[CRITICAL] BLACK DIAMOND

History : Pier Ulmann does not keep his father that the missing image of a trauma to the family. Coming from a family of rich diamond merchants of Antwerp, Pier has cut off communication with this origin, the fact of the terrible accident and in the halo of the mysteries that has been experienced by his father. The day he made a few yards, the night he cambriole with fingering townhouses. His life changes when he learns the death of his father : his family wants to see him again only thinking of revenge.

BLACK DIAMOND is a prism to the image of his object. As said by one of the characters : in a cut diamond, the light enters, as in a mirror, but spring yet amplified. First shock, the aesthetic of the film fits perfectly into the genre of film noir, while remaining very light. The atmosphere of the film is reminiscent of some of the detective films of the 70s, as if the works ofAlain Corneau (Police Python 357) , or Jean-Pierre Melville (The red circle)were crossed to a glimmer of optimism despite the terrifying reality depicted.

The image trauma that initiates the film, will resonate through every situation, every character, in order to extend its reach, but also create a series of small changes that will increase hugely in a final both introverted (dialogue, exciting) and outgoing (an action scene, dry). Arthur Harari takes his time to lay his plot, but he never forgets the pleasure of the spectator. Each scene reveals an original aspect of the relationship between the characters, without stops moving. In more than one direction of actors, remarkable (wonderful interpretation of the mentor of the Pier Ulmann, Abdel Hafed Benotman) the director succeeds in depicting the instability of the characters by camera movements precise. Personally, Arthur Harari has managed to reconcile myself with the use of zoom lenses.

“Without falling into the mannerism or the elegy philosophical disembodied, BLACK DIAMOND speaks with delicacy of the inner truth to everyone”

If at the beginning, the character of the Pier (Niels Schneider, charismatic, fair and sensible) and the spectator share a need to avenge the shame done to his father by the diamond, each of these “monsters” humanises gradually. The empathy of the viewer towards the Pier is all the more important that we share the discomfort of having hated characters who suffer as much as him, like him more than he wants to be convinced. Without falling into the mannerism or the elegy philosophical disembodied, BLACK DIAMOND speaks with delicacy of the inner truth to each one, this rough stone that must be polished in order to catch a glimpse of the myriad of reflections.

Film noir introspective and bright, the film by Arthur Harari passes both, to be taken to the guts by his suspense, and to touch the heart by its resonances at all. Every family hides its secrets, sometimes it is necessary to dare to force the trunk to make them shimmer in the light of the day.

Thomas Coispel

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BLACK DIAMOND has been awarded the prize of the jury at the festival of the detective movie Beaune, edition 2016. Reviewed in partnership with CanalSat and 13th Street

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