The Bait

Maybe the title of the movie misled some viewers, Tavernier's "Bait" is not a common "thriller". The plot is indeed quite loose, the relationships between the characters are not a pretext for great drama, and you will hear no loud orchestral music in the climax (because there is no climax). Yet the emotion is here, thanks to the charm and subtle portraying of "Nathalie" by Marie Gilain (the rest of the cast is very good too). The great strong point of the movie is to smash every cliché about violence in modern society. Tavernier does a kind of "movie about movie viewers" (the youngsters watch a De Palma's "Scarface" video over and over) and in the French reality, violence is not exciting, not graphic, not choreographic, only real... The characters are even able to close their eyes on their own violence very efficiently as if nothing really happened while it's possible to avoid it's consequences... This kind of "modern" approach is really hard to achieve unless the directing is really good, and many bad directors tend to use the same tricks, such as hand held camera, etc... some other can't help emphasizing too much on the darkest aspects of the human nature, but here, on the contrary, there's a positive energy that flows from the characters (which makes the meaning so ambiguous and interesting) and as for the directing, the free but controlled camera moves and the general pace of the movie, gives it an elegant style which serves the script.

It starts as a funny film about young people. But soon it will be disturbing and I think this is because there is no one to identify with. The real violence and the incompetence is hard to stand but as far as the film tells its story the more convincing it will be. It´s an important discussion about gold, commercials and peoples weakness against it. This is not a reassuring film and it will keep you awake !

Björn Landström, Lerdala Sweden

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.

Great movie by Bertrand Tavernier. He is playing with the idea of a classical American thriller, which the male protagonists admire so much, as well as they look for the "American dream" in a Paris in crisis behind its "charmant" appearance.

Tavernier's intention is more realistic and, as life, less perfect than a classical script (curiously, the film is based in real facts). That's why we don't know many times where the film is going. But Tavernier employs that time to show us details of the life of very well-built characters. Specially good is the acting of the young woman.

Sad (but interesting!) impression in the end of the characters' "career". As a result of that, we have the impression of a not very healthy society, and without any need to insist by Tavernier during the movie. I recommend it, I feel it is even a bit underrated here.

This movie inspired from actual events reminds me another film just released; guess what: 24 JOURS, the story of the abduction, torture and killing of Ilan Allimi, also a true event occurred in 2006. The schemes are very alike but not filmed in the same way. The Alexandre Arcady film is more tense, more suspenseful. And that doesn't reduce the efficiency of the Tavernier's piece of work.

I like both. They are just made in two different ways.

That's all.

More than eighteen years are between the two of them.

the best would be to watch them both one after the other, to compare at the best. A very interesting experience.