Mortal Transfer (2001)

The premise is good, but the movie isn't. It's excessively talky and fatally overlong. For Christ's sake, man, this thing goes on for what seems like four centuries and never really gets anywhere. The segment about the dead body that has to be removed takes up most of the movie, and it's tiresome (many movies have done this sort of thing better), though it does give Beineix the opportunity to stage some nice Hitchcockian scenes (like one involving a blind man in an elevator). Overall, if you're looking for a good contemporary French thriller, stick with "With A Friend Like Harry". (**)

Jean-Jacques Beineix's new film MORTAL TRANSFER is about the misadventures of Freudian psychoanalyst Michel Durand (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who discovers his beautiful female client strangled on his analyst's couch. Instead of going to the police, he just tries to get rid of the body, leading to a nightmarish and at times phantasmagoric odyssey through a nighttime Paris populated by assorted oddballs. The script is by Beineix and Jean-Pierre Gattegno, from Gattegno's novel of the same name. Anglade provides a great mix of vulnerability and determination as the occasionally hapless shrink. "He's wonderful, he's not afraid of anything," commented Beineix at the film's world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.Beineix visited Moscow in 2001 to present the film at French Film Week. In an interview with Russian entertainment website Weekend.ru, Beineix provided the key to understanding his film: "What do we do in the process of psychoanalytic therapy? We try to get rid of the body of our childhood. What do killers do in detective movies? They try to get rid of the body. I just combined these two stories. My film is from the point of view of the psychoanalyst and the patient at the same time. Gattegno and I both underwent psychotherapy. We were amused by the possibility of transferring to acting, to comedy, those feelings we'd had on the analyst's couch. Not one session of psychoanalysis ends without the unconscious examination of the patient's attitude toward death." Due to its increased complexity, the film is just slightly more challenging to appreciate than Beineix's other work, such as DIVA and BETTY BLUE. Nevertheless, it is just as exquisitely crafted, and is markedly more humorous, albeit in twisted ways. Beineix has a flair for the unexpected - this is a heady mix of genres: a stylish black comedy and a tense thriller at the same time, told with warm colors, broad strokes and an element of the perverse.

I came out of the cinema saying this was an OK film, no more. Better than staying at home Saturday evening. I actually laughed a lot, but I somehow still had the impression that I would have been a great video to rent. It did have a few surprising twists, but something was missing... What?

"Mortal Transfer" deals with a subject that has been exploited by New York filmers mostly: trials and tribulations of a shrink are usually connected with the Big Apple. Beineix has not directed a motion picture in the past eight years, but it doesn't show. If you are familiar with his films such as "Diva" or "Betty Blue", you don't come to expect humor in his work, but after an intriguing setup, you'll find plenty of it here. Beineix' films have never been about depicting reality (more about the clash of illusions vs. reality), and this film is no exception. Masterfully photographed, this is a feast for the eyes in which you will sometimes find yourself wondering whether thrill or laughter are stronger. A comeback to form by a master of his craft.