A month before the Paris Olympic Games, Netflix and Xavier Gens play ironically on current events. Swimming in the Seine, preparing for the Olympics in the capital, cleaning up the river… everything goes well. Finally, except that in the film available since Wednesday June 5, a giant shark wanders in the Seine and threatens the triathlon competition organized by the Paris town hall, ready to do anything to maintain its reputation and ensure that the event -you sporty takes place.
The feature film directed by Bérénice Bejo (OSS 117 Cairo Spy’s Nest, The Artist…) and Nassim Lyes (Farang), plays, in fact, with the following postulate: what would happen if a giant shark were to enter a place where we don’t expect it? Faithful to the codes of shark films, a true genre in its own right in the 7th art, Under the Seine never deny where it comes from and remind our memory of the masterpiece of the genre, Jaws by Steven Spielberg, in which a great white shark threatened the peaceful seaside resort of Amity.
However, if several bloodbaths are on the program, the film surprises by updating the issues surrounding the beast. In the 1970s, then in the blockbusters that followed – we can only move on to the saga The Meg worn by Jason Statham — the great white shark is a dangerous animal that must be killed at all costs. Under the Seine reverses the trend. If the sea monster is still as terrifying and bloodthirsty as ever, the behavior of humans changes. The film thus adopts a contemporary theme, that of the projection of aquatic species, calling into question our perception of these creatures.
Rehabilitating large sharks
It is perhaps on this point that Under the Seine finds its greatest quality. A true genre film, in the purest tradition of the style, the feature film carries with it an ecological subtext. Like many films before it — we think, for example, of Acid (2023) with Guillaume Canet — the creation of Gens aims to send a message about our behavior and our societies through a film in which reality collides with a certain dystopia. Human damage influences the ecosystem right down to the depths of the ocean to the point of defying the laws of nature, and bringing the monster into our cities.
The pro-ecological platform offered by the film is not alone with our present. By obviously choosing to show a triathlon competition which turns into a drama, but above all the determination of public policies to maintain appearances despite the financial and human cost which is emerging appears like a hell of a snub to current policies. Under the Seine or the satire of Xavier Gens à la Marie de Paris one month before the Olympics? We believe it all the more because Anne Marivin perfectly embodies the exasperating chosen one, stubborn and blind in the face of the specialists’ warnings.
A production that is drowning?
That being said, Under the Seine nonetheless remains an entertaining film which benefits from several high tension scenes. With this Netflix production, Xavier Gens shows, in fact, that he handles suspense and unease with panache. We will thus note a tense exposition scene, but above all a killing sequence in a crypt as violent as it is asphyxiating.
That being said, these scenes appear as mere flashes throughout the film. Although the dynamic of the characters played by Bérénice Bejo and Nassim Lyes is convincing – each of them seeking a form of redemption in their mission – the feature film suffers from several faults, notably in the linearity of its story, its dialogues floating with the nanar or its unconvincing visual effects.
What emerges is a half-hearted genre film which, despite bursts of tension, entertainment and the substance of its subject, manages to convince us before dragging us into the murky depths of a Netflix production with sometimes disappointing technical and script resources. . She finds her limits here and drowns, too bad!
Under the Seine by Xavier Gens with Bérénice Bejo and Nassim Lyes, 1h41, June 5 on Netflix.
