Tip Top

Description

Defying easy description, Serge Bozon’s follow-up to La France (SFIFF 2008) gleefully mashes up genres and influences, taking exhilarating risks at every turn. Whereas his last feature was a World War I drama that featured pop musical numbers, this time Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Kiberlain star in a police procedural executed with screwball comedy hijinks, complete with a dance sequence! Picture Jaques Rivette’s Céline and Julie going policing as internal affairs agents dispatched to a Northern France suburb to investigate the murder of an Algerian police informant. Huppert’s hard-boiled veteran serves as teacher to Kiberlain’s awkward and timid pupil as they bluster their way through departmental corruption. Bozon’s playful experimentation with classic genre, elliptical storytelling and social criticism bring to mind Jean-Luc Godard’s films of the late ‘60s, while the oblique way that he addresses France’s troubled colonial history recalls the way Algeria looms as a specter over Alain Resnais’ Muriel. And Rivette’s influence is not only felt in a predilection for studied performance, but also in the milieu of lingering, murky conspiracy. Perhaps it is a film that only a former film critic could make, but despite its cinephilic inspirations, it is an entirely original film. Huppert and Kiberlain’s risky performances are a joy to watch, and Tip Top reaffirms Serge Bozon as one of the most audacious filmmakers working. –Jesse Dubus

Trailer

Film Details