2008) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Deltamac Entertainment (2008) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (UK) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2008) (France) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production

Also Known As:

"Installer" - Japan (English title)

Runtime:

94 min | Canada:91 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:18A | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | France:-12 | Portugal:M/16 | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:M | Singapore:NC-16 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Gaumont

Movie Connections:

References A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Hyper-stylish French sci fi police thriller

French director Julien Leclercq, who also co-scripted this film set in 'the near future', has produced a marvel of style and menace in this tale riddled with ambiguities. There are identical twins, people who switch identities, people who forget entirely who they are, others who remember being someone else, and general questions of identity. The film is a tease, and is extremely thought-provoking. The colour film stock has been flashed, so that it is very faded, and the scenes have then been tinted blue by shooting through a blue lens, which sometimes is removed when focusing on the people. In fact, there seem to be several tones and shades, and whether this was done while shooting or in the film processing I do not know. At times, it is nearly 'blanc et noir', as the French call black and white, or should I say 'bleu et noir'. The art direction is superb. Some of the acting is intentionally stylized, with the secret villains remaining aloof, calculating, and showing hypocritical and unconvincing warmth to the people they are manipulating in the story. The Bulgarian villain is convincingly psychopathic, and really, he is the best example I have seen why Bulgarians should be restricted in their right to travel within the EU. We just don't want to run into him, or his brother! There are some grisly but mind-boggling scenes of intense individual combat and martial arts at close quarters in confined spaces here, and I cannot imagine how many weeks or months it must have taken to rehearse all those moves. The film has some deeply disturbing aspects of technological innovation as applied to human mind manipulation, and there are numerous stressful scenes which sensitive souls would do well not to watch. If you have a low stress level, do not buy this DVD, as you really will not be able to sleep afterwards. But for those who can tough it out, it is well worth watching, and studying carefully. Leclercq is above all a master stylist, and perhaps he should be a designer. There are several excellent performances in this film, and it does not matter that the dialogue is rudimentary, for the silences and ambiguities are all the more effective as a result of the lack of verbal exposition. As is usual in all modern French thrillers, a sense of deep paranoia about the French state pervades the tale, and the security services are the ultimate villains. And now that the French state is run by what they call 'the Bermuda Triangle' (Hollande and his two feuding women), the fact that people disappear and re-emerge, memories vanish into black holes and are then summoned forth again, seems part of the surreal political landscape of today, as if it had been anticipated by Leclercq in 2007, and premonitorily evoked. Instead of the women and girls being called Manon and Clemence as in this film, one expects them to be called Segolène and Valérie. Or would that be too much for the nerves to bear? And at the controls of the new technology in this film is the eerie Marthe Keller, who plays a German immigrant to France, thus reminding us of 1940 and all those charming Germans who came to France at that time, with similar intentions to make people disappear. The warnings about mind control implicit in this film should be taken seriously. Mind control projects have been going on for half a century or more, and they only get worse, so watch and learn.