Rai
((FRENCH))
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With: Farouk, Manu Layotte, Saida Bekkouche, Fouzi Berriah, Nordine Messar, Fatiha Berber.
French screens now abound with [7mgarcons[22;27m in the 'hood, as young helmers have descended on Paris immigrant districts in search of home-grown hipness. After "Hate," local B.O. hero Mathieu Kassovitz's black-and-white look at multi-ethnic angst, comes Thomas Gilou's far looser "Rai," an off-balance ensemble pic about sex, drugs and coming of age in a troubled housing project. Pic may surf a trend domestically and in Europe before vanishing on video under the heading: [7m deja vu[22;27m the right thing.
Named after the North African Arab rock 'n' roll genre popular in French immigrant projects, "Rai" (pronounced like the whisky) holds out the promise of nugatory socio-logical observation in comedic wrapping, somewhat like helmer Gilou's successful 1986 pic, "Black Mic-Mac." Indeed, Gilou and principal co-writer Sonia Kronlund have crafted a story rich in subplot and rife with comic potential. (Though credited, the late Cyril Collard, of "Savage Nights" fame, had little input on the script.)
Sadly, the excellent script gets tripped up by some amateurish staginess, and by the casting of former porn star Tabatha Cash -- France's Traci Lords -- in the lead female role. Beautiful but wooden, Cash's Sahlia, supposedly a young Arab-French woman at odds with her background,never once convinces.
Pic tells of a good brother, Djamel (Mustapha Benstiti), and a bad brother, Nordine (Samy Naceri). Although both still live at home with their burnoose-clad mother in a low-rent, high-rise apartment, their roads have already diverged. Junkie Nordine is holding a horse hostage in hopes of paying off his dealer, while hard-working Djamel dreams of settling down with Sahlia (Cash), the local lovely tormented by her overprotective brother Mezz (Micky El Masroui).
Djamel, Mezz and two other friends hang out together, kibitz in the latest urban argot and try to steer clear of trouble. But Sahlia, fed up with the submissive role to which she is relegated, rebels against both brother and b.f. by sleeping with one of their buddies.
As if this were not enough, Nordine starts firing a handgun from the roof of an apartment block. In the ensuing tragedy, a riot breaks out and Djamel is sucked back into the maelstrom of mindless mob behavior.
As the overbearing and garrulous Mezz, newcomer El Masroui turns in a solid perf that amuses for its sendup of macho Arab misogyny. Aided by Gilou and Kronlund's consistently fast-paced dialogue, El Masroui's highly strung and unconsciously funny suburban tough should set the standard for the current crop of gritty French pics.
Audiences expecting a good soundtrack, given pic's title, will be let down by the paltry servings of hard-driving rai. Also puzzling is the seemingly arbitrary inclusion of nude scenes when the tenor of the rest of "Rai" is so devoid of the physical.
Lensing is adequate, when not dealing with scenes of intimacy -- which seem to have been shot in a hurry. No editor is credited.
Camera (color), Jean Jacques Bouhon; music, Neg' Marrons, Bellek , Ideal J, Cheb Mami, others; production design, Richard Ca-hours de Virgile; costume design, Pierre Yves Gayraud; sound, Francois Waledisch; associate producer. Caroline Solanillas; casting, Bruno Delahaye. Reviewed at Paris Film Festival, June 14, 1995. Running time: 89 MIN.
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