Today I recommend a French film "Lyon Gangster", some people say that it is the French version of "The Godfather", and some people say that it is more like "Once Upon a Time in America", of course, this French film is not as ups and downs as "Once Upon a Time in America", but I think it also has an intriguing sense of fatalism and realism, which is a cold masterpiece.
At the beginning of the film, the male protagonist Mormon mentions his father's admonition to him as a child: "Three conditions for becoming a real man: decency; taciturnness; and do not do evil unless you are forced to do it." This sentence is like threading a needle to frame the whole movie.
The plot of the movie seems to be only a few days, but the span of years is very large, the relationship between the characters is full of bonds and entanglements, and the overall structure is quite compact. The development of the series of events such as "rescue", coercion, protection, revenge, and the search for the truth is interspersed with similar past situations.
Personally, I think that a large number of flashback interludes are the highlights of the whole movie, this frequent flashback does not appear to be disorganized, it is handled in an orderly manner, and each insertion of memory scenes still carries a sense of sadness. The image of the elderly Mormon created by Gérard Longwan is definitely the most successful in this film, he is calm and calm, and uses a knife embedded in a bank card to assassinate the old Greek, highlighting the determination and thoroughness of this taciturn man. When Mormon learned the truth, he remained silent on the surface, and his fleeting expression revealed his pain.
Director Olivier Martial was a police officer before working in the film and television industry, and had made two police-themed films before filming Gangster Lyon, this time Martial turned the camera on the gangsters, saying: "I don't want to glorify the gangsters" Instead, he wants to express the so-called sacred and inviolable friendship of men is just an illusion.
At the end of the film, Serki ends his life with a shot, it is understandable that Mormon helped him complete his redemption, but who can save Mormon? After that gunshot, it was not only Serki's life that ended, but also Mormon's desperate soul and long-standing faith.
In this materialistic society, how many people can achieve the three points of "decency; taciturn; and do not do evil unless forced to do wrong"?