Strong and Moving!

i must have seen a different film!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

During the last forty years France has seen at least three comedy ensembles graduate from boulevard theatre or television to the big screen and if Splendid has the best track record in terms of both ensemble films - le pere noel est un ordure, les bronzes - etc plus individual actors - Thierry Thermitte, Josiane Balasko, Gerard Jugnot, michel blanc, ann-marie chazal, actor/writer/director - Balasko, Blanc, Jugnot, this is not to say that the likes of Les Nuls (Alain Chabat) and Les Robins des bois (Marina Fois, Jean-Paul Rouve) were chopped liver. City of Fear marked the big-screen debut of Les Nuls and it turned out to be an auspicious debut in every way. It is, of course, very French so that many of the verbal gags will be lost on non-French speakers who rely on subtitles but against that there are lots of sight gags which are, of course, International. Time will tell if it holds up as well as, say, Le Pere Noel but it certainly works the first time around.

This is "Les Nuls"'s first movie and if it isn't a masterpiece, it's an enjoyable comedy. Odile Deray is the press attaché for the film "Red Is Dead" but the film is so dumb that reporters don't want to promote it. However, the projectionist is killed and due to this it creates a great publicity around the movie and meanwhile murders go on. Then Deray is asking a cop (Serge Karamasov) to protect not only the projectionists but also the main star of the film: Simon Jérémi.... Alain Berbérian and "Les Nuls" have made a funny film which is full of clever visuals and ringing brainwaves; the best example is the murder of the fourth projectionist when "Les Nuls" are adding the sound effects to the scene themselves! Moreover, the comic of the film is very fanciful and there are some useless elements but it's because they are useless that they are funny. For example, we learn Patrick Bialès's whole life (the main inspector of Cannes) but it brings nothing to the plot! The screenplay, in spite of several weaknesses, is inspired and full of numerous details and sentences that score the bull's eye.The movie is well made thanks to its actors too and I am under the impression that they, voluntarily, don't take themselves seriously , especially Gérard Darmon who is irresistible in his first appearance when he answers the reporters in several languages! Even famous French actors have got a small role (Tcheky Karyo, Daniel Gélin, Jean-Pierre Bacri and Eddy Mitchell are in the projectionists' roles)! At last the film is obviously a parody of horror and detective films. I think about "Psycho" when the projectionists are killed. To sum up: a fanciful but efficient comedy and if you watch it for the first time, you might be disappointed. You have to watch it several times to appreciate it. It happened with me.

In this movie that i saw at least a hundred times, you just laugh every 5 seconds !! This kind of humour is really great, actors are so funny and so good... For somebody who wants to know how french humour is, go see it, you won't be disappointed :+)

"Les Nuls" (actors and writers in this movie) started in a TV show (a kind of the "Saturday Night Live" on french TV Canal+) and have decided to end their TV adventure by making a film. "La Cité de la peur" can be seen if one doesn't know their TV shows: it's terrific, very funny. But there are too some personal references which develop the comic of the situations. In summary, everybody loves this film: a cult film that I have seen a lot of times. I think that I will watch it during all my life!!