L'inconnu de Strasbourg

How many times was amnesia used in thrillers?Here,Charles Berling's character is a cross between Michel Auclair's one in "pas de pitié pour les femmes"(1950) and Tom Berenger's one in "shattered" (1990)None of those two works were particularly memorable,but "shattered" provided its fair share of thrills(remember the scene in which Berenger finds back ..his head).

The French attempt is really pitiful.It would have taken writers of Boileau-Narcejac calibre to pull off such a far-fetched story :conspiracies,mystery characters,psychological tension necessitate a concrete script.Here there are enough plot holes to fill the Albert Hall,as the Beatles used to sing.Actors do not seem to believe in what they are playing.At least "shattered " ,if unlikely,followed a logical story.

And ,as far as amnesia is concerned,you will always be better off with Hitchcock's " spellbound",(1945)which remains an unsurpassed model of the genre.If you have not seen this masterpiece yet,please do it!