See How They Fall

A French film that runs two lines in parallel. Simon is a middle-aged sales representative. He goes from city to city, stays in hotels and becomes friends with a policeman he meets on the road. When the man is shot, Simon leaves his job and starts looking for the attacker. The second line belongs to an earlier time. An old confidence man named Marx meets a young man named Johnny who is slow. He takes him in, looks after him and uses him at the same time. The two lines run at different times and the film does not announce it; after a while the viewer notices that they are not happening at once. What binds them is common: both are about men who become fixed on someone else. Simon seeks revenge for a man he barely knew, and Marx takes on a responsibility that does not suit him at all. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays Simon, Jean Yanne plays Marx and Mathieu Kassovitz plays Johnny. It is Jacques Audiard's first film as director; he had worked as a screenwriter before. The film took awards in France for a first work and for a promising performer. A strong starting point for anyone who likes noir and French crime films built on character. For a viewer expecting a straight narrative, the film mixes two times deliberately.