Friday 24 March 2006

La Machine (1994)

Talking about subtitles, this French film only appears to be available in a dubbed version, which is a little unusual nowadays.  I thought I had possibly seen it before (and I had), but I didn't quite recall where the plot went.  Gerard Depardieu plays a doctor who wishes to understand the mind of a serial murderer, so exchanges personalities with him via his (existing only in movies) machine; unfortunately he gets stuck in the body of the killer who stops the process reversing -- and the killer, now in Depardieu's body, goes home to make love to "his" wife, Nathalie Baye.  (If this all sounds a bit familiar, think of John Woo's "Face/Off", which has a similar theme).  However when the killer finds that Depardieu's body is not as healthy as he would wish, he moves his personality into the couple's young son.  The film certainly had its share of shocks, but ultimately was something of a pot-boiler, and I just couldn't get used to the fact that Depardieu's voice sounded nothing at all like him!

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