Richard Berry is a fine actor who has directed six films to date, one of which, Moi Cesar, was a popular success and a fine study of childhood. A couple of years ago on the Paris stage I saw him play the Lino Ventura role in L'Emmerdeur opposite Patrick Timsit and I'm happy to say that both actors appear in the remake, now in the cutting room with writer Francis Veber once more at the helm. La Boite Noir is something of a disappointment; it's not so much that the premise is hardly new - victim of amnesia needs to solve the odd mystery or two before he can move on - Mank's Somewhere In The Night in 1948 is a good example of the genre - as that Berry fails to find anything new to explore and there are many finer actors around than Jose Garcia. Marion Cotillard turns in one of the best performances and this might well be reissued in the wake of her clean sweep of Best Actress Awards for La Mome. Interesting but flawed just about covers it.
Review of The Black Box
