Dangerous connections The glorious city of Paris is shocked by a series of brutal murders of prostitutes, mostly young and attractive blondes who found their clients through numerous dating services. The police are lost in guesses, the investigation has actually stalled, because the serial maniac does not leave evidence, and witnesses are not visible even in the future. Meanwhile, the risky American journalist Anne Wilson, temporarily staying in France, is on the trail of the killer.
Any truly high-quality and fascinating detective stands on three fundamental pillars, which include the plot and the intrigue and mystery that arise from it. Set for television in 1993, the product of a joint French-Canadian production, the detective thriller “Connections” directed by Patrick Jamen on the go satisfies two of the three above conditions, giving the audience a full of unpredictable twists and turns of the plot and impregnated with almost Hitchcock’s suspense intrigue with the obvious absence of a complex puzzle, because the identity of the main protagonist actually remains in the film lying on the surface. and the viewer without much difficulty understands before the character of actress Teri Austin who is who in this gloomy story, based on the detective story of David Preston, who practically does not change the plot. As a result, the film came out quite meticulous and accurate in relation to the literary source, a kind of classical and even detective without excessive embellishment, but also without halftones.
Patrick Jamin, the staff director of numerous French detective series, including, perhaps, the most famous and long-lasting of them, “Commissioner Navarro”, shot “Connections” rather rough and weak that the benefit of the picture definitely did not go. However, the ordinardiness of directing is compensated by a mass of unexpected twists in the plot and a powerful intrigue, which until the finale will be completely opaque. In the complete absence of clear directing, this almost becomes the main plus of the film, which, in addition to entertainment, skillfully and interestingly reveals the theme of the duality of human nature. This theme, of course, is quite typical for the detective genre, but in the film “Connections” it is presented to the audience from the angle of postmodernism and specific irony, because the killer suddenly turns out to be in the picture not at all someone who can be suspected. Patrick Jamen, to the best of his own efforts, scatters pieces of detective mosaic across the tape, which in the final are assembled into a single impressive puzzle, and the preceding plot equilibres acquire a completely new breath. The story of the hunt for a maniac and an inquisitive journalist turns into an ironic sketch about the lost trust in the modern world of wolves and sheep.
In the film throughout it does not feel a strong director’s hand and the ability to withstand the tape in a single artistic manner, therefore, there are a couple of frankly sagging moments in it, slightly towing the further movement of the plot track, as well as excessive copying either under Eric Romer, or under Hitchcock, or under De Palma.
But it also attracts the picture of Jamen and participation in one of the main roles of the famous Uruguayan actor Luca Barbereschi, who at one time played with Ruggero Deodato, Dino Risi, Tom Ticver and Constantine Costa-Gavras, and previously starred in Patrick Jamen in the series High Tension. This time in “Connections” Barbaresky again plunged into the pool of deliberately ambiguous protagonist, creating the most interesting character in the whole picture, and against the background of rather trivial characters Teri Austin and Jacques Penaud and completely stood out.
"Connections" - the movie is not the most famous, but which, despite the lack of sharpness of directing, produces an extremely pleasant impression and a powerful aftertaste. A film about maniacs in the doorways, risky reporters and the consequences of dangerous relationships that a priori do not lead to anything good. Paris turned out to be deceptively beautiful, and even there bloody shit happens with extreme periodicity.
6 out of 10