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DEMONLOVER Send This Review to a Friend
Olivier Assayas's "Demonlover," which was part of the 2003 Rendez-vous with French Cinema series, plunges into the world of internet porn and video games with a vengeance. Competition boils over in an effort to make a deal with a key Japanese firm trafficking in porn and the film seethes with plotting and counter-plotting and a dose of spying in the quest for power and profit. The ultimate site involves torture and interactive participation.
The film becomes much too convoluted and one can predict the outcome for one of the key players, but there is drive and visual seduction at work, and the cast is excellent, including Gina Gershon, Connie Nielsen, Chloë Sevigny and Charles Berling. "Demonlover" is distinctive and creative despite its drawbacks and undertone of sadism.
The website involved is called "The Hellfire Club" and the idea is solidly built upon what has happened in internet proliferation and the profits that can be realized from porn. Two multinational conglomerates are trying to strike a deal. But there is a corporate spy in the ointment in the person of Connie Nielsen as Diane, who has a secret agenda. Charles Berling and Chloë Sevigny are other players in the maneuverings, as is Gina Gershon as an American executive.
Writer-director Assayas has made a very stylish film, effectively photographed by Denis Lenoir. You may well be on to the final twist, but there is much amusement and tension in getting there, and the cast is a major pleasure. But the story becomes excessive as it races along and credibility is strained. Still, "Demonlover" is an original. A Palm Pictures release.
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