The great French actor Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon, Augustine) leads a fine cast in the dark and unnecessarily disturbing Bastards (Les Salauds). Bastards is getting attention primarily because of its renowned director Claire Denis. I am generally NOT a fan of Denis (although I liked her 2008 film 35 Shots of Rum). There’s really nothing wrong with Bastards – it’s well-crafted and well-acted – except the story.
The tale is about Lindon’s character seeking to take revenge for a family tragedy on the rich bad guy who is responsible. Because this is a very dark movie, it doesn’t end well. Now I like dark movies and I would have been OK with the despairing ending, but Bastards needlessly exploits a human trafficking plot thread to make the bad guy worse than he needs to be. Then the final ten minutes is entirely gratuitous. I’ve seen over 15,000 movies, and I would put Bastards among the five or so most disturbing.
(The 40-year-old actress Chiara Mastroianni is pretty damn appealing as the target of Lindon’s lust; as the daughter of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, she benefits from good genes.)
I saw Bastards at the San Francisco Film Society’s French Cinema Now series. It is available streaming on Amazon, Google Play and XBOX Live.