| Anthony Zimmer | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jérôme Salle |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Jérôme Salle |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Frédéric Talgorn |
| Cinematography | Denis Rouden |
| Editing by | Richard Marizy |
| Distributed by | Studio Canal |
| Release date(s) | 27 April 2005 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French English |
Anthony Zimmer is a 2005 French romantic thriller film directed by Jérôme Salle starring Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal. The film spawned an American-produced remake in 2010 titled The Tourist.
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Anthony Zimmer is a genius career criminal who is wanted by police around the world. He has used ingenious methods to launder money legally, such as creating a dummy corporation and filing a lawsuit against a firm outside of France. In addition to the police, Zimmer is wanted by the "White Collar Barons", a powerful Russian Mafia Zimmer was working for. Zimmer is an elusive character, and no known description is available as he has apparently had drastic plastic surgery to alter his appearance and voice. A standout detective, Akerman (Sami Frey), is ahead of others in the race to catch the criminal mastermind. Akerman knows that Zimmer will risk everything to see the lover he left behind, Chiara Manzoni (Sophie Marceau).
One rainy morning, while Chiara is waiting at a restaurant, she receives a message from Zimmer, who has become aware of Akerman's trap. To mislead all those following him, Zimmer asks her to "pick up" a stranger and make his enemies believe he is the one they're looking for. Chiara boards a TGV and chooses François Taillandier (Yvan Attal), a rather bland man who, fascinated by the young lady, is quickly and easily set up to take the fall. François is a 38-year-old translator who reads detective novels and explains to Chiara that his wife left him over six months ago. Upon arriving at Cannes, Chiara invites François to stay over with her at the Carlton Hotel. She also gives him a watch that bears Zimmer's name on the back.
The next morning, François wakes up alone and finds himself the target of two hitmen. He frantically escapes through the fire exit and seeks shelter at a nearby police station. There, he befriends Lt. Camel Driss (Samir Guesmi), who provides him with some clothing and a room to stay at the nearest hospital. They discover that Chiara had checked out of the room that day, but Driss believes François' story after seeing a bullet hole in the hotel room, which is now occupied by members of the White Collar Barons and their leader, Nassaiev (Daniel Olbrychski). Driss is murdered that night, and upon seeing Nassaiev and his goons outside his room, François makes his escape and unexpectedly reunites with Chiara, who takes him to a secret hideout in Nice. There, she explains to him that she set him up because he matches Zimmer's build, and she tells him to stay in the hideout for a few days. However, after finding some clothes in the closet, he stalks her outside the Hotel Negresco the next day, hoping to get more answers from her. He is immediately nabbed by the police and interrogated by Akerman, who reveals to him that Chiara is an undercover DGDDI agent. That night, Ackerman secretly meets up with Chiara and discusses about the rendezvous Zimmer posted on a classified ad. He tells her that while she will be at the rendezvous point, he will keep an eye on François to see what she sees in him.
With François in custody, Ackerman and his men park their surveillance truck and have their snipers ready within the vicinity of Zimmer's old mansion, which is the posted rendezvous point. Chiara enters the mansion and confronts the White Collar Barons and Nassaiev, who threatens to kill her if Zimmer does not arrive within five minutes. François leaves the truck and rushes into the mansion to intervene, but is immediately placed on the ground at gunpoint by Nassaiev's men. After Nassaiev rejects her claims that François is not Zimmer, Chiara gives the signal to have the snipers shoot down the mob. After the police clear the mob's bodies from the scene, François reveals to Chiara the he is, in fact, Anthony Zimmer. She tells him to flee, but he refuses. He opens a secret safe and takes out a notebook filled with his banking information, leaving it by the front door for Akerman. Chiara, realizing she has Zimmer's fate in her hands, decides not to reveal his true identity to the police. The two then drive away together.
Anthony Zimmer was critically well received but was a little box-office failure, with only 802,988 seats sold in France.
Lisa Nesselson of Variety magazine praised the film, saying that "well-staged antics are not of the breathless variety, but a handful of original moments and a satisfying twist make the movie better than average."[1]
The film was remade under the title The Tourist, which was directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, starred Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, and Timothy Dalton, and released on December 10, 2010. Filming began on February 23, 2010 in Paris, France. Despite being a box-office success and receiving three nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress) in the Musical or Comedy picture category at the 68th Golden Globe Awards, the remake was met with mostly negative critical reviews.