Killing Zoë **** (1993, Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gary Kemp) – Classic Movie Review 959

First time writer-director Roger Avary’s scalding 1993 thriller stars Eric Stoltz as Zed, who arrives in Paris, sleeps with a call girl Zoe (Julie Delpy) and spends a night on the town with some dangerous new buddies who decide to rob a bank the following day, Bastille Day. Trouble is Zoe just happens to work at the bank they’re going to rob.

The underestimated Stoltz impresses as the centre of the storm around him, the delectable Delpy is a highly effective femme fatale and Jean-Hugues Anglade gives a well-calculated OTT turn as Eric, the insane French bank robber.

Avary keeps a lid on the boiling cauldron, relishing the crazy mood and excess, cranking up the weird atmosphere and scary tension, and spattering his movie with gore. Keeping it hyper-real, it’s the flipside of Gene Kelly’s An American in Paris. And tomandandy’s music is a considerable asset. Gary Kemp is also in the cast as Oliver.

The film runs 96 minutes, with the director’s cut at 99 minutes. One of the executive producers is Avary’s then friend and collaborator Quentin Tarantino.

Avary’s most famous work is Pulp Fiction. He shared the 1995 Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Quentin Tarantino. Avary made The Rules of Attraction in 2002.

Avary adds: ‘It does not matter to me if you hate the movie. What matters to me is if you are ambivalent. Anybody can do “thumbs up, thumbs down”. That’s the real problem with film criticism today. It’s been reduced to “I like it, I dislike it”. Criticism should be more of an examination of exactly why a film makes you feel the way you feel.’

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 959

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Jean-Hugues Anglade.