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.
Add a Review
-
dim900026 August 2010
-
claudio_carvalho2 May 2014In Paris, the eighteen year-old Nathalie Magnan (Marie Gillain) works in a clothing store during the day and escorts successful men in a nightclub in the night. Nathalie lives with her boyfriend Eric (Olivier Sitruk) and his moronic friend Bruno (Bruno Putzulu) in an apartment she rents. Eric dreams on traveling to the United States with Nathalie to open their on business but his father does not finance him. Eric plots a scheme with Bruno, Nathalie and her friend Patricia (Clotilde Courau) to raise money. They should go with their costumers to their apartments and once inside the apartment, they should the door open so that they could rob the apartment. Things do not work well and Patricia decides to give up and not participate in the heists. But when their plan goes wrong, Eric and Bruno have to kill their victim.
"L'appât" is a French movie by Bertrand Tavenier that show an alienated youth in France that thinks in getting easy money despite killing their victims. The impressive story seems to be very realistic and when I saw it for the first time in the 90's, I was scared with the behavior of Nathalie, Eric and Bruno. Now the violence has increased worldwide and the impact of the murders reduces, but anyway, "L'appât" is still a great movie. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "A Isca" ("The Bait") -
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. -
Phil-24918 September 1999This 90's oeuvre of well-known French director Bertrand Tavernier is certainly one of the most impressive dramas about alienated youth in movie history. The way Nathalie and her friends (excellent performances, especially from lead actress Marie Gillain!) behave towards each other and the human beings they encounter and destroy on their long trip downhill, raises deep questions about contemporary ethics and moral values. The story, based on a true account, is depicted in a cold, almost documentary style, which makes it even more disturbing. Not for the squeamish!
-
udippel30 April 2020Tavernier has done better stuff than this one, to start with. The plot is easily understood: two dimwitted small crime adolescence guys want to make money. They aren't able to plan anything beyond having their petite amie of Lolita-type chatting up seemingly rich older guys in order to gain access to their flats and rob them. They are dimwitted enough to not research the locations orderly and even have no plan for what to do exactly once access has been obtained. No doubt, everything will end up in some horrible mess.
Tavernier wouldn't be Tavernier if he couldn't at least extract some deep psychological insight into the psyche of the heroes. So I stayed tuned and not just walked out. The psychological dissection of the bait, the Lolita v2.0, kept me in. She's friendly, hopelessly in love with one of the two friends in crime (because he is good-looking, as she once says). To me she's a product of our times, and an example of superficiality, a complete emotional emptiness that she can only try to fill with the guys and luxury. I think it is no spoiler to say that she sits emotionless in front of some cartoon video clips while her friends torture one of the victims. She doesn't question the torture at all, plugs ear-buds not to hear the screams instead. It has taken me to observe her. She is not cruel at all. Over time it turns out that she is principally emotionally completely detached from reality. In case you watch the movie, listen to her last line in the movie. I was devastated. -
andrea-prodan25 June 2021Tavernier has done far better.
The premise for this film is good enough. Bored, spoiled, numb, teenagers live in a Cinema-induced fairyland where all that counts is lots of money and success in the USA.
Once this is made all too clear, (and rather clumsily considering it's aTavernier movie), the story drags along to it's obvious end.
I pity the 3 young leads, who really do their best. Especially the young female lead.
But what I see here is another vehicle for an ageing 'intellectual' with a penchant for naked young actresses. And that's embarrassing.
Even more so because B. T. wants to make some easy social commentary regarding youth crime in bourgeois echelons of Society (as a pose to Lower-Class thieves and murderers).
Basically this is a remake of a far more striking Godard film from the 60ies, mixed in with Chabrol themes.
The film is not all that bad.
Tavernier reveals more about himself than about 'modern youth'. Getting old as a 'voyeur'. -
LeRoyMarko26 November 2001Marie Gillain is excellent as Nathalie in this Tavernier's drama. Not one of his best by the way. In this genre, see Requiem for a Dream which is a lot better.
Out of 100, I gave it 74. That's **½ out of **** stars.
Seen at home, in Welland, on November 26th, 2001. -
Angeneer13 June 2001This is a real gem. Very, very well crafted and acted, L' Appat presents the naivete of three young dreamers who try to realize their goals too easy, without understanding the complications of their actions. Apart from the smooth flow of the plot, Tavernier presents a masterful character study. Not to be missed!
-
JuguAbraham4 September 2022My initial impression was the film was below par for its director Tavernier's standards with the despicable and dumb actions of three Parisian youths shown in the film. I had to revise that impression on re-assessing what Tavernier had done. The film was not based on fiction--it was based on the Valerie Subra affair that actually took place in 1984 where three youngsters mindlessly killed two persons after their robbery attempts went haywire without considering the conequences. The trio had watched Brian De Palma's film "Scarface" (made in 1983) 20-odd times on video cassette, dreamt of making quick money, with the guilt free attitude of the real-life US mobster portrayed in that film, and of migrating to USA to live a carefree life. Tavernier's film is not about the dumb actions of the trio but more a commentary of how films affect immature minds. The wonderful acting of the trio and Tavernier's overview on the impact of cinema truly deserved the Golden Bear for the best film it received at the Berlin Film festival. The film is another example of a film that needs re-assessment by the viewer on why the director made a film on a seemingly mindless tale on 3 idiots. The last line of the lead female character is that she hopes to be released from prison by Christmas so that she could spend it with her dad. That last line captures the immaturity of the perpetrators. Actor Phillipe Torreton (who played major roles in Tavernier's films) plays the chief detective/police officer.
-
valis194930 November 2010FRESH 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.
-
8 years before Bertolucci and The Dreamers, 18 years before Coppoa (Sofia) and The Bling Ring, Tavernier demonstrates once again the modernity of the subjects chosen for his movies, with the tell of a youth without bearings - even moral - and dreaming to live the life sold by cinema, magazines and ads. Not able anymore to distinguish reality and fiction, good or bad, or recognize that acts have consequences.
We also discover Marie Gillain as an actress (it is strange to see in retrospect how few good roles she has had since) that shines over this movie. The rest of the cast does not embarass that performance and is very good as well.
This movie is also a movie where violence is shown as it is, cold, brutal, terrible. Which opposes to its magnification often seen in Hollywood movies, symbolized by different scenes in "The Bait" like the one with Scarface or in the video shop. The profit they take is all the same incriminating against violence.
To conclude, Tavernier offers us a very powerful movie, I really recommend it. -
=G=11 June 2005"Fresh Bait" is all about a beautiful 18 year old French "good time girl" who becomes involved in a scheme which her boy friend hatches to get capital to start a retail business in the US. Things go wrong resulting in murder and more. This flick offers good but not great casting, direction, production value, etc. but fails in story. Not suited to any genre, "Fresh Bait" plods along with too much redundancy, runs too long, bogs down in miscellany which doesn't propel the plots forward, and becomes so ludicrous as to be funny when it's supposed to be serious. Only the very poignant final scene reveals the serious nature of the film which it failed to develop during it's run time. Passable stuff only for French film buffs who've seen all the good stuff. (B-)
-
Björn L17 July 2001It 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 -
Bertrand Tavernier is a great but underrated master of French cinema. Most of his films are in the vein of family drama in which he has expressed his not so soft views about French society.He has adapted some successful books for cinema too.As far as L'Appat(The Bait) is concerned,it is based on some of his interactions with the French youth who expressed their views.According to them they would like to be rich as quick as possible just like in America.This is exactly what is shown in his film.However in L'Appat the magic of social realism fails to work at all.The acting is dull and the story is weak.All the actors have given very lackluster performances. Everything looks staged whether it is the senseless violence or dramatic sequences. Watching this film I always wonder what went wrong and I am yet to arrive at a satisfactory answer.It is a curious thing that this poor film won the Golden bear award at Berlin Film Festival.
-
searchanddestroy-11 May 2014This 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. -
Sinnerman24 April 2003The short take,
The characters were shallow and narcissistic. The film was long and ill-paced. Its direction was aimless and repetitive. It seemed never to end... But when it did, that was the high point of my viewing....
--------------------------------------------------
Now, the longer take,
I can infer the film was attempting to present a character study on the Americanisation and disillusionment of French youth. By extension, this cultural invasion may also account for the insidious moral/ ethical decay in the film's protagonists, thus explaining their soulless, shallow narcissism. Granted, its all very lofty themes indeed this film is striving to espouse.
But in my struggle with the notion of "arthouse for arthouse' sake", I question the execution of the film. Would the same themes have worked even better if the film was presented in a tighter, less aimless way? Will this thus increase its watchability, which will inturn punctuate the accessiblity and resonance of its message? I tend to lean towards a 'yes'.
IMHO, the film's well intended ideals were sadly wasted. Its arthouse facade conveniently excused its inability to salvage or explain its misdirection. Gently put, to me, this is a film that could have been. That and my frank admission that art house works triggers myriad responses from its perception varied audience(much like yours and mine).
Such, glad that there are people out there who liked the film. But for me, it failed to work its magic.