the hooliganism of the Belle Époque in a crime melodrama

After the space opera The Last JourneyRomain Quirot returns to Earth with him Apache, Belle Epoque nickname for the crooks of Paris. Rich in romantic potential, The Apaches, as the gangsters of Paris were known in 1900, inspired few films, such as golden helmet (1952), resp The Bonnot Band (1966). Romain Quirot, based on the science fiction of Last trip (2020) makes it his subject in Apache which will be released on Wednesday, March 29th.

Indians in the city

In 1900, between Montmartre and Belleville, Billie (Alice Isaaz) joins an ultra-violent gang in the capital to avenge her brother’s death. But she falls under the spell of the one she wanted to eliminate.

Romain Quirot writes a melodrama, the flagship genre of early cinema, to which the film era corresponds. It’s an excuse to explore the world of the Apaches, those violent criminal gangs who settled north-east Paris and roamed the streets of the capital around the turn of the century. Apache has the advantage of reconstructing the bohemian quarters of the Belle Epoque. Strikers big and small, prostitutes, pimps and colorful customers haunt Montmartre’s cabarets and slums, offering beautiful fauna to bring to life on screen.

heavy melody

Romain Quirot pulls the strings of a revenge scenario that turns into romance without being stingy with violence. The edged weapon, the knife or the dagger, even the axe, the favorite tool of the Apaches, the vermilion splashes regularly on the canvas. Alice Isaaz, seen in The Colors of Fire, is a wise choice as it keeps time. Between naïve and leading woman, she penetrates this shady world, but if she fights it, she will integrate it. Beautiful guest stars accompany him: Dominique Pinon, Artus, Bruno Lochet or Rosy de Palma in Sarah Bernarhdt.

The melody perhaps takes over too much the environment described, the real theme of the film. A less formal and expected plot could have served a more realistic painting, in which a new urbanity, an unprecedented violence intertwine against a background of political anarchy. Romain Quirot has chosen an honorable genre film with a clean reconstruction, intended to entertain and remind us of the fond memories of those Apaches who made the front page of the press and are now somewhat forgotten.

The leaf

Genre: historical thriller
Director: Romain Quirot
Actor: Alice Isaaz, Malik Frikah, Niels Schneider, Artus, Dominique Pinon, Bruno Lochet, Rossy de Palma
Pays: France
Duration : 1h35
Variety: March 29, 2022
distributor : tandem movies