European Films

Who is Anthony Zimmer? The new film from screenwriter Jérôme Salle, who makes his directorial debut on this picture, is named after a man that we will not see for most (if any) of this mystery’s fast-paced 90 minutes. The mystery of Anthony Zimmer is just that: who is he? The police, led by a stern-looking Akkerman (Sami Frey), know that he is one of the world’s biggest money launderers but they would not know him from Adam if he stood in front of them. Zimmer almost continuously undergoes aesthetic surgery and often has his vocal cords operated on to change his voice. Akkerman has one lead: Chiara Manzoni (a positively sexy Sophie Marceau) the beautiful woman who is Zimmer’s weak spot and whom, the police suspect, he will try to contact again sooner or later.

 

On a train heading South, recently divorced translator François Taillandier (Yvan Attal) knows absolutely nothing about either Zimmer or Chiara, but he gets caught up in both their worlds when Zimmer notifies his object of obsession to pick any man at random and pretend to be with him in order to distract the police. Chiara picks François and soon, not only the police suspect that Taillandier is Zimmer, but the innocent man also finds some shady associates of Zimmer’s on his tail. The nerdy translator of humble means, who thought he was just being picked up by a rich woman, will soon have to deal with being chased as if he were the world’s most wanted man.

 

For a first-time director, Salle sure knows how to build up tension and keep this tension simmering beneath the surface even in the necessary slower scenes, using often surprisingly simpy yet very effective tactics: During a soft-spoken candle-lit dinner in a restaurant on the Côte d’Azur, Taillandier confesses to Chiara that he thinks they might be followed by “that man over there”. She looks in the direction pointed out by her companion, but the camera stays fixed on the couple. Who is the man they are talking about? Why can we not see him? She tells him: “You read too many crime novels,” and he is comforted at least until the next morning, when he will discover two gunmen in his hotel room.

 

From the get-go, Anthony Zimmer literally crackles and flies by. What is admirable in the whole set-up of the film is that it relies very strongly on the actors' performances, the mise-en-scène and the tight script rather than on numerous explosions, elaborately staged fights and special effects. Anthony Zimmer has more in common with a Hitchcockian mystery rather than with the latest James Bond  films or anything starring Vin Diesel. The cinematography by Denis Rouden and the production design by Laurent Piron are both lush and carefully studied to give the film a sense of richness of locale and of the luxury enjoyed by Chiara and Zimmer (whose villa figures prominently in the last act of the film). Marceau clearly relishes the opportunity to show a more dangerous and sexy side of herself whilst Attal delivers a much more focused performance here than in his own Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants (Happily Ever After). If there would be anything to complain about (apart from the rather silly ending), it would be that Salle makes the film fly by so fast it almost seems as if you just watched an extended trailer. 

 

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