The Crimson Rivers (2000)

A murder detective must follow the footsteps of a brutal killer within the secrets of a classist college.

Director:

Mathieu Kassovitz

Writers:

Jean-Christophe Grangé (novel), Jean-Christophe Grangé (screenplay)

Stars:

Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel, Nadia Farès

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean Reno	...	Pierre Niemans
Vincent Cassel	...	Max Kerkerian
Nadia Farès	...	Fanny Ferreira / Judith Herault (as Nadia Fares)
Dominique Sanda	...	Sister Andrée
Karim Belkhadra	...	Captain Dahmane
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Dr. Bernard Chernezé
Didier Flamand	...	The Dean
François Levantal	...	Pathologist
Francine Bergé	...	Headmistress
Philippe Nahon	...	Man at Petrol Station
Laurent Lafitte	...	Hubert, the Dean's Son
Robert Gendreu	...	Cemetery Warden
Christophe Bernard	...	Skinhead #1
Nicky Naudé	...	Skinhead #2 (as Nicky Naude)
Tonio Descanvelle	...	Sarzac Policeman #1

Storyline

Parisian murder detective commissioner Pierre Niemans is called to Gueron, a self-sufficient, prestigious university in a mountain valley, to investigate the murder on 32-year old professor and librarian Rémy Caillois, whose corpse was found 50 meters high on a steep mountain side, naked, horribly covered in bruises and bleeding wounds, the result of some five hours of bestial torture including quasi-surgical amputation of hands cauterized to prevent bleeding to death- and eyes. Guernon is a closed society of virtually incestuous scientists, de facto succeeding to their parents' posts; the eye-doctor, formerly on the staff, says hereditary genetic diseases are the price of such elitism, but in recent years spread to the simple farming families. Inspector Max Kerkerian examines two crimes in the town: a school break-in with theft of old photos and archive papers as well as a graveyard desecration of Judith Herault, the daughter of local nun Andrée, who lives in a dark cell since 15 ...

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Plot Keywords:

neo noir | murder | secret | mountain | corpse | 

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Taglines:

Evil rises to new heights.

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Genres:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence/grisly images and language

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

13 July 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Crimson Rivers

Filming Locations:

Albertville, Savoie, France

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$111,026, 28 January 2001

Gross USA:

$594,966

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$60,103,680

Company Credits

Production Co:

Légende Films, Gaumont, TF1 Films Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The dead body in the morgue - made out of latex - is formed after Nadia Farès' fitness trainer.

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Goofs

Almost at the end of the movie, an EMT is putting an oxygen mask on one of the survivors. Blood is visible on the mask before it comes in contact with the blood on the survivor's face.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Captain Dahmane: We'll touch base in two hours.
Policeman: Which way do we go?
Captain Dahmane: There. Okay? See you later, guys.
[looks at Niemans]
Captain Dahmane: Can I help you?
Pierre Niemans: Got a light?
Captain Dahmane: Who let you through?
Pierre Niemans: Your men. Commissioner Pierre Niemans.

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Crazy Credits

The Gaumont Films logo used is the 90s version (a trail of Gaumont logos opening up to a space with the current logo). A crimson river runs through the trail, leading to the space background at the end being shaded red.

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Connections

References RoboCop (1987)

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Soundtracks

F.U.A.
Composed and performed by Solo and Uncle O
(c) 2000 Delabel Editions - Corida Editions
(p) 2000 X-Large

User Reviews

Stunning thriller, good story and characters, marred by badly thought-out finale

Echoes of "The Boys From Brazil" and "Name of the Rose" in this fast-moving, gorgeously-set (small alpine towns near Grenoble) French thriller, which has a really nasty conspiracy in a closed community as an underlying subplot. Two interleaved storylines involve two detectives in towns 100 km apart. Young, feisty Kerkerian (Cassel) is investigating the desecration of the tomb of a young girl. Meanwhile, supersleuth Niemans (Reno) is drafted in from Paris to assist local gendarmes in solving a nasty torture-murder of an academic at a small private University. More bodies turn up, suspects become victims, and eventually the paths of the two cops cross. Visually utterly beautiful, particularly the College, the Library, and the glacier/ice tunnel scenes. Characters strongly drawn and sympathetic. One pretty straight fight scene, little dwelling on active perpetration of violence, but much lingering on the unpleasantly gory aftermath. This is particularly the case with the rather gratuitous opening sequence, which is overdone relative to the rest of the film. My main cavil involves the poor ending, where a last-minute surprise twist creates more loose ends than it ties up. Nevertheless, so watchable that this one gets 9/10.