Lor Kalam Driver’s Killer: In France, you rarely see a movie like Good Behavior

what are you talking about

Pauline has her own method for road safety: a trainer at a points recovery center by day, she turns into a spokeswoman serial killer by night.

Boulevard of humor

Last year, Grégoire Ludig and David Marceau presented Les Vedettes, the second Palmashow film after La Folle Histoire de Max et Léon. “Second First Movie”. Can we consider Good Behavior as the third baptism of Jonathan Bare, their usual director, who flies this story alone without his lifelong friends?

If we can find some actors from their world (Julien Pestel, Sistine Opet, Marion Creusvo, Thomas Widbe, David Sales) and that Grégoire Ludig and David Marsay play the main roles, Good Behavior is officially not a Palmashow film. But we regularly find their spirit there, which is further proof of how important Jonathan Barre’s staging is in redirecting shows, movies, series and genres.

And we are talking about genres here. in the plural. From the opening scene, glamorous and elegant with its fluorescent lights, electronic music and use of mirrors as frames. A sequence reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s Boulevard de la Morte and evoking both the spirit of 80s maniac slashers and the aesthetic of Gialos.

A scene rarely seen in French cinema to begin this story, which quickly resembles the story of an American serial killer… set in Brittany. All the codes are there, and the inconsistency comes mostly from the setting, the local resources, and the cop duo played by David Marsais and Gregoire Ludig, the Colin Farrell-like Narbonne from Miami Vice. Love of disaster movies and more.

fluid management

Comedy, thriller, horror… although the pace is a bit stuck in the middle and it’s all perhaps not as radical as one might imagine, Good Behavior moves sharply from one genre to another and Jonathan Bare proves his ease. the various registries it handles. Including the emotion that gives full meaning to the story.

Because behind Pauline Cloarek (Lore Kalam, excellent and befitting of the troubled role she played in Origins of Evil) and her own way of ensuring road safety, there is a vengeance with personal touches that help the audience empathize. This Breton cousin of Dexter Morgan.

The series directed by Michael C. Hall, which is not the only reference we can think of, as the feature film hides more or less clearly Seven and Rocky in its trunk. Or even Fear City, which digs a little more into the relationship between Silents and Palmashow, even in an opus a little further apart in their shared filmography.

Among his hybrid side, his music was signed by Charles Ludig (“Song Must” In Les Vedettes, it was already him), sometimes the way of spreading humor or his two investigators who are two or three times behind the facts, the good behavior surprises and tries to get away with everything – comes from France. cinema. Most often with success, so much so that we can’t wait to see what the director has in store for us next. Palmashow with or without seal.

And why not a new investigation, in a completely different setting, by Kervella and Giordano, who thus become to Jonathan Bare what Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is to Rian Johnson, another filmmaker turned master. The art of playing with the codes of the genres it touches on?