NID DE GUEPES review

There’s a film that has come out of France that may very well be my favorite action film I’ve seen in the past decade. It came out last year, but I’m only just now seeing it. The film has had some mention on AICN before, most notably from Moriarty a couple of weeks ago. The title? NID DE GUEPES or WASP’S NEST as it is known in English.

The film begins with a wasp… a really big wasp, one of those Tarantula Hawk Wasps… with the 4 inch wingspan as it is in a showdown with a Tarantula. A very large tarantula. We pull back to reveal we are watching a television screen, we pull back to reveal we are out on a patio, where smaller wasps are buzzing discarded foods and drinks upon a table and grill… we pull back to a man in a hammock watching the program… The whole time we hear the television commentator’s narration of the steps and processes that the Tarantula Hawk Wasp stuns its prey, then plants eggs inside it which eat the prey from the inside out.

Next we are in a parking garage, 3 are meeting 2… 4 men and a woman. Dressed… casual. They greet one another as we continue to pull back, we’re in a mini-van watching this, we pull back, no, actually we’re on the other side of the van as they are all getting in and taking off. The time is 12 noon, we now are given the first display of time.

Now we are at a locker room. A woman and a man are at locker’s across from one another. The man inquires about her child, she hands him a photo… as he looks at the photo she removes her shirt and bra revealing a very lovely muscled back. She grabs a black sports top which she puts on, the man notices, of course. He offers her back the picture which she tells him to keep. He reaches down to pull up a big metal binder to offer to her. It is apparently information on the bastard they’re dealing with today. He pulls up a briefcase with breaks way to reveal a high tech-machine gun of some type which he unfolds and sets.

We’re back to the first guy, who is leaving his house, as he walks out the front door, he looks at the corridor of his home with a look of concern… the soundtrack is creating unease in the viewer, as if it is telling him… this is the last time you’ll see home.

We’re in the minivan with the group of five. The driver is whistling two notes. Over and over. Seeming to annoy the front seat passenger. The driver pops in a candy or TUMS or something like that, again to the annoyance of the passenger. He continues to whistle. The front passenger whistles the next phrase of the tune, suddenly we’re listening to Elmer Bernstein’s MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN theme with call and response whistles from the front two passengers, the 3 in back begin humming the background phrase, when the one right behind the driver begins putting a techno-riff beneath it all… You get the idea, these people hang out and that they care for one another. We are outside of the vehicle and we pull away from them, panning over to another street, where there is a parade demonstrating the power and military of the French Government. Tanks in formation. Troops marching in perfect time with one another… You begin thinking… my god, how big is this movie… An overhead shot of the parade from the sky… gives way to…

An observer from a military transport plane, he pokes a passenger in front of him to let him now that they are almost there. (where? We don’t know)

At each major sequence we have an update of the time… The music building a sense of convergence. Of imminent danger or action. The filmmaker is very careful about the information he’s giving you about each group. Leaving you to wonder what the hell each group is up to. Dangling that carrot in front of the audience as if to say… “Come get it”

What we have are 4 separate groups in all… The one we know the least about begins in Albania and has massive weaponry and high-tech gear. There’s a crew in an armored vehicle transporting a very nasty prisoner that is a mafia lord that runs rape gangs and prostitution rings which brand and number women they run on the street. There’s the ‘minivan’ group which are cutting communication lines in the region. There’s a security guard at some storage facility, who used to be a fireman, and we don’t know why he quit. And… well… Each of the groups have their own motivations and things to do that day. No one group knows about all the others. And none of them are prepared for each other. And as you can probably guess, they are all going to have to deal with one another. Or die trying.

The result is something akin to ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. There is very much a siege situation underway. There is terrible violence and wonderful characters. The film is made to be seen again and again. I’ve watched it seven times now myself in the past week and a half. I’m showing it to everyone that I can get to come over. Like I said, I love this film.

Who is in it?

The most famous name is probably Samy Naceri. That’s a name that means almost nothing to American audiences unfortunately. That’s because Lions Gate has the rights to his two HUGELY SUCCESSFUL French Films and has chosen not to release them in the United States, but in turn… has decided to remake them. I’m talking about TAXI and it’s wonderful sequel TAXI 2. In those films, Samy has shown a great sense of humor, charisma and warmth. An almost giddy sense of joy at performing the car stunts that those films are famous for. An incredible sense of cockiness. Personally, my favorite aspect of him in those movies was his look of impatience. He was always driven to get home soon to fuck his ungodly gorgeous girlfriend and is constantly perturbed by the situation never letting him to get his rocks off, other than at insane speeds. His character in this film rarely has an occasion to smile. I wouldn’t say he’s the main character, only because there is no main character. This is a true ensemble film with no lead. Samy plays this character in his best Lee Marvin, if ya get my meaning. Gruff, reluctantly determined and mean.

Naceri’s best friend and seemingly nervous partner in ‘their’ endeavor is Benoit Magimel (THE PIANIST and LA HAINE). Benoit is the one that whistling the two notes to himself and knocking back a TUMS-like pill. Samy has the ‘big brother’ type character with Benoit relegated to the “prove it” underdog. The exchange of personality power and need is exceptional. Everything he does is wonderful in this film.

The character the film opens with is played by Pascal Greggory. He’s been in JOAN OF ARC before and here… well, here he’s a bit of a burnt out. Like someone that is hiding from the world. Picking the shithole of shitholes to bury himself in, and to hide. I get the idea there’s more to this guy than ever learn. Something, not good, happened in his life, and I’m not sure I even want to know what.

The hard-assed Vasquez type (from ALIENS obviously) is played by Nadia Fares, you may remember her if you saw CRIMSON RIVERS back in 2000, but otherwise she was completely new to me. She’s really solid in the film in a take charge sort of way.

My favorite side character is played by Martial Odone, he’s a black French actor of remarkable physical talent, and he’s the… um… Legolas of the film. In a way, I wish his character had just taken over the whole film… he’s cool in that understated sort of way, but his moments shine in this film.

What I love about this movie isn’t the originality of the story, because as I’ve said, in a film, it is basically ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13… What I love is the filmmaking of Florent Emilio Siri. The way he teases you with information, be it with his editing or with a single long shot. For example, there’s a moment in the film where the prisoner transport is having to by-pass stopped traffic. The shot begins with a long shot of two lanes of stopped traffic… maybe 70 cars in length, on the far left side of the frame you see the escort and armored transport driving in the median. The uneven lines of traffic have people standing about and some rushing towards camera… on the right side, we see dislodged traffic guard rails that have been collided with and two empty lanes. The camera is tilting down to reveal people helping hurt individuals, broken glass, smoke blowing by the camera, the further it tilts the more carnage you see… As we begin to look nearly straight down we see amongst the flames and blowing smoke an upturned semi-truck. The black smoke is coming from the burning tires and undercarriage… as we get to looking straight down the camera and crane begin to tilt back up as the frame is lowering to show tires in the foreground and the devastation in the distance… we’re dipping behind the upturned semi, the sky is entering the twilight time of day… we begin panning along the truck’s wrecked flaming carcass and as we get to the cab of the truck we again begin to go around the front of the truck till we’re looking in from the front of the truck at the driver’s upside down dead body… flames licking the outside of his window as we venture closer… as the camera comes to a stop, we cut to a close up of the top half of his suspended head, flames in the foreground as we begin to see his face boil from the heat…

This is the first dead body you see in the film… the music is inquisitive all during this shot… and you feel your self the whole time wondering what we are going to see… It is at this point in the film that you first realize that this movie isn’t beyond showing you the ugly things in life, much closer than you perhaps want to be.

If the film has a draw back, it is the similarity to ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, but frankly… none of the characters even vaguely resemble those characters, and I love how this film builds. How it explores every weakness and every strength of the characters, building and plans. I love siege movies like FT APACHE, THE ALAMO, ZULU, ZULU DAWN, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, that old tv miniseries MASADA and I love this one… a completely welcomed addition to that wonderful sub-genre in the action realm.

Unfortunately the same people that have the U.S. rights to the two fantastic TAXI movies have the rights to this film, which most likely means we will never get a theatrical release… and 10 to 1 they’re planning on remaking it… which means they don’t plan on releasing it on DVD till that remake is opening in theaters (or possibly hitting DVD itself). But hey, that’s the foreign film world in the U.S. I just wish LION’S GATE gave this the treatment their giving IRREVERSIBLE, frankly… this is a far far faaaar more commercial film. Not great cinema, but one helluva flick!