Kenneth Turan’s film pick of the week: ‘See How They Fall’ (‘Regarde les hommes tomber’)

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

As anyone who’s seen ‘A Prophet’ knows, Jacques Audiard is incontestably one of France’s top directors, but his first film, 1994’s ‘See How They Fall’ (‘Regarde les hommes tomber’), winner of three Césars, including best first work, had the misfortune of going straight to video.

Audiard went on to films like ‘Read My Lips’ and ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’ that increased his reputation. Friday at 7:30 p.m. is a rarer-than-rare opportunity to see this first film on the big screen, when it’s shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater.

As might be expected, ‘Fall’ is an exceedingly bleak, disturbing and wildly stylish neo-noir. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, cast against type as an abrasive petty gangster, and Mathieu Kassovitz as a simple soul he meets on the road.

Not be as polished as Audiard’s later works, ‘See How They Fall’ shows an ambitious director well on his way to being the master of his game.

-- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times film critic