Movies are best when we’re learning from one another. I hope American filmmakers start stealing techniques and stories from our French counterparts: immersive character dramas that win a bunch of awards constantly. It appears the French have followed Norway’s lead and stolen fun, b movie ish creature features. On premise alone, Under Paris is a home run, perfect for a stupid fun date night for a couple preparing for a trip to the French capital. Though maybe they’ll think twice about entering the triathlon there.
Poor Sophia Assalas (Berenice Bejo). After noble attempts to save whales and sharks from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Sophia’s team is shocked by Beacon #7: Lilith, a mako shark. Lilith is 3x bigger than any other mako in the area…and doesn’t take well to these invading humans, killing Sophia’s team and almost killing her. Years later, a more jaded, reserved Sophia is recruited by Mika (Lea Leviant) and Dan (Nagisa Morimoto) to join their covert animal rescue efforts. How do they lure her? Beacon #7 has showed up again: Lilith is apparently living in the Seine River….a few days before Paris’s big triathlon is going to put hundreds of fresh foods into the water.
See? I have zero notes on the big dumb premise: a home run across the board. Under Paris uses other famous creature features, especially Jaws, to play the beats of the movie it’s supposed to be. After the bloody intro, we go into hiding for about an hour with Lilith as Sophia, Mika and Adil (Nassim Lyes) the French police Sergeant, try to wrap their heads around a shark living under the Louvre. That hour becomes just a lovely recommendation to take a Seine river cruise, as we’re boating under bridges enjoying the real life on location Paris we’re traveling through. Gens shows great restraint, holding off the crazy stuff as he maneuvers the pieces into place. He saves all his big mayhem for 2 giant set pieces in the 2nd half of the movie: 1 taking place creepily in Paris’s catacombs and one, as you might guess around the time the triathlon is about to start. The movie knows the CGI isn’t great, so it does a good job giving us some really creepy, eerie setup shots that build anticipation nicely, especially for the big finale the movie chooses to go with: a bold, crazy choice that’s wonderfully French and pays off the time investment Netflix and chillers have put into Under Paris.
One reason maybe France decided to make this film was their political messaging was getting stale. B movies like Under Paris can be pretty good at hiding their messaging inside a fun package. Ok, some of the message was not so hidden: I don’t think is was a coincidence that the mayor (Anne Marivin) looks and cartoonishly talks like Marine Le Pen: France’s version of the ultra conservative politician, which Xavier Gens just ripped off from Jaws choosing profit over safety. The subtle messaging has to do with Mika and the underground environmental crusaders. Initially, we’re led to believe these 20 year old kids are the heroes of this story; I mean, saving the animals is usually a good thing right? However, Under Paris really thinks that these kids are Marine Le Pen’s equal and opposite: unflinching idealists filled with hubris, unable to properly assess a problem. And because of the beliefs of these two sides, who are both in power over the moderate middle, any problems that arise will be really hard to solve, because each side will only act in their own best interests. That’s shockingly sophisticated, bleak stuff in a movie about a shark humorously jumping out of the water kill an unsuspecting swimmer or apparently the hundreds of unexploded ordnances just living at the bottom of the Seine, but it’s necessary to keep the movie afloat during the times there isn’t blood in the water.
I want this creature feature explosion to continue happening across Europe. Let’s get a Romanian werewolf/vampire movie. Let’s get the Austrian Krampus film. Have you read those German fairytales? Nothing but horrors for little kids there. In turn, American studios, let’s take some of the great filmmaking going on in these countries: smart, exciting stories we rarely get anymore, and turn back the clock to the 1970s golden age. Or, if that doesn’t work, just send Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich overseas to help produce Europe’s crazy b movie nonsense. At least it’ll be stupid but look super great.