While I often reminisce about the joy of the arthouse in the ’80s, there was a major drawback. Outside of New York City and other large cities, the average town had only one real arthouse theater with a single screen. This limited how many films the place could book each year. There’s only 52 weekends in a year which meant there could barely be 50 movies shown. If there was a major hit that kept audience coming for a few months, that meant even less of the foreign movies you’d see advertised in the Village Voice would be coming to your village. While video stores would stock foreign films, the mom and pop owners preferred to buy VHS copies of the films that were a sensation at the local art house. Seeing Red: 3 French Vigilante Thrillers contains a trio of films that didn’t play the arthouse in my area. The French movies that arrived were critically praised, from iconic New Wave directors or promoted as future Oscar contenders. Shot Pattern, Street of the Damned and Black List weren’t quite in that category. The three movies feature gritty action that doesn’t cry out for real butter on your popcorn. They should have played at the cineplex or drive-in. They would have been perfect for the Drive-in Art Theater in John Waters’ Polyester. There was no perfect venue for these films in America when they were released. By the early ’80s, moviegoers rarely watched a dubbed film or read a subtitle. None of these three films were imported by indie distributors. After four decades, they arrive in America with a vengeance.
Shot Pattern aka Tir Groupe (1982 – 87 minutes) is almost a French version of Death Wish including a future star as one of the goons. Antoine (The Taste of Others‘ Gerard Lanvin) is dating out of his league. The guy who sells used clothes at the flea market is involved with Carine (Thieves After Dark‘s Veronique Jannot), a sophisticated perfume saleswoman. While he’s not quite ready to marry her, he’s deeply in love with her. After a fancy dinner, he escorts her to the train that will take her home. The commute turns into a nightmare for her when a trio of thugs rough up people in her compartment ending with her. The trio want more than her purse. The other passengers can’t do anything because one of the thugs is armed. Things go completely wrong when they spot the train cops coming towards their car. Antonie is devastated when the cops bring him to the crime scene. Homicide detective Gagnon (The Inglorious Bastards‘ Michel Constantin) promises Antonie that the cops will find the goons, but it will take time. As he recounts his days with Corine, he can’t wait for justice. He buys a gun on the black market and wanders the night looking for the goons. In Death Wish, one of the punks who attacks Bronson’s wife is future superstar Jeff Goldblum. Shot Pattern has one of its goons played by the then unknown Dominique Pinon. He became an international star with Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children and Alien Resurrection. What makes this a bit different from Death Wish is that the cops are making headway in the case. The second half of the film is almost a race between Antonie and Gagnon to get to the goons first. Who will deliver justice? Shot Pattern is a film that’s as thrilling as it is heartbreaking.
Street of the Damned aka Rue Barbare (1984 – 108 minutes) is based on the novel Street of the Lost by American David Goodis (who also wrote Shoot The Piano Player adapted by François Truffaut). They changed the location from Philadelphia to Paris and made it bit more futuristic instead of bleak Philly reality. Daniel Chetman (The Specialists‘ Bernard Giraudeau) is doing his best to keep a low profile in his violent Paris neighborhood. He’s just a welder working for the railroad. While walking past a construction site, he sees a hand poke through a fence begging for help. Instead of walking by, he helps a Chinese girl who claims she was doing a shortcut when she fell. Her father runs the restaurant on the street. Later Chetman discovers she had been assaulted by Hagen (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu). He really doesn’t want to get involved any further. Hagen is the mobster who runs the street with his punk gang members. He controls the cops who ignore the streets while driving around in what appears to be an AMC Pacer (before Wayne’s World made them cool). Chetman has to make up his mind when he discovers Hagen has kidnapped the girl.
Black List aka Liste Noire (1984 – 91 minutes) has three motorcycle riding punk kids getting into a life of crime. A gangster sets them up on their first bank robbery. It’s sold as an easy job because one of the tellers is part of the scheme. All they have to do is show up, flash the empty guns the gangster gives them and walk out with the cash. Easy peasy. Except when the trio enter the bank, the gangster calls a teller inside the bank to warn them that the trio are robbers. She hits the police alarm. The main door is locked and the punks are trapped. The police surround the bank and get the estranged mom (Rocco and His Brothers‘ Annie Girardot) of one of the punks to show up and call inside. While this is going on, the traffic around the bank is jammed up. An armored truck that was supposed to be at the bank, gets rerouted by a motorcycle cop through a nearby trainyard. This turns out to not be a cop, but another crook. Turns out this is the real money heist organized by the gangster. The armored truck is hit hard and the real robbers make off with the loot. After the trio of punks escape the bank, they track down the real robbers to get their share and things go bad. This leads to one of the punks dying in the arms of their mother. Eventually the mother decides to not wait for the cops and heads out get revenge for the death of their child. Black List is a great watch from the start with the decoy robbery plot with the punk patsies. Even making it better is Annie Girardot going out with a gun to take care of the robbers. Her character backs race car drivers so we get a sense that she’s relentless. I don’t get how in the ’80s, this film wasn’t remade in Hollywood.
Seeing Red: 3 French Vigilante Thrillers works since all three films have similar themes, but different approaches. We’re getting served Vigilante action three ways. Shot Pattern is about a lover being taken away. Street of the Damned has a man stand up for what’s right. Black List is a mother’s love taken to an extreme. All three characters aren’t going to count on the justice system coming through for them in France. By bundling the three titles together, we’re given a mini-film festival that should have hit American arthouses in the ’80s.
The Video is 1.66:1anamorphic for the first Shot Pattern. Street of the Damned and Black List is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The three films in 1080p bring out the seedy details of Paris. The Audio for all three films is DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono.
Shot Pattern:
Audio Commentary by Travis Woods has him explain how the film is a great vigilante film that also critiques the genre. He talks a bit about the structure of the film. He gets into how shooting in Paris adds so much to the film’s ability to show us the beauty and ugliness of the city. Anthony Mann is discussed as an influence on the film.
Archival Featurette with writer/director Jean-Claude Missiaen (3:56) has him talk about how this was his first feature after interning for years. He describes working with the actors. He shot the film in 30 days. He credits his cameraman and gaffer as keeping things on schedule.
Archival Featurette with Actor Gerard Lanvin (0:53) is a postcard with his memories of the production
Original Ending (3:14) includes a director’s commentary in text to explain why the distributor wanted the real finale snipped off.
Image Gallery (2:56) includes the posters, press kit, press photos, lobby cards, DVD cover and the soundtrack album.
Theatrical Trailer (2:10) reminds us that commuting on the last train out of Paris is dangerous for 10% of the riders. We see the assault on a rider.
Street of the Damned:
Audio Commentary with Travis Woods gets into how Goodis’ novel is adapted into the film. He makes a case that Goodis needs to be read by anyone who is into Film Noir. The author found a major following in France.
Archival Interview with writer/director Gilles Behat (12:37) has him talk about how Goodis’ book reflected on his youth in a bad neighborhood. He wants to film to reflect any impoverished neighborhood where violence takes over. He gets into the Western element in the film.
Archival Interview with actor Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu (16:21) has him remember the second time he met director Gilles Behat. He wasn’t originally cast for the part he wanted, but they called him up to play Hagen’s righthand man. Although it turned into him playing the evil Hagen. He goes into how he figured Hagen took over the community.
Image Gallery (4:48) includes the movie posters, the press book, lobby cards, press photos, The press book includes the text of an interview with the director and stars along with a biography of David Goodis.
Teaser Trailer (1:04) uses still from the film.
Theatrical Trailer (2:20) give the film the science fiction edge along with the threat of violence in every frame.
Short Trailer (0:44) talks about the ticket sales for the first week.
Black List:
Audio Commentary with Walter Chow has him get into how the film shows the nasty bits of Paris life. He ties the film into American crime films of this time. He gets into the background of director Alain Bonnot.
Image Gallery (2:37) includes posters, the sales books, press photos and lobby cards.
Seeing Red Trailer (1:40) teases all three movies in the boxset.
Limited edition slipcover with front & back artwork.
Fun City Editions present Seeing Red: 3 French Vigilante Thrillers. Directed by Jean-Claude Missiaen, Gilles Behat and Alain Bonnot. Starring Annie Girardot, Bernard Giraudeau, Gérard Lanvin, Michel Constantin, Dominique Pinon, Véronique Jannot, Christine Boisson, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu. Boxset Contents: 3 movies on 3 Blu-rays. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: May 7, 2024.
