BOITE NOIRE/ BLACK BOX
France, 2020, 129 minutes, Colour.
Pierre Niney, Lou de Laage, Andre Dussollier, Sebastien Pouderou.
Directed by Yann Gozlan.
This is an intense detective story. However, detective story might be overstating the case, even misleading. But, it is an investigation.
A flight from Dubai to Paris over the Alps, opens the film, audiences familiar with flights identifying easily with what is going on, the range of passengers, meal service, movement around the plane, the taking of selfies¦ We see the flight attendants bringing meals to the pilot in the cockpit. Then, danger, upset, the mystery of a crash and debris scattered through the Alps.
Then we are introduced to the expert investigators. The focus is on Mathieu, a substantial role for popular French actor, Pierre Niney, an intense young man, revealed more and more as passionately obsessive, who has had theories about causes for crashes, speculating but evidence indicating he was wrong. Some of the authorities prefer him not to be on investigation cases and that is the case here. The sequences at the crash site, the finding of the black box, the opening, are televised and Mathieu watches. The recording from the black box is downloaded, taken to the laboratories and listened to over and over again, trying to detect sounds, irregularities, voices…
Mathieu wanted to be a pilot, has poor eyesight, but has an intensity of sensitivity to sound.
Mathieu is married to his wife, Lou de Laage, who is also an expert in aviation, working on checking security for aircraft. She is being lured to another job with the aviation company whose plane has crashed. She is friendly with the Chief Executive and with other flight authorities. Mathieu, on the other hand, perseveres with his work, the initial investigator having disappeared. He is supported by his boss, played by French veteran, Andre Dussollier.
The disappearance of the chief investigator moves the action into a detective story, with Mathieu searching the investigator's office, finding an address, going to the house, unearthing further information, leading to the solving of a mystery about the black box itself.
In the meantime, he continues with hypotheses, continually testing, trying the patience, even of his boss who has to ask him to step down. And, he clashes with his wife, even taking documents from her computer, with leads to severe estrangement.
In fact, the last 20 minutes of the film are quite action-packed, Mathieu and danger to his life, finding the information that solves the case, the film visually showing what happened on board, and the dramatic and public expose of the person responsible, ultimately, for the crash and a cover-up.
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1. The title? Planes, crashes, the significance of the black box?
2. Paris, offices, airports, warehouses, homes, country estates? Atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The plane, interiors, ordinary service, passengers, staff, pilots, difficulties, the mystery, the crash? The repetition of the interiors of the flight, the selfies, suspicious passages, the cockpit and the pilots' reactions, the meals, the announcements? The building up of the picture of what happened during the flight? The crash and the debris strewn in the mountains?
4. The film as a detective story, the investigation of the crash, the investigation of the technology, the personnel? The emergence of the crime?
5. Mathieu and his story, age and experience, wanting to be a pilot, his sight and hearing difficulties? Heightened auditory perceptions? Intense, introspective, the focus on detail, rational understandings, elaborating theories? The background of his treatment of the case of the crash plane, his insistence on what he heard, the evidence against him? Admiration for him by Renier, working with Pollock, his insistence with Pollock, arguing with Pollock, Pollock choosing another associate for the investigation?
6. Mathieu and his relationship with his wife, her work, aviation, approval of aircraft, her being recruited for the company? Her social life, contacts, material and his reluctance to socialise?
7. Pollock, the television coverage of the investigation, uncovering the black box, listening to the voice and sounds? His assistant, Pollock's disappearance, the request for Mathieu to step in?
8. The details sequences Mathieu listening, the visuals of the soundwaves, the technology? His attentive listening? With a heightened attention, affirmation, discussing theories, writing the report? Mathieu and his heightened sense of hearing, his speculations?
9. Mathieu and his range of theories, of interference with mechanisms? The tests and the evidence against him? Tensions with his wife? Suspicious about her contacts? Her lying about the meal? His invading her computer, getting the file?
10. The contact with his friend Xavier, Xavier and the offer of the job to Mathieu’s wife, his being seen in Pollock’s video? Mathieu accosting him? The meal with Mathieu's wife and his knowing more than he should have?
11. The possibility of a terrorist incident, the audience seeing the suspicious man going to the toilet? The press conferences, the journalists and their questions?
12. Mathieu and the increasing intensity? Obsessive, being removed from the investigation? His investigating Pollock's office, getting the address, going to his home, the search of the house? His returning there, with the GPS, the search in the lake, finding the black box? The intruders in the house? His driving? His paranoia? The crash?
13. In the house, the time to download the black box information? His listening, the audience hearing what happened? The journalist and the contact with the hacker in the past, the theory that he was on board the plane, that he had the technology to interrupt transmissions? The visualising of his being on board, his computer, his actions, his inability to control his computer, the crash?
14. The opening of the exhibition, Xavier and his speech, Mathieu's wife and her playing the confession by Pollock? The arrest? Mathieu, the close-up of him in the crash, on his ear, his death?
