The Bait

This 90's oeuvre of well-known French director Bertrand Tavernier is certainly one of the most impressive dramas about alienated youth in movie history. The way Nathalie and her friends (excellent performances, especially from lead actress Marie Gillain!) behave towards each other and the human beings they encounter and destroy on their long trip downhill, raises deep questions about contemporary ethics and moral values. The story, based on a true account, is depicted in a cold, almost documentary style, which makes it even more disturbing. Not for the squeamish!

FRESH BAIT provides a most accurate portrayal of the feckless immorality of a certain category of youthful criminality. The film is based on the true story of three Parisian roommates; a young girl and two guys, who attempt to make a living by extorting wealthy men. The girl promises sexual favors at the rich man's home, and then the two young men arrive bent on robbery and mayhem. However, the three perpetrators' childish and uninformed moral sense overshadows, and far exceeds, the nature of their violently evil actions, and this makes the impact all the more shocking. The viewer is forced to ponder, "What were they thinking"?, and, by the end of the film, you realize that not one of the three felons had the slightest clue as to the implications of their actions. A MUST SEE.

8 years before Bertolucci and The Dreamers, 18 years before Coppoa (Sofia) and The Bling Ring, Tavernier demonstrates once again the modernity of the subjects chosen for his movies, with the tell of a youth without bearings - even moral - and dreaming to live the life sold by cinema, magazines and ads. Not able anymore to distinguish reality and fiction, good or bad, or recognize that acts have consequences.

We also discover Marie Gillain as an actress (it is strange to see in retrospect how few good roles she has had since) that shines over this movie. The rest of the cast does not embarass that performance and is very good as well.

This movie is also a movie where violence is shown as it is, cold, brutal, terrible. Which opposes to its magnification often seen in Hollywood movies, symbolized by different scenes in "The Bait" like the one with Scarface or in the video shop. The profit they take is all the same incriminating against violence.

To conclude, Tavernier offers us a very powerful movie, I really recommend it.

This is a real gem. Very, very well crafted and acted, L' Appat presents the naivete of three young dreamers who try to realize their goals too easy, without understanding the complications of their actions. Apart from the smooth flow of the plot, Tavernier presents a masterful character study. Not to be missed!

Tavernier has done better stuff than this one, to start with. The plot is easily understood: two dimwitted small crime adolescence guys want to make money. They aren't able to plan anything beyond having their petite amie of Lolita-type chatting up seemingly rich older guys in order to gain access to their flats and rob them. They are dimwitted enough to not research the locations orderly and even have no plan for what to do exactly once access has been obtained. No doubt, everything will end up in some horrible mess.

Tavernier wouldn't be Tavernier if he couldn't at least extract some deep psychological insight into the psyche of the heroes. So I stayed tuned and not just walked out. The psychological dissection of the bait, the Lolita v2.0, kept me in. She's friendly, hopelessly in love with one of the two friends in crime (because he is good-looking, as she once says). To me she's a product of our times, and an example of superficiality, a complete emotional emptiness that she can only try to fill with the guys and luxury. I think it is no spoiler to say that she sits emotionless in front of some cartoon video clips while her friends torture one of the victims. She doesn't question the torture at all, plugs ear-buds not to hear the screams instead. It has taken me to observe her. She is not cruel at all. Over time it turns out that she is principally emotionally completely detached from reality. In case you watch the movie, listen to her last line in the movie. I was devastated.