“In
a world where even your own
memories are not safe, it isn’t
only
criminals who are prepared to risk
everything to get their hands on Chrysalis...
A gripping debut film
from writer-director Julien Leclercq
that is now available on DVD,
Chrysalis is a visionary representation
of a near-future Paris (about 2025)
that is as impressively convincing
as it is chilling...”
WHILE DRIVING THROUGH THE STREETS OF PARIS one evening, high-tech holographic
surgeon Professor Brügen (Marthe Keller: Black Sunday; Marathon Man)
and her daughter Manon (Melanie Thierry) are involved in a terrible car accident
in which Manon is critically injured.
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, tough cop David Hoffman (Albert Dupontel:
Intimate Enemies, A Very Long Engagement, Irreversible) and his partner
and lover Sarah (Smadi Wolfman) are shooting it out with an escaped criminal
— a former Bulgarian Secret Service agent turned black-marketeer named
Dimitri Nicolov (celebrated stunt co-ordinator Alain Figlarz — The Bourne
Identity — who is also responsible for the brilliant fight choreography).
The shootout ends in a nerve-racking Mexican stand-off, but the ruthless Nicolov
brutally murders Sarah and makes his escape.
His life in tatters, Hoffman lives for vengeance. But his new partner —
rookie officer Marie Becker (Marie Guillard: The Visitors 2, The Fifth Element),
who joins the European Police from the vice squad — becomes involved with
his vigilante quest to track down Nicolov, putting them both in grave danger.
During the investigation a human trafficking ring is uncovered. A number of
people suffering amnesia also turn up and bodies with brain damage are discovered
— all with their eyelids similarly scarred. What causes this strange phenomenon
and who is responsible for it?
And what is Marie's relationship with Charles Becker (Patrick Bauchau: Panic
Room, Clear And Present Danger) from Intelligence? Who is the man who looks
remarkably like Nicolov? Is one of the dead girls the missing Tatiana from Eastern
Europe and what has happened to her sister, Elena?
A lead takes Hoffman to the clinic where Professor Brügen is treating her daughter,
using her advanced medical skills and recovered memory therapies. But how does
Professor Brügen connect with Nicolov? What is the terrible secret that she
is hiding from her daughter? And just who do you trust when you've lost your
memory?
An engaging debut feature from writer-director Julien Leclercq, Chrysalis
has all the answers. It is a slick, neo-noir, sci-fi action thriller that is
said to be in the tradition of Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall
and A Clockwork Orange — we found it rather more polished and not
as violent as the latter!
One of the most stylish and accomplished debut sci-fi movies in recent years,
Chrysalis is
a gripping thriller with cyber-punk undertones. It also features several explosive,
close-combat fight sequences designed by Alain Figlarz. Subtitles are clear
and not intrusive.
It is generally accepted that no cinema-going nation appreciates film quite
like the French. French filmmakers consistently produce movies with a certain
flair and finesse that's rarely found elsewhere. Chrysalis — the
title of the film is the name given to the technique for digitalizing human
memory that allows a person's memories to be stored and, if need be, removed
from the brain — has some violence with blood but no real gore, the well
choreographed fights you would expect from the master and a tight, tense and
compulsive storyline that keeps you guessing.
Also featuring in Chrysalis is Estelle LeFebure as nurse Clara; Claude
Perron as Commissaire Miller of the European Police; Cyril Lecomte as Le Legiste;
Francis Renaud as Yuri; and Manon Chevalier as the enchanting Clémence. The
original music is by Jean-Jacques Hertz and François Roy and the film is Produced
by Franck Chorot.
• Chrysalis is now available on DVD
(released on 9 June, 2008) from Momentum Pictures priced at £15.99. Certificate:
15. Special Features include Making Of featurette, story-boards and trailer.
"Chrysalis… has some violence with blood but no real gore, the well choreographed
fights you would expect from the master and a tight, tense and compulsive storyline
that keeps you guessing" — MotorBar
“In
a world where even your own