FRESH BAIT (1995) 

Fresh Bait (L'appt) is a hugely disappointing effort from the usually dependable French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (A Sunday in the Country [1984], L.627 [1992], Safe Conduct [2002]). Based on a true story, the film tries to document the hollow lives of three criminally hopeless French youths, but the depiction is rather shallow and unobservant, not to mention its not something one hasnt come across before. Nathalie (Marie Gillain) is an attractive young "salesgirl-model," as she likes to call herself, who doesnt shy away from offering her "services" to the wealthy clientele at a local club for some money, and especially for a hope of a big break. She lives with her shiftless boyfriend, Eric (Olivier Sitruk), and his dimwitted buddy, Bruno (Bruno Putzulu). After Eric comes up with a plan of making some quick money for the clothing boutique he wants to open in the U.S., he asks for Nathalies assistance; the plan involves sexual luring of her previous patrons so the other two can come up to their apartments and rob them. Needless to say, things dont go as well as planned, and the trio slowly start to get frustrated with mistakes along the way.

Tavernier has shot Fresh Bait hand-held, but instead of going with DV, hes used film which is a curious aesthetical choice for this sort of a story; there are swooping camera-movements that signify absolutely nothing. It almost seems like the director wanted to throw his hat in the ring by attempting a post-Tarantino era crime-drama filled with "cool" pop-culture references, musical montages, crude and corny renderings etc., but like most others, hes failed on almost every level. Theres something to be said about consciously observing the unconscionable, although its surprising to see Tavernier, on more than one occasion, partaking in the same sort of behavior hes trying to comment on. The most shocking thing about this effort is that it actually won the Golden Bear (Best Picture) at the Berlin film festival in 1995, however, if one were to go over the other competition entries then perhaps it doesnt seem that much of a stretch (the two brilliant American films in competition, Before Sunrise and Smoke, also won prizes). Taverniers compatriot, the great Claire Denis, also made a film in the early nineties using a true crime story, but her piece, I Cant Sleep (1994), was a masterpiece of subversive alienation and misplaced humanism. Fresh Bait, on the other hand, shares many of the worst traits of Larry Clark, which is too bad considering that it couldve easily pursued the best of them.

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*FRESH BAIT was recently released on DVD in the U.S.