Échec et mat: When a prank goes wrong, it goes really wrong

Is it worth your time?

Look, if you have a soft spot for black-and-white dramas from the 30s that move like they’ve got somewhere to be, sure. It’s got that specific frantic energy of a French play that’s been shoved in front of a camera. If you hate old-school dialogue that feels like a tennis match, skip it. You will probably find it insufferable.

The whole thing kicks off with Claude feeling like his life is a bit too quiet. He’s engaged to Aline, who is lovely, but he's a writer and writers love drama. So he drags his two friends into this scheme to fake a murder. You know, just to spice things up. 🙄

The actual staging of the fake crime is painfully awkward. There’s a moment where they’re trying to set the scene and you can tell the actors are trying to balance "serious thriller" with "this is a bad idea." It’s charming, honestly. It reminded me a bit of the frantic pacing in The Two Johns, but with a lot more cigarette smoke and existential dread.

Then the guy dies. For real. And the movie just… shifts gears. It stops being a quirky caper and starts being this weirdly claustrophobic panic attack. Fernand Mailly carries the guilt in a way that feels surprisingly modern, even if he does look at the camera a bit too much.

Oddly specific observations:

• The lighting in the scene where they realize the guy is actually dead is weirdly flat. It makes the whole room look like a cardboard box.
• I swear the guy playing the victim holds his breath for like three minutes too long. You can see his eyelid twitch.
• The pacing goes from zero to sixty instantly. It’s jarring.

It’s not quite the level of The City Chap, where everything feels lived-in and real. Here, you get the sense that the set is about to fall over if anyone slams a door too hard. But that’s kind of the appeal, right? It feels like a stage play that snuck out of the theater and decided to play pretend at being a movie.

The ending isn't some big, sweeping resolution. It just sort of stops, like the film ran out of money or the projector got tired. I didn't hate it. It's not great, but it’s human. It’s a mess of a story about a mess of a plan. Sometimes that’s enough. 🎬