Body to body /
Corps à corps (R)

by François Hanss and Arthur-Emmanuel Pierre

Corps à corps is a dark and moody thriller, the first full-length feature from writer-directors Arthur-Emmanuel Pierre and François Hanss. It has all the classic hallmarks of suspense - evidence is unearthed stage by stage and tension is palpable, as characters start to feel unhinged, trapped, confused. The directors are playful and brave - and the tension generated is certain to play with your nerves!

Laura (the talented Emmanuelle Seigner - Bitter Moon and Place Vendome), a stripper in a seedy club of Marseilles, is short of hopes and dreams. On a whim, she decides to change her life and pursue Marco (Philippe Torreton), a devoted fan she has met at the club, who she hardly knows but who loves her deeply. He's rich and lives in a chateau, she is beautiful - it's just like a fairytale. Soon after leaving the club, Laura has a serious car accident, and loses her hearing. Her recovery is slow, but she soon returns to the chateau. But all is not what it seems with Marco - she begins to discover some very macabre secrets...he was once a surgeon specialising in organ transplant... and just what is going on in the back shed?

Torreton provides Marco with a depth of emotion, deeply in love with Laura but tortured to a point of mania by the fact that he might lose her. Emmanuelle Seigner's incredible performance is a model of ambiguity and humanity, in this powerful thriller in the great tradition of Les Diaboliques.

France - 2003 - Thriller - 101 min - French with English subtitles
Director: François Hanss, Arthur-Emmanuel Pierre
Script: Arthur-Emmanuel Pierre, François Hanss
With: Emmanuelle Seigner, Philippe Torreton, Clément Brilland, Yolande Moreau, Marc Duret, Vittoria Scognamiglio