Killing Zoe
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| Killing Zoe | |
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 DVD Cover for Killing Zoe |
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| Directed by | Roger Avary |
| Produced by | Samuel Hadida (Producer) Quentin Tarantino (Executive Producer) Lawrence Bender (Executive Producer) Rebecca Boss (Executive Producer) |
| Written by | Roger Avary |
| Starring | Eric Stoltz Julie Delpy Jean-Hugues Anglade |
| Music by | tomandandy |
| Cinematography | Tom Richmond |
| Editing by | Kathryn Himoff |
| Distributed by | October Films and Live Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | August 19, 1994 |
| Running time | 96 mins |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million[1] |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Killing Zoe is a 1994 movie that was written and directed by Roger Avary. The film centers around a safe cracker named Zed who returns to France to aid an old friend in pulling off a doomed bank heist. Killing Zoe is regarded as a respected cult favorite [2] and has been hailed by Roger Ebert as "Generation X's first bank caper movie."[3]
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[edit] Plot
The film centers on Zed (Eric Stoltz), a professional safe-cracker, who comes to Paris to help a childhood friend, Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) with a bank heist. In the cab on the way to his hotel room, the cabbie sets him up with a call girl. He arrives at his hotel room and is greeted by call girl, Zoe (Julie Delpy). After having sex, they talk and begin to connect. They are soon interrupted when Eric barges in and kicks Zoe out of the room.
Eric takes Zed back to his place where Zed meets Eric's friends. Eric explains his plans: the following day is Bastille Day and virtually everything is closed except for the bank they plan to rob, which is a holding bank and thus is open even on holidays. Zed shakes off his jetlag and his rest time to spend the night partying with Eric and his friends in the seedy side of Paris, which Eric refers to as 'the Real Paris'. During the binging, Eric confides to Zed that he has AIDS.
The next day, Zed is awakened by Eric as they prepare to enter the bank. The team dons frightening Carnival masks to hide their faces before bursting into the bank. They quickly kill those who do not cooperate as they escort Zed to the safe so he can get to work. Their plans soon start unraveling as the police show up and they're faced with the possibility of going to jail for life or having to shoot their way out. Tensions get even higher when Zed recognizes Zoe (who coincidentally works at the bank) and attempts to protect her, to the fury of Eric.
As desperation runs high, a vicious gunfight between the cops, Eric, and the rest of the gang breaks out -- with Zed caught 'innocently' in the middle. The men can only celebrate a pyrrhic victory as Zed breaks into the vault and finds millions in gold bars -- only to have no way of getting out alive with their fortune. As Eric's men are killed by the police as they rush the bank, Zed and Eric begin to fight between each other. The police shoot Eric to death. He falls on Zed, splattering heavy amounts of blood on him in the process, possibly exposing Zed to his AIDS infected blood. Injured, Zed is quickly led away by Zoe, who covers for him, stating he is a bank customer. They drive away in her car, where Zoe promises Zed that when he gets out she'll show him the 'real' Paris.
[edit] Production
Killing Zoe was director Roger Avary's directorial debut. He wrote the script for Killing Zoe in roughly a week and a half after producer Lawrence Bender scouted a bank location in Los Angelas as a possibly filming location. Avary stated he wanted to make "an art-house film for the coffeehouse crowd and then for the exploitation crowd."[4]
The movie, despite taking place in Paris, was filmed almost entirely in Los Angeles, California. Only the opening credit roll was filmed in France. [5]
[edit] Cast
The film stars Eric Stoltz as Zed, the reluctant American safecracker who joins his psychotic French pal Eric, played by Jean-Hugues Anglade, to rob a bank on Bastille Day. Julie Delpy plays Zoe, the call girl who Zed warms up to prior to the bank heist.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=killingzoe.htm
- ^ http://www.videovista.net/articles/disturb10.html
- ^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940909/REVIEWS/409090302/1023
- ^ Cheshire, Godfrey (September 1994). Hollywood's new hit men - writer-directors Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary and producer Lawrence Bender - Interview. Interview Magazine.
- ^ The Rules of Attraction Production Notes. Rotten Tomatoes.
[edit] External links
| The films of Roger Avary |
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| Directed: Killing Zoe • The Rules of Attraction • Driver Written: True Romance • Natural Born Killers • Pulp Fiction • Silent Hill • Beowulf |
