Brothers: Red Roulette

(FRERES: LA ROULETTE ROUGE) ((FRENCH))

By DAVID ROONEY

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A La Sept/Arte, IMA Prods., SFP Prod. production, in association with Sony Music Entertainment (France). (International sales: IMA, Paris.) Produced by Georges Benayoun, Paul Rozenberg. Executive producers, Francoise Guglielmi, Elisabeth Deviosse, Yannick Casanova. Directed by Olivier Dahan. Screenplay, Dahan, Olivier Massart, Gilles Taurand.
 
Paul ... Said Taghmaoui
Samy ... Samy Naceri
Max-Laure ... Veronique Octon
Maya ... Maureen Diot
Zakari ... Nabil El Bouhairi
Marco ... Romain Duris
Henri ... Kader Hemissi
Taxi driver ... Denis Seurat
 

After an apprenticeship in commercials and musicvid factory of Gallic style-merchant Jean Baptiste Mondino, director Olivier Dahan weighs in with a head-turner in "Brothers: Red Roulette." A kind of "Boyz N the Arrondissement," this hip, violent, urban grunge drama set in the 'burbs of Paris is a little too knowing in its endorsement of U.S. indie conventions and in its impressive cannonade of editing and camera tricks. But the film's cool assurance should open up limited playdates, planting Dahan on the list of names to watch.

The film is the last in IMA Prods.'"Tous les Garcons et les Filles de Leur Age" series (for Euro cultural web Arte) conceived by former publicist Chantal Poupaud. Nine directors were each commissioned to make a film about teenagers, set in the period of their own youth. A party and a soundtrack bulging with chart successes of the day are central to each pic. The series begins chronologically with Andre Techine's 1962-set "Wild Reeds" (premiered last spring at Cannes) and wraps with Dahan's pic, set in 1990.

While being taunted with a gun by neighborhood thugs, 13-year-old Zakari (Nabil El Bouhairi) grabs the weapon in a panic and accidentally shoots one of them. A night of desperate flight and pursuit follows, with Zak's strung-out older sister, Max-Laure (Veronique Octon), trying to get to him before the victim's seemingly vengeful brother Paul (Said Taghmaoui) does.

As Zak wanders the streets in a stunned delirium, his brother Samy (Samy Naceri) prepares for a suicidal round of red roulette, a contest that entails running a long series of red lights at high speed.

Coming in furious, fragmentary bursts, the narrative provides a grim tour of an unforgiving environment, rife with drugs, crime and multiethnic tension. Dahan engages in overkill, however, with a series of monochrome talking-head portraits in which youths spell out the harsh urban jungle laws already implicit in the story.

Grainy shots of ugly tower blocks, frantic hand-held tracking sequences, anemic B&W segs and patches of vivid, searing color give things a fired-up edginess. This is matched by electric editing, especially nimble in the climactic driving stretch when Samy takes the wheel.

Dahan's prior training has a hand in the terrific musical spectrum brought into play, from rap and reggae to traditional jazz and blues. Particularly effective is Wynton Marsalis' New Orleans-style funereal riff preceding the violence that kick-starts Zak's night of terror, and Nina Simone belting out "Feeling Good" over the tragic final act.

The young cast hits the right note of sober intensity. Adult presences are shrewdly limited to distant, vaguely disapproving glances, with the exception of a taxi driver who attempts to reach out to Max-Laure. Pic also exists in a 60 -minute TV version.

Camera (color), Alex Lamarque; editor, Zofia Menuet; music, Yarol; art direction, Jann Houllevigue; sound, Louis Foropon; series artistic director, Chantal Poupaud; assistant director, Mathias Honore; casting, Bruno Delahaye. Reviewed at Turin Intl. Young Cinema Festival, Nov. 25, 1994. Running time:? 85 MIN.