made with

google translate

sorry for the mistakes

 


Under Paris

I imagine a scene like this: producer, director, writers and Netflix contact person around a table making a checklist. Environmental theme. We've got it. Gay theme. Got it. Human drama. Yep. Action, foolish politicians, lots of innocent deaths. Check. Sea monsters. Also present. All that's missing are the boobs. But this is Netflix, after all.
So Under Paris must have been born, a monster movie that wants to pay homage to The Jaws but is more like Sharknado. A catastrophe film that nonetheless tries to set a tone, also thanks to the direction of Xavier Gens, the director of Frontiers, but also of commercial marquee films just like this one. Between well-done CGI and (some) well-shot scenes, we see the adrenalin-fuelled adventures of Sophia, played by Bérénice Bejo (yes... César Award for Best Actress and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, for The Artist, among other things), who ended up here, most likely, shouting 'I have to pay the mortgage too'.
The big news basically stops here. Director and protagonist. Because for the rest, Under Paris is the usual disaster movie with huge monsters, cunning scientists warning deaf politicians and assholes causing the death of innocent people because of the God of money.
A summer movie, let's say, to watch in those days when you are desperately trying to book your holiday but the cheap seats are gone and then you hope that a shark will go after the last bidder. Nothing more, nothing less. And maybe that is the secret of its success. Since everyone's talking about it.

2021.We meet Sophia, a scientist, who is tracking a female mako shark called Lilith with her team, which includes her husband, near a plastic island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The team tries to retrieve a sample from the shark, but it rebels and takes them out.
2024. Sophie shocked by what happened has changed her life. Sort of. She works at the Paris Aquarium, but one day she is approached by an environmentalist who tells her that 'her' Lilith has sailed up the Seine and is in Paris. So our Sophie tries, with the help of the police chief, to avert the worst, not least because Paris is about to host the Triathlon World Cup, which threatens to become a Unity Day for Lilith.
The mayor and various politicians, however, play down.
And I repeat: that's all. With an open and spectacular finale (it must be said) that I hope, with all my heart, opens up a franchise in which the shark on duty sneaks into major European cities. Who knows how he would fare in Rome's traffic!