Genealogies of a Crime

1997 "Is she the murderer, the victim, or both?"
6.4| 1h53m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 04 May 1997 Released
Producted By: Canal+
Country: Portugal
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

An attorney defends a young man on trial for killing his aunt — a psychiatrist who took him in to study possible homicidal tendencies.

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

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Director

Raúl Ruiz

Production Companies

Canal+

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Genealogies of a Crime Audience Reviews

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Pan32 Généalogies d'un crime (1997) Raoul Ruiz presents a whimsical comic send up of any number of Hollywood crime flicks from Hitchcock on down, shuffling the deck of stock situations and dealing a hand that parodies the psychiatric profession along with the infinity of detective fiction, reinvigorating the shopworn genre by seasoning it with oriental spice and pseudo physiological insight that, while making the head spin unraveling the scarlet threads, entertains chiefly with the wonderfully eccentric performances of Michel Piccoli as head of the barmy Franco- Belgium Psychiatric Society and Andrzej Seweryn as the clinical observer of their folly and curator of his museum Mnemosyne in which he preserves the record of the genealogies of crime and expounds on his theory that we all live a story, the story here reenacted, is the Chinese folk tale of the young man that after killing a woman takes shelter in the home of her ghost who finds her revenge, given in voice over at begriming and end of the film along with a view of a Go board shown from time to time displaying the movement of "stones" (here plastic chips). Great fun and entertainment.
Xparanoid If some directors make the cut into stardom and acknowledge maybe this isn't the gold for Raoul Ruiz. This great chilean director is one of the best on making a film completely out of new processed lines of ideas, brave imaginary and a perfectly narrated line of events that are shocking sometimes and very recreational through the whole story. In this film Catherine Deneuve shows her grace with a comfortably effortless acting being a legal attorney who solves a mystery on an assassination of a remarkable psychologist. Sometimes you see her good side, the intrigued professional that tries to form a bind with her young client Rene, the first suspect on the murder of his aunt the psychologist, but sometimes you get to see nothing but the real game. That is the true central object of the plot, about how the truth come to reveal to ourselves by being other people, or better said, by placing ourselves in other's perspective. Big twist at the end, and it was before our eyes every time.*notice the great adjustements on the camera lens through the film. Some filters and a half of screen out of focus with traveling at the same time!!
gridoon There may be some interesting ideas about fate and chance here, but they are so deeply buried beneath a talky, uninvolving, boring, confusing and monotonous film that they aren't even worth thinking about. There's a distinct lack of emotion and interest to this film...and you'll have to struggle to get through it in one sitting. Worth seeing (a figure of speech) only for Deneuve's ageless beauty. (*1/2)
Fisher L. Forrest Briefly, a woman lawyer for a young man accused of killing his psychiatrist aunt gets him acquitted, falls in love with him (?), becomes his victim for blackmail, and finally kills him, apparently along with all of his friends. What I am about to say further reveals a sort of "surprise" ending, so please don't read on until you have seen the film!It's all a flashback, as the lawyer tells her lawyer the story while in prison awaiting trial. On the surface, that's the story, but be warned that when you venture on this film, you enter a nightmare world where little is what it seems; all is indefinite. The adjective "surreal" is apropos, but the writer seems at once to be poking fun at the "science" of psychoanalysis, while "psychoanalysing" the audience. One of the "psycoanalysts" (I omitted the "h" intentionally)opines that everyone acts out a story from the past that is endlessly repeated. He summarises from an old story: the lawyer was the ghost of the aunt, seeking revenge on the man who killed her.Catherine Deneuve is certainly fascinating enough to be both quick and dead, but is there any real sense to all of this? Probably not. I think the director was poking fun at all of us, while indulging in some wild and fascinating camera perspectives. If this sort of thing delights you, you'll love this film. Frankly, it's not my cup of tea, and I rated it a 5 of 10.