LOST BULLET/ BALLE PERDUE
France, 2020, 92 minutes, Colour.
Alban Lenoir, Nicholas Duvauchelle, Ramzy Bedia, Stefi Celma, Roger Paradox, Sebastien Lalanne.
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Directed by Guillaume Perriet.
While there has been some comparison to the fast and furious franchise because this film is involved in car repairs, car reinforcements, car chases and speed, the parallels are certainly not exact. Rather, comparisons can stay in France, with many of the films produced by Luc Besson, the Taxi franchise, the Transporter franchise…
The film opens with a reckless car chase, two young men driving straight through a jeweller’s shop and out the other side. The main driver, Lino (Alban Lenoir) is arrested. But, he has a talent for car mechanics and a sympathetic policeman gets permission for him to have time out from jail to work on reinforcing police cars.
The complexities of the plot include corrupt police, drug dealing, the death of the kind mentor (being shot while in the car and the incriminating bullet lodged in the car which then disappears).
Which means then that there are complexities of police tracking down Lino, betrayals, chases, deaths, the finding of the suspect car, Lino reinforcing its more bar and spikes, impaling a police car from the back and using it as a cover to break through roadblocks…
There is suspicions by the authorities, the comeuppance of the corrupt police leader, a career for Lino.
1. The title? The bullet to kill the policeman, in the car, the disappearance of the car, finding it, finding the bullet, guilt?
2. The French atmosphere? Prison, cars, repairs, police cars, chases and crashes? The city, the streets, police precincts, garages? The roads and highways, the scenic background? The musical score?
3. The police background? Investigations? Drug deals? Corrupt police?
4. Lino’s story, the opening, his driving, their driving through the jeweller’s shop, mayhem, the arrest? His imprisonment?
5. Permission for him to come out of prison, the considerate policeman, the bureaucrat policeman giving permission, his work in the garages? The background of fast and strong police cars? His thriving in this atmosphere? The initial encounter with Julia?
6. The corrupt police, the drug deals? The car pursuit, the shooting, the bullet, the dead policeman? The effect on Lena?
7. Lino, a character, the encounters with the corrupt police, the car chases, the encounter with Quentin, Quentin helping him, Quentin shot, the link to the disguised car?
8. Lino and the car, his men, the up of the road block? Lino and his putting the reinforcements on the bull bar and the shafts? The pursuit, his eluding the pursuers in front of the lorry, crashing into the car, using the impaled car to break through the barrier?
9. Julia, the bureaucrat, the decisions? Getting Lino? The car, the bullet hole and extraction, the resolution?
10. American references to the fast and furious franchise? French references to the car action films like taxi, transporter…?
