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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: November 13, 2012.
Director: Olivier Chateau
Cast: Julien Courbey, Jean-Marie Lamour, Jacques Frantz, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Abel Jefri
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Written and directed by Olivier Chateau, 2008's Asylum (also known as I Want To Be A Gangster) is a gritty, low budget feature that serves as a love letter to French noir films of the past while at the same time carving out its own little niche.
The movie follows a low level criminal named Jack (Julien Courbey) who gets the opportunity to try out for a job with the local mafia. He gets the gig and is given his first assignment but promptly screws it up and his boss' nephew winds up dead. When this happens, he knows there are going to be repercussions so he flees the scene but it doesn't take long for the men he was working for to catch up with him. When they do, they brutally torture him and then tie him to a tree in the middle of the woods and leave him there alone, assuming that he'll die soon enough - ideally slowly and painfully.
Shot with strong sepia tone filters applied over the image (and therefore devoid of most of its color), Chateau starts his film off with cliché after cliché and for the first fifteen minutes or so you'll probably figure you're in for one of the countless Tarantino knock offs that have been given one straight to video release after another since Pulp Fiction cleaned up. Thankfully, once we get over that rocky start, Asylum starts to improve considerably and what begins as just another low budget gangster movie turns out to be something considerably more interesting than that. Once Jack's been excommunicated from the mob and then had the living shit kicked out of him, he's on his own. Once the story movies out in the middle of the woods it becomes as much a story of survival as it does of crime and revenge and it's here that things start to take some interesting and creative twists and turns.
Visually the film does a decent job of toying with shadow and light - the influence of filmmakers like Jean-Pierre Melville were probably a factor here - and some clever compositions help to increase tension and portray mood. Julien Courbey does a pretty solid job in the lead, portraying his character, a bit of a dope to be honest, realistically and giving him enough decent screen presence to keep him interesting. Jack is pretty well written and Courbey takes advantage of what he's been given to work with here. Some moments of comic relief are used effectively as well and thankfully these don't take us out of the picture at all, they feel natural and important to the story, not forced or crammed in just for the sake of including some funny moments in an otherwise fairly serious picture.
Well edited and well shot with good use of sound effects and music, Asylum may regularly show its low budget origins but it manages to overcome those limitations thanks to some creative filmmaking and that makes this one worth checking out.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Asylum looks as good as its shot on video origins probably allow for in this 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer from Synapse Films. The transfer shows detail as good as you'd expect given the source material and arrives on DVD without any compression artifacts.
The French language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, which comes with optional subtitles provided in English only, also sounds fine. Levels are well balanced and there are no issues with hiss or distortion to report.
The main extra on the disc is a twenty minute Making Of Aslyum featurette that offers up some onset footage and insight into Chateau's directorial efforts. It's well put together and worth watching, particularly if you have an interest in low budget filmmaking. Olivier Chateau also pops up in an introduction to his six minute short film, Homer, also included on the DVD. It shows us what happens when a rabbit makes his way out of his cage and into the real world and it's a fun little short well worth a watch. Outside of that, look for a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Don't let the fact that the movie was made for less than what it costs to buy a good used car deter you, there's some definite skill here worth taking the time to appreciate. The movie isn't perfect, but it builds nicely and tells a good story with an able cast. Synapse offers the movie up looking as good as it can and with a couple of decent extras as well. Recommended.
