The Crimson Rivers, also known as
Les rivières pourpres is a 2000 French police drama film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and based on the best-selling novel Les rivières pourpres by the film's co-writer Jean-Christophe Grangé.
Detective Superintendent (Commissaire Principal) Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno), a well-known investigator, is sent to the fictional small university town of Guernon in the French Alps to investigate a brutal murder and mutilation; the victim's body had been placed in the fetal position, his eyes removed and his hands cut off. The victim was a senior student of the university. Superintendent Niemans begins his investigation by enlisting the help of Fanny Ferreira (Nadia Farès), who is a glaciologist and a student at the university.
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector (Lieutenant de Police) and former car thief Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel) is in the nearby town of Sarzac investigating the desecration of the grave of a girl who died in 1982, and the theft of her photos from the local primary school. His first suspects, a gang of skinheads, lead him to Guernon, where his investigation collides with that of Superintendent Niemans. As the plot unfolds, Niemans and Kerkerian notice the startling connections between their cases, and the remainder of the film revolves around their combined efforts to solve the mystery and prevent further bloodshed.
Contains examples of:
- A Nazi by Any Other Name : The initial antagonists and eventual victims were this, and the Big Bad was were the product of their Eugenics program.
- More like A Nazi by exactly this name. Strong parallels between their eugenics ideology and Nazism are explicitly mentioned.
- Compressed Adaptation: Compared to the book. In fact, it's so bad that Vincent Casell is on the record saying that the film is almost impossible to understand because the director cut out all the boring parts, which were all the threads that held the plot together.
- Le Cops Sportif: Niemans, Kerkerian and his two thuggish colleagues belong to the Police Nationale (being stationed in urban areas). The whole rest of the force belongs to the Gendarmerie (as it is set in the rural alps).
- Deus ex Machina: Kerkerian's pistol, type 4 or 3. He is seen unloading the magazine of his gun before going to face the skinheads, probably intending to threaten them with it for the case things go awry. For everything else, see It Works Better with Bullets beneath...
- Enfant Terrible
- Evil Twin
- Eye Scream
- The Film of the Book
- For Science!
- Good Cop/Bad Cop
- Grave Robbing
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Jean Reno is Niemmans, Vincent Cassel is Kerkerian. And in Christopher Lee is Heinrich van Garten in the sequel movie.
- It Works Better with Bullets: Max Kerkerian, cop, dramatically puts down his gun and badge to goad an aggressive skinhead into a fistfight. "There, no more cop." As the fight starts going badly for him, the skinhead tries to threaten Max with his own gun, only to get his face thoroughly broken. Max then shows him the magazine, which was in his pocket the whole time. Also see Deus ex Machina above.
- Jean Reno
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate
- Narm: Kerkerian's fight against the skinheads, complete with Mortal Kombat music
- Nazi Gold: Sorta. They sure are nazis, but they're looking for the lost treasure of King Lothair II
- Not Quite Dead
- Noodle Incident: Niemmans' fear of dogs.
- Old Cop, Young Cop
- Race Lift: Kerkerian was of middle eastern descent in the book. He was also called Karim Abdouf.
- Well,the actor Vincent Cassel could be considered of either remotely middle eastern or hispanic descent.
- Red Right Hand: Judith's missing finger.
- Separated at Birth
- Snow Means Death
- Spared by the Adaptation: Niemans
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Judith was disguised as a boy by her mother to escape persecution.
- That Came Out Wrong: One of the posher students of Guernon boasts with his uni's average IQ levels. He asks Niemans to guess. His answer?
"Twenty-four..."
- He meant the room number on the door they had just passed.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else: Remy Callois and Phillip Sertys, the guys in charge of the Eugenics program, were the university librarian and a nurse at the maternity ward.
- Those Two Guys: Kerkerian's two Policiers Nationale.
- You Didn't Ask: After the fight with the skinheads.
- Artistic License - Pharmacology: In the Crimson Rivers 2 movie, where they use amphetamines as a sort of super serum that works instantly.
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