Under Paris, the review of the Netflix film with Bérénice Bejo

Thinking about it, it was to be expected that, at some point, the Paris Olympics would come into play. At the beginning of the film, arrived on Netflix, we certainly couldn’t correlate the triggering event of the plot with the sporting event of summer 2024. Yet, scrolling through, the parallel has its own logic, despite the work being something diametrically opposed to rationality. Here you are, Under Parisdirected by Xavier Gens, wipes away any suspension of disbelief, transporting us into a thriller which, despite the good idea, has on the other hand an excessive seriousness which unravels the absurdity of the plot.

Under Paris, a Franco-Belgian co-production, theoretically perfect for the Netflix top 10, seems in fact designed to anticipate and accompany the Paris Olympics, leading us to discover the French capital from another perspective (cinema-tourism postcard? Yes, we are in those parts ). Of course, reality and credibility are certainly not to be sought in a film, however Gens’ film fails (almost never) to make us suspend our disbelief, aiming right from the opening scene – a very long one – at an artificially constructed effect, which will flow into a central part in which everything mixes: action, survival, green and environmentalist themes, up to social disobedience as a legitimate stance against power.

Under Paris: there is a shark in the Seine?!

Among other things, the story of Under Paris (signed by the director together with four other authors, Yannick Dahan, Maud Heywang, Yael Langmann) could technically be summed up in half a line: a shark is prowling the depths of the Seine. The point is: how did a shark get there in the Seine? We discover that the Parisian carcharodont is part of a group of specimens already followed and studied by Dr. Sophia (Bérénice Bejo), before it devoured his study team in an accident in the middle of the Pacific. Sophia, who gave up her research at sea and worked in an aquarium, understands that the enormous carcharodon may have adapted incredibly, finding refuge in the underwater canals of the Catacombs of Paris. Helping Sophia in the search is Adil (Nassim Lyes) from the river police, who is initially skeptical. Beyond the protests of environmentalists, the two will find themselves facing a race against time: to capture the shark before the Olympic triathlon trials, which will be held in the waters of the Seine.

An advert for Paris 2024?

If just the idea of ​​swimming in one of the least clear rivers in Europe (to use a euphemism) can make your skin crawl, it must be said that the shark has always been a symbol of a certain cinema of effect (it is useless to remember Spielberg, or the declared trash of Sharkando), arousing conceptual interest even in a freshwater context. Nonetheless, Under Paris continues by putting in a series of self-satisfied moments (showing and demonstrating the almost 20 million budget), which turn on themselves, without properly progressing what could have been a dispassionate guilty pleasure. Instead, there is a haughty atmosphere that weakens Xavier Gens’ film, generating a short circuit between intentions, expectations and final result.

The tension, consequently, is clearly artificial, and little inclined to narratively adaptive malleability. Among other things, the environmentalist nuance seems like a pretext, for a backstory populated by girls with skullcaps and colored hair. A narrative nuance which, unfortunately, reasons by caption rather than substance. Of course, each work must be contextualized (and Gens’s is part of the classic streaming film to be seen without commitments), nevertheless Under Paris it even seems to escape its mission (implied and awkwardly hidden) aimed at entertainment, leaning towards a formality written and designed only to illuminate the Seine in Paris, as if it were the pitch for an advertising spot.