Dans la tourmente (2012)
Directed by Christophe Ruggia

Film Review

In view of the acclaim that was lavished on director Christophe Ruggia for his first two features - Le Gone du chaâba (1998) and Les Diables (2002) - it is surprising that he has kept such a low profile for the past decade.  Ten years after he inflicted on us one of cinema's most disturbing portrayals of adolescence, Ruggia is back with his third full length-film, one that shows a marked departure from the rigorous auteur realism of his earlier work.  Dans la tourmente is a valiant attempt to combine two strikingly different genres, the hard-edged social realist drama with the stylised modern thriller - a marriage which may have worked if only Ruggia had dreamed up a slightly more convincing plot...

Dans la tourmente begins in a promising vein, in territory that Ruggia evidently feels most at home with, that of social realism.  Set in sunny Marseille but confining itself to the interests of the poor working class, the film has an obvious connection with the work of Robert Guédiguian.  Like Guédiguian, Ruggia is wholly on the side of the common man and does not disguise the fact that his film is intended to be an assault on the injustices of the capitalist system, specifically the way in which the system is exploited by an unscrupulous minority to enrich themselves at the expense of decent working people.  Eric Guichard's striking photography effectively conveys the impression that capitalism (at its worst) is a kind of social plague.  The sterile, soulless factory setting makes a vivid contrast with the unspoiled natural splendour of the surrounding region, a potent visual metaphor for the way in which we allow our society to be disfigured by an over-greedy entrepreneurial class that fails to recognise its moral obligations.

There is little to find fault with in the first thirty or so minutes of the film.  Ruggia manages to get his political messages across without labouring the point and the main characters - played by an unlikely trio that comprises Clovis Cornillac, Mathilde Seigner and Yvan Attal, all cast against type - are convincing drawn and easy to engage with.  Where it all starts to go wrong is when Ruggia suddenly decides he has had enough of social realism and changes track so that he can churn out an approximation to a Hollywood heist movie.  At this point, the characters become less convincing and, as the film progresses and the plot spirals increasingly out of control, they gradually turn into comicbook caricatures.  Whatever credibility the film had at its outset is shot to pieces by the time we get to its final act, a convoluted political thriller about gun-running and a government cover-up.  Faced with this fierce onslaught of clichés and plot contrivances, the only sane thing to do is to break into maniacal laughter or start hurling choc-ices at the screen.

Dans la tourmente feels like three completely different films that have been welded together - it is as if Ruggia started out with the best of intentions, but somehow got a little money conscious halfway through and decided to turn his modest auteur drama into a glitzy mainstream action thriller.  He would perhaps have done better to follow the example of Lucas Belvaux's La Raison du plus faible (2006), which covers virtually identical ground, but does so without betraying its social realist context and undermining the credibility of its central characters.  Ruggia's film, by contrast, feels like a lazy cop out.

The film does at least allow its director to show his versatility and move beyond the limiting confines of the realist drama.  It is easy to ridicule the egregious scripting deficiencies in the thriller part of the film, but Ruggia's mise-en-scène holds up well and effectively sustains the tension right up until the nerve-wracking denouement.  Equally, there is some fine work from the three lead actors, and whilst their characters become less believable with every plot twist Ruggia throws at us, they hold our attention and allow the film to cling on to some vestige of coherence.  Eric Guichard's expressionistic cinematography - which is so evocative of classic film noir (Nicolas Ray's They Live by Night being an obvious influence) - contributes much to the mood and tension of the thriller sequences and, whilst the plot ends up as an unholy mess, visually the film can hardly fail to impress.  Michael Stevens's score lends a suitably operatic feel to the piece as it crashes and burns in spectacular style.  Whilst it has its moments and is moderately entertaining, overall Dans la tourmente is something of a muddle, lacking both direction and a sense of purpose.  Christophe Ruggia may succeed in finding a wider audience with his first genre film, but at the price of sacrificing his reputation as a serious auteur filmmaker.

Film Synopsis

Franck just about manages to make ends meet by working as a welder at a helicopter manufacturing plant in Marseille.  His friend Max is less fortunate and is drowning in debt since he lost his job, a victim of a large-scale downsizing programme a few years previously.  One day, Franck happens to overhear his bosses planning a covert relocation one weekend.  Not only will the factory employees lose their jobs, they will be totally unaware of the fact until it is too late to act.  The factory manager Charlier is to receive a two million euro payoff for his part in the operation.  Franck's first thought is to notify his colleagues and the media, but Max has a better idea.  They will steal Charlier's bounty once it has been delivered.  The heist is successful, but Franck's wife Hélène wonders where the money has come from.  The drama is only just beginning...