Petty Crimes

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Main Program: C

 

 

Michel (Jeremie Covillault) is enjoying the company of a lady friend when police arrive and want to serve him for being an illegal immigrant.  Thus begin the tale of Petty Crimes (2002), a videotaped project by writer/director Michel Ferry that follows the French convict through the streets of New York City.  Too bad it did not stick to more of that story.

 

The problem is that the directing is so stuck on stylistics and other tired pretensions, that needed character development never kicks in as it needs to, becoming a sort of situation melodrama with a few two-dimensional street characters thrown in for good measure.  That’s too bad, because this had the potential to be more and if the title was trying suggest some big, profound meaning, forget it.  If having the script be petty on purpose to make a world that is cheap, the cheapness went too far.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image looks to have been shot on lower-definition digital video and has all the limits that come with it.  An anamorphic transfer would have only fared so much better.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix just spreads out the simple stereo, which is as lacking of surrounds as the 5.1 mix is.  Though the back of the box promises more, the only extras is a short film directed by main program co-writer Sarah Zoe Canner called Get Lucky that is better than the main program here.  It plays with the idea of brief pleasures (sex, stealing, taking a quick advantage of another).  Too bad it was not a feature, because this idea could have also gone farther as well.  Hope these people get to go further in their next works.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo