The Empire of the Wolves

              
Director:  Chris Nahon
Year:  2005
Rating: 7.5
Country: France
I must enjoy these slick French thrillers that step in the footprints of Hollywood more than most because I notice that I rated the two Crimson River films and this one higher than most. Or maybe I just like Jean Reno more than most. I have been a fan ever since I came across him in The Professional. Then there was Ronin, Wasabi, Nikita and Mission Impossible. Very likely that in his other films he plays various types but in the ones I have seen he is generally a tough grizzled silent type with those forlorn eyes of his that look like they have seen too much of the bad in the world. Here more so than ever. But I just like those types in films.



This film like the Crimson Rivers is based on a novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé (who also wrote the screen play for Vidocq). I was hoping to Kindle a few of his books but there don't seem to be many that have been translated into English and those that have been are not up on Amazon. If his books are as tense as these make me feel, I would really enjoy them. The Crimson Rivers and Empire of the Wolves do share a few similarities. In all three films there are two strands that play out side by side but don't connect till well into the film. And in all three Reno is a veteran cynical cop (or ex-cop here) who partners up with a young bravado cop. And no romance in any of the films - such a relief for a change. When you are tracking down killers throwing in a romance always feels silly.



Three woman in Paris have turned up dead. Stuffed in the sewers with their bodies mutilated and their faces carved up with symbols dug into them. The only cop working on the case is Nerteaux (Jocelyn Quivrin - died at 30 sadly) who is getting nowhere. The women have two things in common - they were redheads and were Turkish illegal immigrants. The murky dangerous world of the illegal immigrants which is why no other cops want any part of this. With nowhere to turn he looks up the retired cop who had the Turkish ghetto beat. Schiffer or Shifty Schiffer as the police call him. A terrible reputation as willing to use violence to get answers and possibly corrupt. Nerteaux is warned to stay away from him - "he will drag you down" but he is determined to solve this case before another woman is killed. Schiffer is Reno of course looking like a hundred mornings of hangovers - with his dead eyes, bags drooping from his eyes like they are water filled and whiskers dragging across his face like a runaway disease. As they dig into the case that takes them into the dirty bowels of the illegal immigrants world, Schiffer begins to realize that this goes much deeper than a serial killer into the Turkish underworld and the Gray Wolves.

 

In the other thread - which is actually the lead - a French wife to an elite government official - is slowly cracking up. Anna (Arly Jover) is having trouble remembering her husband's face or her past. She is falling apart and seeing a psychiatrist (Laura Morante) but one day she notices that she has these scars on her scalp. She realizes she isn't who she thought she was and that her husband isn't her husband. When she escapes, men try and track her down. As her memory comes back, she realizes who she was - and the men who changed her had no idea what they were dealing with.



The film is totally absurd in many ways - merging a near sci-fi part with a search for a serial killer and then an ending that is pure Hollywood at its dumbest - but it is well done, goes back and forth generating tension, has great sets, location shooting in a fabulous part of Turkey and a plot that keeps you confused and on edge. Directed by Chris Nahon who has a mixed record - this came after his debut, the Jet Li film Kiss of the Dragon, and he followed it with Blood: The Last Vampire and then Lady Bloodfight, which was fun - but very little since that in 2016.