In this film, a veteran director-actor named Clovis Cornillac shifts from the comic energy he’s known for into a more serious dramatic register. The cast features Léa Drucker, Benoît Poelvoorde, and Olivier Gourmet, who navigate a moody, tightly wound story set against a volatile historical backdrop.
The adaptation draws material from a late interwar-era trilogy, weaving together a dense tapestry of intrigue, ambition, and consequence. While the source material carries a distinctive voice and texture, the screen version sometimes falters in capturing its full flavor. Yet Cornillac’s directed rhythm occasionally pierces through, guiding the audience with a calm, lucid tone that reveals the film’s core ambitions.
The narrative unfolds amid the social tremors of 1928’s economic collapse and the ominous ascent of fascism in Europe. Set in a divided Berlin of 1934, it centers on a crime tied to a powerful financial dynasty and the drive for revenge against those who shattered the protagonist’s life. The film opens with opulent, lingering imagery of a sprawling family estate, inaugurating a sequence that accompanies a funeral and glimpses of a desperate youth contemplating despair. From this opening, themes of vengeance, passion, and a longing for artistic expression—embodied by the singer Solange—emerge alongside a web of corruption in banking, corporate ambition, and blackmail. The tempo moves through a thriller-like arc with time as a pressure, all set against the backdrop of a city under the grip of the Third Reich.
Visually, the production design is its strongest claim, offering a luxurious yet perilous atmosphere that mirrors the moral ambiguity of its characters. The interplay between lavish locations, period detail, and the film’s darker undercurrents creates a compelling tension that keeps the viewer engaged even when some plot threads feel uneven. The storytelling relies on a measured pace and restrained performances, which supports the sense that the era’s grandeur often masks a more fragile, morally compromised world. (Citation: Production notes, 2024)
In terms of genre, the work blends historical drama with a crime saga, treating the heir’s revenge not only as a pursuit of justice but as a reflection on power, money, and the human cost of empire. While some sequences dip into melodrama, others land with quiet force, offering moments of lyrical beauty and stark realism that linger after the screen fades. The result is a film that feels like a careful reconstruction of a fragile moment in history, where personal vendettas collide with vast economic forces and political upheaval. The experience is enriched by performances that, while occasionally restrained, reveal depth as the narrative threads converge toward a morally ambiguous conclusion. (Citation: Screenplay analysis, 2024)