Main Cast: Laurent Lucas, Sophie Quinton, Catherine Jacob, Yasmine Belmadi
Release Year: 2003
Country: FR
Run Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Gilles Marchand, who co-wrote the scripts for Human Resources and With a Friend Like Harry..., makes his directorial debut with Who Killed Bambi?, which he co-wrote with Vincent Dietschy. Isabelle (Sophie Quinton) is a student nurse. One night while leaving the hospital, she hears a ringing in her ear and loses her balance, passing out. When she awakens, the handsome young Dr. Philipp (Laurent Lucas of With a Friend Like Harry...) is standing over her. Amused by the young woman's seeming inability to stand on her own feet, he nicknames her "Bambi." Isabelle is not amused. Their relationship becomes adversarial when Isabelle notices that someone has been diluting the hospital's supply of general anesthetic. She suspects that the doctor is drugging female patients so that he can have sex with them. Before long, it's not just medicine, but patients who are going missing. Isabelle's boyfriend, Sami (Yasmine Belmadi), an intern, begins to think that she's having an affair with Dr. Philipp, and no one believes her accusations, not even her cousin, Véronique (Catherine Jacob), a more experienced nurse. Isabelle finds herself in danger, and her recurring fainting spells create a situation in which she may soon find herself on Dr. Philipp's operating table. Who Killed Bambi? was shown at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and at the Walter Reade Theater in New York as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 2004 Rendez-Vous With French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Review
Sex Pistols fans will recognize the title Who Killed Bambi? as a good one, but viewers are unlikely to recognize any connection between Gilles Marchand's competent, but somewhat plodding, film, and the anarchic spirit of the punk rock song. In fact, the title of the film is pretty much a red herring, as Isabelle (aka "Bambi," played by Sophie Quinton) is the protagonist of the film, and is alive and well -- not even in any immediate danger -- for the majority of its running time. As for the question of who the villain is, Marchand and Laurent Lucas, who plays the sinister Dr. Philipp, make that pretty clear right off the bat. In fact, one of the film's strengths is the creepy way the doctor skulks about in the background in the unnaturally empty halls of the gleaming, antiseptic hospital. There's a general feeling of creepiness in the setting, nicely captured by cinematographer Pierre Milon (Time Out), and the uneasiness is exacerbated by the lecherous way every male in the place approaches Isabelle, and by her disorienting fainting spells, which have a tendency to blur the line between reality and paranoid fantasy. In one strong sequence, Isabelle awakens to find herself the victim of a practical joke being played by Dr. Philipp, in collusion with her young colleagues. Odd, because it's already been established that the doctor has no sense of humor. The tone of the film is a bit too subdued, and neither Isabelle nor Philipp are interesting or well developed enough as characters to really grab our interest. There's a thematic resonance in the doctor's choice of victims, in the belittling nickname he gives Isabelle, and in the general sense of male dominion the film conveys, and the film is reasonably engaging, but it doesn't ever add up to much. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Cast
Laurent Lucas - Dr. Philipp
Sophie Quinton - Isabelle/Bambi
Catherine Jacob - Veronique
Yasmine Belmadi - Sami
Michèle Moretti - Mademoiselle Vachon; Lucia Sanchez; Sophie Guillemin; Anne Caillon; Francoise Pinkwasser
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