Attack of the Robots Reviews

"Cartes sur table" is a coproduction between France and Spain (in this later country was entitled "Cartas boca arriba") and opens a new stage in the filmography of Jesús Franco while the previous close. The one, because it rules out the terror, more or less gothic, in favor of new records. The other, because it is the filmmaker's latest movie in black and white, a change that would, paradoxically, for the worse.

Similarly, part of a shift occurring ironic that was years in some french films, the thrillers starring by Eddie Constantine. Franco also made ​​with this actor an antihero -in the line marked by Lemmy Caution (Godard, 1965)- and his whole film seems imbued with the flavor of the Nouvelle Vague as the main source of inspiration: plot, aesthetics, tone, actors (the aforementioned Constantine, Françoise Brion, Sophie Hardy ...). There is even a mention of the french title as a direct homage to Godard's movie.

But this lighthearted but very well constructed story, mixing espionage with science fiction, also has parallels with the best French film avant-garde of that time to count as qualified co-wrote with Jean-Claude Carrière and music to the great Paul Misraki, that had just composed the soundtrack of Godard's "Alphaville" to name just two examples. Interpretive role is also to assess the work of veteran Spanish actors Fernando Rey and Alfredo Mayo.

Another interesting aspect is the settling of the film determined by the aesthetics of the comic narrative and theme, from now on, will reveal not only feature, but almost obsessive in the path of Franco: the appropriation of wills, the minds of both domination and bodies. In this respect I would add that, while watching the movie, I was reminded several times "Nuits rouges" (1974), the latest movie directed by Georges Franju by treatment showing the robotic servants. In the other side, again Franco gives us a scene with show band in a nightclub for framing, no doubt, probably the best place recreated in his films.

"Cartes sur table", referring to the assimilative capacity, renewal, gets displayed as a narrative film great ease, with a development at once scholarly and popular, which seems to deliberately aesthetics of comics and action films series B. And no one can deny that it is just that: a more than worthy entertainment.