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The crimson rivers (Les rivières pourpres)

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Evil rises to new heights.

Veteran cop Pierre Niémans (Jean Reno) is sent to Guernon to investigate a bizarre murder near a legendary private school isolated in the alps. And it's no ordinary murder; the killer has been very methodical, leaving twisted, inexplicable clues to his motive. Complicating matters are the university administrators who are unco-operative and somewhat defiant to Niémans' questioning. Meanwhile Max Kerkérian (Vincent Cassel), an impetuous young cop and former car thief, arrives at a desecrated graveyard 180 miles away. Someone has disturbed the grave of a child who died 20 years ago.

These two seemingly random events are about to collide as the separate investigations lead the detectives right to one another. The more experienced Niémans begrudgingly joins forces with the brash Kerkérian to track down the killer. Despite his constant ribbing and sarcastic banter, Kerkérian respects the older cop. The two crimes are most assuredly linked - but how? And what do they have to do with the genetic research department at this legendary university and its odd inhabitants? What could the prestigious school possibly have to hide?

As the two men begin to work together they realise that charisma isn't the only trait they share. With sharp instincts, professional cunning and a willingness to risk everything to solve the case, Niémans and Kerkérian are more alike than either would care to admit - a fact they come to rely on as the investigation continues. As the killer leaves increasingly gruesome clues and they near the terrible truth, the dangers multiply - along with the human cost. The men are led to a final showdown on the deadly mountain, trapped between icy heights and death's door.

Theatrical propaganda posters

The crimson rivers (Les rivières pourpres) image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film crime police France French investigate secret

Persons of interest

Jean Reno .... Pierre Niemans
Vincent Cassel .... Max Kerkerian
Nadia Farès .... Fanny Ferreira
Dominique Sanda .... Sister Andrée
Karim Belkhadra .... Captain Dahmane
Jean-Pierre Cassel .... Dr Bernard Chernezé
Didier Flamand .... Dean
Francine Bergé .... Headmistress
Laurent Avare .... Rémy Caillois
Olivier Morel .... Philippe Sertys
Jean-Christophe Grangé .... Author
Mathieu Kassovitz .... Screenwriter
Jean-Christophe Grangé .... Screenwriter
Mathieu Kassovitz .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

The crimson rivers (Les rivières pourpres) official movie site
NB: English language or French language dialogue with English language subtitles
Studios and distributors:

Sony Pictures Releasing

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Wow. Gore, thrills, action, fighting, shooting, bleeding, chasing, arguing, short tempers and gallic shrugs. Oh, and an avalanche that makes Vertical limit look like a walk in the park.

But wait, there's more. The crimson rivers does something that no Hollywood film dares: it shows darkness. You know, just like in real life when you turn the lights of it gets dark and hard to see things. And at night, too, when the other side of the room might as well be on the other side of the moon. Talk about style. Not only is it scarier (the viewer's mind is a filmmaker's greatest tool) but it looks better. It's real. Perhaps it's because the viewer in the USA is not as intelligent as the viewer in France that Hollywood turns all the lights on at nighttime.

There are anomalies like Alien, but look at what happened in the sequels!

Meanwhile, Jean is a grizzly bastard of a cop who has spent way too much time around dirty, repugnant crimes. Vincent is a psycho bastard of a cop who has spent not nearly enough time around dirty, repugnant crimes. The moment of self-recognition in both is over so quickly that if you blink you'll miss it, literally. Fortunately, they don't waste any time talking about the obvious. They also don't suffer fools, which makes them bigger pricks than you expect: that's a good thing if you're used to the beige Hollywood type of detective.

*Gags*

Despite the fact that there's a serial killer on the prowl and a legendary detective on the hunt, The crimson rivers ends up being nothing at all like Along came a spider. The latter is all about sleuthing in a world where good and bad are opposites. The former is about doing what needs to be done in a world where good and bad are constantly shifting concepts that are impossible to get a handle on.

All up, The crimson rivers isn't another foreign language breakthrough blockbuster like Crouching tiger, hidden dragon, which, if you haven't seen yet, you are depriving yourself of a filmic experience that will blow every cobweb out of your head, but it is a foreign language quality film that makes the annoyance of subtitles pretty much irrelevant - you don't even have to read half of them to know what's going on, that's how well made The crimson rivers is.

Watch to shudder, watch to discover, watch to learn, watch to be entertained. How can you afford to miss a film like this?

PS: Because the subtitles were written for the American market they are occasionally very clumsy (Who do they get to write subtitles, anyway? Why don't they find someone with talent?) and all the measurements are shown in imperial. It will help if you can remember that 30 miles is about 50 kilometres. Also, you should keep in mind that the French have two separate police forces which handle different sorts of crimes and operate completely separate from each other.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Disc: 2 x single side, dual layer
Languages: English, French, Spanish in Dolby 5.1
Screen: Widescreen (2.35:1/16:9 enhanced)
Subtitles: English, Greek, French, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Dutch, Bulgarian, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Arabic, Croatian
Disc 1

Feature
Commentary by director and cast
Isolated music score
3 original movie trailers
Bonus movie trailers
Picture disc

Disc 2

The investigation - 62 minute behind-the-scenes documentary
4 making of "scene studies" Featurettes: The post mortem, The car chase, Mountain scene, Mountain scene B
Multi-camera breakdown of the avalanche scene using the angle change function
The car chase featurette examines the art of storyboarding
Production archives featurette with production designer
2 featurettes including Japanese promo piece and The car chase - night time filming
Marketing campaigns
Talent profiles
Picture disc