The Fatal Image

Mother and daughter Barbara and Megan Brennan, played respectively by Michele Lee and Justine Bateman, on holiday in Paris, are engaged in the customary activities of tourists there: climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower, boating upon the Seine, etc., with Megan capturing their activities with a video camera; when she mischievously films a couple passionately embracing at a construction site, she unwittingly records a murder and the killer, having spotted Megan's camera actions, pulls out all stops to find her in order to take possession of the damning tape. This is an intriguing basis for a scenario, but this internationally financed co-production droops hopelessly into weak melodrama as the script with its hackneyed dialogue is full of inconsistencies in logic and continuity, direction is flaccid, particularly of the featured players, and post-production dubbing and looping are flawed. Despite all of this, some excellent production values are in evidence, enhanced by appropriate scoring from Michel Colombier and the able cinematography of Jean-Yves Le Mener. A solid performance is given by François Dunoyer as a police detective and the splendid actress Sonia Petrovna garners acting honours with a skilled albeit largely wasted turn as a genuine femme fatale. For this low-budget affair, the DVD and VHS versions are identical.