The decoy
The Decoy is a French crime film directed by Bertrand Tavernier in 1995.
action
Nathalie is 18 years old and lives with her boyfriend Eric and their mutual acquaintance Bruno in a small apartment that her mother pays for. She works as a saleswoman in Eric's father's fashion store. Nathalie dreams of a career as a model or actress and has been making contact with older men who have connections for a long time. Her flirtations, however, were always harmless, even if she offered the men more prospects. Eric and Bruno are unemployed, but they also have big plans, so they want to emigrate to America and earn a lot of money there with their own fashion chain. For the start they need around 10 million francs according to their own calculations . The sum is a long way off, especially since Eric's parents refuse to continue to support their son financially.
Eric and Bruno initially plan a bank robbery, but then they have a different plan. Nathalie keeps a detailed record of her rich acquaintance. She should be invited to the men's house, Eric and Bruno secretly open the door and thus enable an attack on the lover. Eric and Bruno want to get to the lovers' safe without being recognized. The first robbery planned in this way goes wrong because the potential victim Laurent lives in a camera-monitored house and the door is secured several times by codes. Other men are also out of the question as victims on the day of the crime, as they always live securely. Writer Antoine is ambushed, but he has hardly any cash with him and is also not wealthy. Because Bruno and Eric claim as intimidation that they killed Antoine's lover, Nathalie, they end up killing Antoine so that he cannot expose the lie. Nathalie hears Antoine's screams in the next room. The barely more than 2000 francs captured are used up in a very short time thanks to Eric's generosity. More and more often there is an argument between the trio and Nathalie briefly moves in with her mother. Christmas is approaching and Nathalie will soon be flying to her father in Marseille for ten days.
The trio chose lawyer Alain as their next victim. A first attempt at robbery fails because the door is secured with a bolt. However, a second attack succeeds. It turns out that Alain is really heavily in debt. Because Eric and Bruno were planning to kill Alain anyway, they didn't put on stocking masks. However, Eric turns out to be unable to shoot Alain, especially since he told him about his young son and determined that Eric is probably Jewish like him. In the end, they both kill Alain with a letter opener. Nathalie has already left the apartment and went to her mother out of boredom. In addition to 6000 francs, Eric and Bruno also take Alain’s Christmas presents with them, which they share among themselves.
The police soon suspect Nathalie, as the investigators know that both men had an appointment with her before she died. They bring her to the station, but only claim that she should make a statement. At first carefree, Nathalie collapses under the sharp verbal attacks of the chief investigator. She says that Eric and Bruno committed the murders. Both are arrested. Nathalie signs her confession without even reading it. At the end she asks if she can travel to her father for Christmas, since she has now said everything and signed it.
production
According to the opening credits, the decoy is based on real events from the 1980s. They were processed in the novel L'appât by Morgan Sportès , on which the film is based. The film opened in February 1995 at the Berlinale and was released in French cinemas on March 8, 1995. The theatrical release in Germany was on January 18, 1996. In 2007 the film was released on DVD.
criticism
The film-dienst praised The Decoy as a "real event retold with great emotional empathy, excellent actors and analytical sharpness, which paints a differentiated picture of the perpetrators and expands into a disturbing discourse about a generation without moral values". Cinema called the film a “distanced study of violence” and summarized: “An act and a film that shudders”. Director Tavernier told of the juvenile perpetrators "with a sharp, hunted realism that sweeps away all cinema crime tricks," said Der Spiegel .
Awards
The decoy won the Golden Bear at the 1995 Berlinale . In 1996 the film was nominated for two Césars : Olivier Sitruk received a nomination in the category Best Young Actor and Marie Gillain received a nomination in the category Best Young Actress .
Web links
- The decoy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Decoy . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2007 (PDF; test number: 74 474 DVD).
- ↑ The decoy. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ↑ The decoy . In: Der Spiegel , No. 3, 1996, p. 156.