Killing Zoe
Encyclopedia
Killing Zoe is a 1994 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, written and directed by Roger Avary
Roger Avary
Roger Avary is a Canadian film and television producer, screenwriter, olive farmer and director in the American mass media industry. He was behind the screenplays of the films Silent Hill and Beowulf...

. The story details a safe cracker named Zed who returns to France to aid an old friend in performing a doomed bank heist. Killing Zoe is regarded as a respected "cult" favorite and has been labeled by Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 as "Generation X
Generation X
Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom ended. While there is no universally agreed upon time frame, the term generally includes people born from the early 1960's through the early 1980's, usually no later than 1981 or...

's first bank caper movie."

Plot

Zed (Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...

), a professional safe-cracker
Safe-cracking
Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or key. It may also refer to a computer hacker's attempts to break into a secured computer system, in which case it may be shortened to "cracking" or black hat hacking....

, comes to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to help a childhood friend, Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Hugues Anglade is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for his roles as Eric in Killing Zoe, Zorg in Betty Blue and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita, in Nikita....

), with a bank heist.
In the cab on the way to his hotel room, the cabbie obtains a prostitute for him. He arrives at his hotel room and is soon greeted by the prostitute, Zoe (Julie Delpy
Julie Delpy
Julie Delpy is a French-American actress, director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, including Europa Europa , The Voyager , Three Colors: White , Before Sunrise...

), who also confides that she is studying art, and has a "very boring" day job. After having sex, they talk with each other amiably, then fall asleep. Their reverie is soon interrupted when Eric barges in and brusquely sends Zoe out of the room, so the two men can get on with their business.

Eric takes Zed back to his residence where Zed meets Eric's friends.
Eric explains his plans: the following day is Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...

 and virtually everything is closed except for the bank they plan to rob, which is a holding bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...

 and thus is open even on holidays. Zed forgoes his rest time to spend the night partying with Eric and his friends among some of the more disreputable people of Paris in a cavernous jazz club, which Eric refers to as 'the Real Paris'. During the binging, Eric confides to Zed that he has AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

, which he contracted through IV drug use.

The next day, Zed is awakened by Eric as they prepare to enter the bank. The team dons Carnival masks to hide their faces before bursting into the bank. They quickly kill those who do not cooperate as they escort Zed (who has not witnessed the killings) to the safe so he can get to work. Their plans soon start to disintegrate 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. Eric throws an explosive into a vault and enters it (mortally wounding a guard in the process - Zed himself shoots the guard as an act of mercy), finding a large supply of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 bars—- but the thieves can't leave the bank alive with their fortune. Tensions become even higher when Zed recognizes Zoe (who coincidentally works at the bank) and attempts to protect her, to the fury of Eric.

A vicious gunfight between the police, Eric, and the rest of the gang begins—- with Zed caught 'innocently' in the middle. Eric's men are killed by the police as they rush the bank, and Zed and Eric begin to fight each other. The police shoot Eric to death. He falls on Zed, splattering great amounts of blood on him in the process (possibly exposing Zed to his HIV-infected blood). Injured, Zed is led away quickly 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 well she'll show him the 'real' Paris.

Production

Killing Zoe was director Roger Avary
Roger Avary
Roger Avary is a Canadian film and television producer, screenwriter, olive farmer and director in the American mass media industry. He was behind the screenplays of the films Silent Hill and Beowulf...

's feature directorial debut. Producer Lawrence Bender
Lawrence Bender
Lawrence Bender is an American film producer. He rose to fame by producing Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and has since produced all of Quentin Tarantino's films with the exception of Death Proof....

 had scouted a bank location in Los Angeles as a possible filming location for Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...

. Knowing he could attain the location for very little, and being a savvy producer, Bender telephoned all the screenwriters he knew and asked if they had any screenplays that took place in a bank. Avary told him he had one, even though he didn't, and proceeded to write one in a reported week and a half. The film was, however, not shot in the bank Lawrence Bender originally scouted. Avary stated he wanted to make "an art-house film for both the coffeehouse crowd and the exploitation crowd."

Despite being set in Paris, the film was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles, California. Only the opening and end credit roll and some small car driving clips were filmed in France.

In an interview included on the DVD, Avary explains how he wanted to make a movie about how nihilistic he felt his generation was, and said that watching Stoltz in the film was like seeing his evil twin come into creation. He wrote the script specifically for Stoltz. Both he and Stoltz admitted they had a fantasy to rob a bank (though Stoltz qualified this with ‘and not go to jail’!) and making this movie was as close as they would get.

Avary stated that, as a first time director, it was a dream to work with actors as talented as Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Hugues Anglade is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for his roles as Eric in Killing Zoe, Zorg in Betty Blue and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita, in Nikita....

, Eric Stoltz and Julie Delpy.

Killing Zoe is notable as the first feature film to use the newly invented Otto Nemitz Swing & Tilt lenses, which were used during the heroin sequences for perspective distortion instead of their original purpose of perspective correction
Perspective correction lens
In photography, a perspective control lens allows the photographer to control the appearance of perspective in the image; the lens can be moved parallel to the film or sensor, providing the equivalent of corresponding view camera movements...

.

Cast

  • Eric Stoltz
    Eric Stoltz
    Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...

     as Zed
  • Julie Delpy
    Julie Delpy
    Julie Delpy is a French-American actress, director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, including Europa Europa , The Voyager , Three Colors: White , Before Sunrise...

     as Zoe
  • Jean-Hugues Anglade
    Jean-Hugues Anglade
    Jean-Hugues Anglade is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for his roles as Eric in Killing Zoe, Zorg in Betty Blue and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita, in Nikita....

     as Eric
  • Tai Thai as François
  • Bruce Ramsay
    Bruce Ramsay
    Bruce Ramsay is a Canadian film, television and stage actor.-Early life:Ramsay was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...

     as Ricardo
  • Kario Salem
    Kario Salem
    Kario Salem is an American television, film, and stage actor and screenwriter.-Career:In 1997, Salem earned an Emmy Award as a writer for the television special Don King: Only in America, which also earned him a PEN nomination. The film also won the Broadcast Film Critics Award and Peabody Award...

     as Jean
  • Salvator Xuereb as Claude
  • Gary Kemp
    Gary Kemp
    Gary Kemp is an English pop musician and actor who is the guitar player and chief songwriter for the 1980s Synthpop band Spandau Ballet. His brother, Martin Kemp, plays bass guitar in the band...

     as Oliver
  • Cecilia Peck
    Cecilia Peck
    Cecilia Peck is a film producer, director, and actress. Cecilia is the daughter of actor Gregory Peck and his second wife Veronique Passani.-Personal life:...

     as Martina
  • Ron Jeremy
    Ron Jeremy
    Ronald Jeremy Hyatt , usually called Ron Jeremy, is an American pornographic actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", he was ranked by AVN at number one in their "The 50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list...

     as Bank Concierge
  • David Richard Thompson as Burnt Vault Guard

Reception

The film won the Grand Prize award at the 5th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival
Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival
The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Film Festival.-History:...

 held in February 1994. Jury members that year included Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...

 and Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

. The film currently holds a 33% approval rating, based on 27 reviews, on the website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK