Director: Gilles Mimouni
Stars: Vincent Cassel, Romane Bohringer, Jean-Phillipe Ecoffey, Monica Belluci, Sandrine Kiberlain
Running Time: 113 minutes.

Initially, Gilles Mimouni's intense and intriguingly structured debut feature about one man's obsession with a beautiful woman from his past seems like a Gallic version of Vertigo. However, this complex and ambitiously stylish psychological thriller lacks the memorably haunting and unsettling qualities of Hitchcock's classic masterpiece and proves to be something of a struggle for many within the audience.

The Apartment explores a bizarre sexual merry-go-round between five people, a series of complicated relationships marked by guilt, obsessive behaviour, sexual betrayal, deceptions and lies, mistaken identities and a series of missed rendezvous. The hero of this idiosyncratic romantic thriller is Max (played by Vincent Cassel, last seen in La Haine), a corporate computer expert who is due to fly to Tokyo for a business trip when he overhears a woman talking on the phone. Convinced that she is Lisa, the woman who walked out on his life several years earlier without any explanation, Max secretly remains in Paris, determined to track her down. He stays with childhood friend Lucien (Jean-Phillipe Ecoffey, from Queen Margot, etc), who is involved in a confused and uncertain relationship with Alice, a dangerously flaky actress.

Driven by a need to find her and resolve their past relationship, Max scours Paris looking for her until he eventually tracks Lisa down to an apartment building. However, he is surprised to find that the suicidal, love sick, seemingly lonely and manipulative woman he encounters there is not the Lisa of his past. The mystery woman (played by Romane Bohringer, from Mina Tannenbaum, etc), who also calls herself Lisa, has secretly been in love with Max for years and even played a key role in breaking up his relationship with the real Lisa. Lisa mark 2 quickly seduces Max, taking advantage of his vulnerability and confusion, persuading him to forget his obsession with a woman from the past, whom he may never see again. Besotted by this passionate woman, Max conveniently overlooks the small niggling details, such as the fact that Lisa doesn't seem to know the layout of the apartment, nor do her clothes fit properly.

But the subterfuge doesn't just end there, as writer/director Mimouni adds several further complications to the mix. Mimouni treats his non-linear narrative structure like an elaborate jigsaw puzzle that is being slowly assembled before our eyes, and the film darts back and forth between past and present, exploring certain events and incidents from several different perspectives. As the film progresses all the various elements begin to slowly fall into place, although audiences may not be so easily convinced or won over by all the sophisticated style and dazzling cinematic tricks. The real trick is in seeing if the audience become clued into what is actually happening before Mimouni's neatly delivered denouement. He directs this complex and sinuous story with absolute confidence and an assurance that belies the fact that this is his first feature.

Mimouni draws rich and multi-layered performances from his enthusiastic and exciting young stars. Cassel brought an intensity to his performance as a hot headed rebellious youth in La Haine, but as Max he seems restrained, subdued and more vulnerable, although he fails to earn much sympathy for his rather selfish and unattractive character. Bohringer fares better with a complex dual role, and she delivers a memorable performance, but it is beautiful Italian actress Monica Bellucci who is the one truly sympathetic character in this scenario as the Lisa of Max's past, a troubled woman who is desperately trying to escape from her current lover, a psychotic and dangerously jealous financier.

Thierry Arbogast has to be the best cinematographer working in France (his luscious visuals have recently enhanced such period pieces as Ridicule and The Horseman On the Roof), and here his whirling cameras and dizzyingly effective tracking shots help establish the mood of mystery and unease that permeates this off beat and teasing thriller. Peter Chase's swirling score is reminiscent of the work of the late Bernard Herrman and effectively underscores the moody and joyously twisting narrative. The Apartment is a beguiling, complex and finely structured drama that will appeal mainly to lovers of either sophisticated art house films or typically dark and dry Gallic dramas.

© 1996-97 Greg King / Used With Permission