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Red Lights
2004
Starring French cinema legends Carole Bouquet (THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE) and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (UN AIR DE FAMILLE), director Cedric Kahn's thriller, based on a novel by Georges Simenon, features dry humour and Hitchcockian suspense. The relationship between Antoine (Darroussin) and Helene (Bouquet) is deteriorating. .. Read more
| Starring | Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Carole Bouquet |
|---|---|
| Director | Cedric Kahn |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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Red Lights
Starring French cinema legends Carole Bouquet (THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE) and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (UN AIR DE FAMILLE), director Cedric Kahn's thriller, based on a novel by Georges Simenon, features dry humour and Hitchcockian suspense. The relationship between Antoine (Darroussin) and Helene (Bouquet) is deteriorating. Helene spends more time at work, Antoine drinks, and the two act like mere acquaintances, not lovers. When Antoine stops at a bar and Helene threatens to continue without him, a fight erupts between them. Angry and drunk, Antoine insists on staying in the bar, but when he emerges he finds the car empty, save for a note saying that Helene has left for the train. In a drunken stupor, Antoine attempts to follow his wife's trail, joined by a mysterious and dangerous hitchhiker, without realising that the obvious way to find her has been in front of him the entire time. Bouquet and Darroussin play off each other beautifully. Darroussin convincingly plays a man who has lost himself. And Bouquet is strong as a wife who has placed her husband at the bottom of her priority list. That a tragedy is the one thing that can help them repair their fractured marriage feels palpably realistic. At its heart, RED LIGHTS is an exploration of intimacy, love, and what it takes to build a successful relationship, but the film also provides satisfying humorous chills and nice dose of suspense.
| Starring | Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Carole Bouquet |
|---|---|
| Director | Cedric Kahn |
| Studio | ARTIFICIAL EYE |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 40 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: French |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 24 Jan 2005 Production year: 2004 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Once again, a Georges Simenon story provides exceptional cinematic material, as director Cédric Kahn combines sly comedy with controlled suspense in this riveting, revisionist road movie. Alternating between resentment, penitence and distraction, Jean-Pierre Darroussin is outstanding as the everyman who's made to pay an extreme price for the uncharacteristic lapse in judgement that prompts wife Carole Bouquet to storm off in the middle of a cross-country car journey and promptly disappear. But it's Kahn's precise direction that's most impressive, particularly during the sequence in which the hungover Darroussin makes a series of increasingly desperate phone calls from a village bar. Tense, mischievous and darkly optimistic.
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Its Paris, summer, and like everyone else Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and Hélène (Carole Bouquet) are... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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16 out of 18 people found this review helpful
Tense and involving thriller
An exceptional performance from Jean-Pierre Darroussin papers over the cracks in this thriller from Cedric Kahn. He plays Antoine, a lowly insurance accountant who is heading out with his wife Helene(Carole Bouquet) to collect their kids from summer camp before taking a vacation. The traffic is dense and tensions, already simmering between the couple, start to boil over along the way. He's clearly resentful of her superior position as a lawyer and spends the journey making snide comments and getting progressively more drunk.
When he stops at yet another bar, Helene threatens to leave if he has another drink. He responds by taking the car keys with him but when he returns, Helene has left a note saying She'll make her own way to their destination. He searches for her for a while but soon gets distracted by a few more bars. He picks up a mysterious stranger and gets himself into some serious trouble, and when he's sobered up he finds out that his wife has gone missing during the night.
'Red Lights' is clearly influenced by Hitchcock, with the score even sounding like Bernard Herrmann. The film also reminds viewers of 'The Vanishing' with Antoine's frantic searching for his wife and the mounting sense of dread. Sadly, it doesn't quite live up to those comparisons. After a bright start, with the couple's frosty relationship perfectly depicted by the two leads, the film takes a different turn as Antoine has problems with his hitch-hiker(Vincent Deniard). Finally it winds up with a disappointingly underwhelming climax.
There's a couple of loose ends left hanging and some very annoying plot-holes, but the film does create a strong atmosphere, offers a number of effective shocks and Darroussin is outstanding in the lead role throughout. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
ENJOYABLE
BUT AS OTHERS HAVE STATED THERE ARE SOME HOLES IN THE PLOT.HOWEVER ONCE IT GOT GOING THE PERFORMANCES ARE GOOD WITH A COUPLE OF SURPRISES ALONG THE WAY.DEFINATELY WORTH A WATCH
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Starring French cinema legends Carole Bouquet (THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE) and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (UN AIR DE FAMILLE), director Cedric Kahn's thriller, based on a novel by Georges Simenon, ... -