The Crimson Rivers
Encyclopedia
The Crimson Rivers is a 2000 French psychological thriller
film
directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
and based on the best-selling novel Les rivières pourpres by the film's co-writer Jean-Christophe Grangé
.
This $14 million-budgeted film went on grossing $60 million in worldwide theatrical release.
A sequel, Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse
(Les rivières pourpres II: Les anges de l'apocalypse), was released in 2004.
), a well-known investigator, is sent to the small university town
of Guernon in the French Alps
to investigate a brutal murder and mutilation; the victim's body had been placed in the fetal position
, his eyes removed and his hands cut off. The victim was the librarian of the university. Superintendent Niemans begins his investigation by enlisting the help of Fanny Ferreira (Nadia Farès
), who is a glaciologist and a student at the university.
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector (Lieutenant de Police) and former car thief Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel
) is in the nearby town of Sarzac investigating the desecration of the grave of a girl who died in 1982, and the theft of her photos from the local primary school. His first suspects, a gang of skinheads, lead him to Guernon, where his investigation collides with that of Superintendent Niemans. As the plot unfolds, Niemans and Kerkerian notice the startling connections between their cases, and the remainder of the film revolves around their combined efforts to solve the mystery and prevent further bloodshed.
The University of Guernon, one of the oldest institutions in Europe, is the lifeblood of the small town. Not only does the school produce its own power and water but its hospital provides free health care for the entire valley. It is noted as being staffed by graduates of the university and has its own maternity wing.
Two days after Remy Callois, librarian at the University, is reported missing, his corpse is found, mutilated and staged halfway up a cliff face. Curled into the fetal position his hands have been amputated, arms and legs broken in several places and he has been lacerated with a carpet cutter. While still alive, his eyes were surgically removed and the sockets filled with rain water.
While the local police ask the usual questions, Niemans travels to the offices of Dr. Cherneze the local ophthalmologist to ask about the removal of the eyes from Callois. Cherneze, who once worked at the university, has been treating genetic eye afflictions in the population. He tells Niemans that because the college is so isolated, there is a long history of inbreeding amongst the professors. This has led to a weakening of the bloodlines and the increased instance of serious genetic disorders. However in the past two generations the trend has reversed, with the local village children becoming ill and the college babies remaining healthy. When questioned on the mutilation of the corpse, Cherneze hints that the killer is leaving Niemans clues as to their motive by removing the only two aspects of the body that are unique to each individual - the eyes and hands.
Meanwhile in Sarzac, Kerkerian is called on to investigate the desecration of a grave and the illegal entry to the local elementary school. The grave belongs to Judith Herault, who died when she was ten and has been painted with swastikas. When he arrives at the school, where he is informed nothing is missing, he asks about Judith and finds that the files and pictured from the years she attended school have been stolen. The administrator vaguely recalls something about the girl being hit by a truck and on further inspection, Kerkerian finds that the body was so badly destroyed that it was identified by a finger, held by the mother on the side of the road in 1982. The mother consequently went mad, he is told.
In Callois' apartment, Niemans finds images of athletes along with texts on genetic deformities. The embossed front cover of Callois' Ph.D. thesis is translated for him by the Dean's assistant and son Hubert as "We are the masters. We are the slaves. We are everywhere. We are nowhere. We control the crimson rivers.' He then goes to meet Fanny Ferreira, a glaciologist who works for the university to steer the frequent avalanches away from the school. Fanny was the person who found Callois body and informs him that with the right equipment and training it would be possible for anyone to stage the body where it was. She openly dislikes the school and its arrogant professors and reacts with anger when Niemans labels her as one of them. The pathologist informs Niemans that the rain in Callois' eye sockets was acid rain, something that has not fallen in the area since the seventies.
Kerkerian has located Judith's mother, locked away in an abbey. Now living as Sister Andrée, she has not been seen in fifteen years but when questioned, she tells him that when her child was ten she fell ill. She took her daughter to the hospital where she was born to get help but there they were attacked by demons. They fled but her daughter was killed. She says the reason the pictures were taken is to erase her daughter from history. That her face is a threat to the demons who have returned to complete their mission. She tells him it all began in Guernon.
Fanny takes Niemans up to the glacier so they can get a sample of ice to compare against the acid rain in Callois eyes. Convinced there must be a clue somewhere, Niemans follows a glacial melt tunnel to a cave that contains a second body, frozen into the ice.
Investigating the swastikas with the local skinhead gang, Max traces a car to Phillip Sertys in Guernon and meets Niemans while attempting to break in. Sertys is the body in the ice, a doctor that worked in the maternity ward at the University hospital. Inside his apartment is not only the photograph stolen from the school in Sarzac but evidence that he was using selective breeding to create a superior fighting dog. Cages of dogs in the back room react to the intruders and Niemans is paralyzed by his fear of the animals until Kerkerian coaxes him through.
Sertys was not tortured like Callois; his hands were removed post mortem as were his eyes which have been replaced with fake glass prosthetics. 'Like you would find at an eye doctors' remarks the pathologist, leading Niemans to race back to Cherneze's practice. The doctor is already dead, his empty eye sockets pouring blood. However they are in time to disrupt the killer, who races away after emptying Nieman's gun into the wall but not hitting him. Kerkerian gives chase but the killer is faster and had superior stamina and escapes. Returning to the scene, where the killer has written "I will trace the source of the crimson rivers" in Cherneze's own blood above his body, the prints on Niemans gun are found to belong not to a criminal but to the finger of Judith Herault, who is supposed to have been dead for eighteen years.
Max is sent to excavate the grave in Sarzac, which turns out to be empty except for a picture, while Niemans gives Fanny a lift back to her house from the police station where she had been questioned following their discovery of the second body. Her house is filled with the equipment she uses on the mountain, including grenades to set off controlled avalanches. While talking she admits to having almost married the Dean's son after they had been paired together in the library for three years. When he returns to the school, the local police captain tells him that Callois' thesis is full of Nazi sentiments and theology and that it ends with the way to create the perfect man in this society, by mixing athletic children with mentally gifted ones and breeding them. He compares this to the eugenics experiments in villages during Nazi reign.
Kerkerian returns with the photo, which Niemans recognizes as Fanny and on the way to her house they piece together the story. Due to the poor bloodlines and genetic mutations in the inbred professor’s offspring, the doctors at the hospital had been swapping healthy village children with the frail university children. Sertys, they deduce, must have swapped Fanny for Judith. Callois had taken over his father's job arranging the matches meaning the college was not so much a school as a giant breeding cult.
They're almost killed by the Dean's son trying to ram their car off the road, in an effort to halt them from finding the truth but make it to Fanny's house. There they find a torture room in the basement complete with the missing hands and eyes of the victims. Though she could have killed him earlier, Fanny is now gone and so are her grenades. Niemans gives the order to evacuate the valley while he and Kerkerian travel up the mountain to find Fanny.
Seeing her set the charges, the duo confront Fanny only to be set upon by her double. Judith and Fanny were identical twins. Fanny had been swapped at birth but Judith left behind, so when she got sick and her mother went with her to the hospital, the university staff knew they had to get rid of her. Their mother cut off Judith’s finger and faked her death to save her child. However it meant that Judith had to live in the shadow of Fanny for the last eighteen years and doing so has sent her mad. Judith has been exacting her revenge by killing those responsible for her lost life.
She attacks Kerkerian, knocking him out momentarily while Niemans tries to reason with Fanny after throwing away his gun. Judith retrieves it and hands it to her sister. When Judith instructs Fanny to kill Niemans she refuses to shoot the innocent man and instead turns the gun on her sister. At the same time Kerkerian shoots Fanny in the shoulder and the combined noise sets off an avalanche that sweeps away Judith and buries the three in the snow.
The movie ends with them being found by search dogs and Niemans finally beginning to explain to Kerkerian his fear of canines.
in the communes of Albertville
, Livet-et-Gavet
, Avrieux
, Apprieu
, Bourg d'Oisans
, Vallorcine
, Vinay
and Virieu sur Bourbre
.
The university was actually the Onera Modane-Avrieux wind tunnels Centre
at Villarodin-Bourget
, Savoy
45°12′49.53"N 6°43′1.90"E. The glacier scenes were filmed on the Mer de Glace
beneath Mont-Blanc and above Argentiere
in the Chamonix Valley
, Haute-Savoie
.
The house on stilts by the river can be seen here 45°6′26.45"N 5°55′59.27"E.
s: Best Director
, Best Cinematography
, Best Music
, Best Editing
, and Best Sound
. It also received one European Film Awards nomination for Best Director and two nominations for Best Actor (Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel). It was also nominated for the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
.
Psychological thriller
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...
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...
directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
Mathieu Kassovitz
Mathieu Kassovitz is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for his Cannes-winning drama La Haine. Kassovitz is also the founder of MNP Entreprise, a film production company....
and based on the best-selling novel Les rivières pourpres by the film's co-writer Jean-Christophe Grangé
Jean-Christophe Grangé
Jean-Christophe Grangé is a French mystery writer, journalist, and screenwriter.Grangé was born at Paris. He was a journalist before setting up his own press agency L & G.-Bibliography:* Le Vol des cigognes...
.
This $14 million-budgeted film went on grossing $60 million in worldwide theatrical release.
A sequel, Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse, known as Les Rivières pourpres II: Les anges de l'apocalypse in the French release, is a 2004 thriller-action movie starring Jean Reno, Benoit Magimel and Christopher Lee. It is directed by Olivier Dahan and produced by Ilan Goldman...
(Les rivières pourpres II: Les anges de l'apocalypse), was released in 2004.
Plot
Detective Superintendent (Commissaire Principal) Pierre Niemans (Jean RenoJean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...
), a well-known investigator, is sent to the small university town
College town
A college town or university town is a community which is dominated by its university population...
of Guernon in the French Alps
French Alps
The French Alps are those portions of the Alps mountain range which stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions....
to investigate a brutal murder and mutilation; the victim's body had been placed in the fetal position
Fetal position
Fetal position is a medical term used to describe the positioning of the body of a prenatal fetus as it develops...
, his eyes removed and his hands cut off. The victim was the librarian of the university. Superintendent Niemans begins his investigation by enlisting the help of Fanny Ferreira (Nadia Farès
Nadia Farès
Nadia Farès is a French actress. She rose to international fame in the successful police thriller Les Rivières pourpres . She also appeared as Jade Agent Kinler in the 2007 action/thriller, War and as Pia in 2007 horror film Storm Warning.-External links:...
), who is a glaciologist and a student at the university.
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector (Lieutenant de Police) and former car thief Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...
) is in the nearby town of Sarzac investigating the desecration of the grave of a girl who died in 1982, and the theft of her photos from the local primary school. His first suspects, a gang of skinheads, lead him to Guernon, where his investigation collides with that of Superintendent Niemans. As the plot unfolds, Niemans and Kerkerian notice the startling connections between their cases, and the remainder of the film revolves around their combined efforts to solve the mystery and prevent further bloodshed.
Explanation of the plot
Actor Vincent Cassel who played detective Max Kerkerian admitted, "I can't help explain the film because I didn't understand it!" "We cut out everything in the film that was explanatory, therefore 'boring' [according to the director]. You end up with a film that's not boring but you don't understand it [at] all."The University of Guernon, one of the oldest institutions in Europe, is the lifeblood of the small town. Not only does the school produce its own power and water but its hospital provides free health care for the entire valley. It is noted as being staffed by graduates of the university and has its own maternity wing.
Two days after Remy Callois, librarian at the University, is reported missing, his corpse is found, mutilated and staged halfway up a cliff face. Curled into the fetal position his hands have been amputated, arms and legs broken in several places and he has been lacerated with a carpet cutter. While still alive, his eyes were surgically removed and the sockets filled with rain water.
While the local police ask the usual questions, Niemans travels to the offices of Dr. Cherneze the local ophthalmologist to ask about the removal of the eyes from Callois. Cherneze, who once worked at the university, has been treating genetic eye afflictions in the population. He tells Niemans that because the college is so isolated, there is a long history of inbreeding amongst the professors. This has led to a weakening of the bloodlines and the increased instance of serious genetic disorders. However in the past two generations the trend has reversed, with the local village children becoming ill and the college babies remaining healthy. When questioned on the mutilation of the corpse, Cherneze hints that the killer is leaving Niemans clues as to their motive by removing the only two aspects of the body that are unique to each individual - the eyes and hands.
Meanwhile in Sarzac, Kerkerian is called on to investigate the desecration of a grave and the illegal entry to the local elementary school. The grave belongs to Judith Herault, who died when she was ten and has been painted with swastikas. When he arrives at the school, where he is informed nothing is missing, he asks about Judith and finds that the files and pictured from the years she attended school have been stolen. The administrator vaguely recalls something about the girl being hit by a truck and on further inspection, Kerkerian finds that the body was so badly destroyed that it was identified by a finger, held by the mother on the side of the road in 1982. The mother consequently went mad, he is told.
In Callois' apartment, Niemans finds images of athletes along with texts on genetic deformities. The embossed front cover of Callois' Ph.D. thesis is translated for him by the Dean's assistant and son Hubert as "We are the masters. We are the slaves. We are everywhere. We are nowhere. We control the crimson rivers.' He then goes to meet Fanny Ferreira, a glaciologist who works for the university to steer the frequent avalanches away from the school. Fanny was the person who found Callois body and informs him that with the right equipment and training it would be possible for anyone to stage the body where it was. She openly dislikes the school and its arrogant professors and reacts with anger when Niemans labels her as one of them. The pathologist informs Niemans that the rain in Callois' eye sockets was acid rain, something that has not fallen in the area since the seventies.
Kerkerian has located Judith's mother, locked away in an abbey. Now living as Sister Andrée, she has not been seen in fifteen years but when questioned, she tells him that when her child was ten she fell ill. She took her daughter to the hospital where she was born to get help but there they were attacked by demons. They fled but her daughter was killed. She says the reason the pictures were taken is to erase her daughter from history. That her face is a threat to the demons who have returned to complete their mission. She tells him it all began in Guernon.
Fanny takes Niemans up to the glacier so they can get a sample of ice to compare against the acid rain in Callois eyes. Convinced there must be a clue somewhere, Niemans follows a glacial melt tunnel to a cave that contains a second body, frozen into the ice.
Investigating the swastikas with the local skinhead gang, Max traces a car to Phillip Sertys in Guernon and meets Niemans while attempting to break in. Sertys is the body in the ice, a doctor that worked in the maternity ward at the University hospital. Inside his apartment is not only the photograph stolen from the school in Sarzac but evidence that he was using selective breeding to create a superior fighting dog. Cages of dogs in the back room react to the intruders and Niemans is paralyzed by his fear of the animals until Kerkerian coaxes him through.
Sertys was not tortured like Callois; his hands were removed post mortem as were his eyes which have been replaced with fake glass prosthetics. 'Like you would find at an eye doctors' remarks the pathologist, leading Niemans to race back to Cherneze's practice. The doctor is already dead, his empty eye sockets pouring blood. However they are in time to disrupt the killer, who races away after emptying Nieman's gun into the wall but not hitting him. Kerkerian gives chase but the killer is faster and had superior stamina and escapes. Returning to the scene, where the killer has written "I will trace the source of the crimson rivers" in Cherneze's own blood above his body, the prints on Niemans gun are found to belong not to a criminal but to the finger of Judith Herault, who is supposed to have been dead for eighteen years.
Max is sent to excavate the grave in Sarzac, which turns out to be empty except for a picture, while Niemans gives Fanny a lift back to her house from the police station where she had been questioned following their discovery of the second body. Her house is filled with the equipment she uses on the mountain, including grenades to set off controlled avalanches. While talking she admits to having almost married the Dean's son after they had been paired together in the library for three years. When he returns to the school, the local police captain tells him that Callois' thesis is full of Nazi sentiments and theology and that it ends with the way to create the perfect man in this society, by mixing athletic children with mentally gifted ones and breeding them. He compares this to the eugenics experiments in villages during Nazi reign.
Kerkerian returns with the photo, which Niemans recognizes as Fanny and on the way to her house they piece together the story. Due to the poor bloodlines and genetic mutations in the inbred professor’s offspring, the doctors at the hospital had been swapping healthy village children with the frail university children. Sertys, they deduce, must have swapped Fanny for Judith. Callois had taken over his father's job arranging the matches meaning the college was not so much a school as a giant breeding cult.
They're almost killed by the Dean's son trying to ram their car off the road, in an effort to halt them from finding the truth but make it to Fanny's house. There they find a torture room in the basement complete with the missing hands and eyes of the victims. Though she could have killed him earlier, Fanny is now gone and so are her grenades. Niemans gives the order to evacuate the valley while he and Kerkerian travel up the mountain to find Fanny.
Seeing her set the charges, the duo confront Fanny only to be set upon by her double. Judith and Fanny were identical twins. Fanny had been swapped at birth but Judith left behind, so when she got sick and her mother went with her to the hospital, the university staff knew they had to get rid of her. Their mother cut off Judith’s finger and faked her death to save her child. However it meant that Judith had to live in the shadow of Fanny for the last eighteen years and doing so has sent her mad. Judith has been exacting her revenge by killing those responsible for her lost life.
She attacks Kerkerian, knocking him out momentarily while Niemans tries to reason with Fanny after throwing away his gun. Judith retrieves it and hands it to her sister. When Judith instructs Fanny to kill Niemans she refuses to shoot the innocent man and instead turns the gun on her sister. At the same time Kerkerian shoots Fanny in the shoulder and the combined noise sets off an avalanche that sweeps away Judith and buries the three in the snow.
The movie ends with them being found by search dogs and Niemans finally beginning to explain to Kerkerian his fear of canines.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Jean Reno Jean Reno Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the... |
Pierre Niemans |
| Vincent Cassel Vincent Cassel Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:... |
Max Kerkerian |
| Nadia Farès Nadia Farès Nadia Farès is a French actress. She rose to international fame in the successful police thriller Les Rivières pourpres . She also appeared as Jade Agent Kinler in the 2007 action/thriller, War and as Pia in 2007 horror film Storm Warning.-External links:... |
Fanny Ferreira / Judith Hérault |
| Dominique Sanda Dominique Sanda Dominique Sanda is a French actress and former fashion model.Sanda was born as Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris to Lucienne and Gérard Varaigne... |
Sister Andrée |
| Karim Belkhadra | Captain Dahmane |
| Jean-Pierre Cassel Jean-Pierre Cassel Jean-Pierre Cassel was a French actor.-Life and career:Cassel was born Jean-Pierre Crochon in Paris, the son of Louise-Marguerite , an opera singer, and Georges Crochon, a doctor. Cassel was discovered by Gene Kelly as he tap danced on stage, and later cast in the 1957 film The Happy Road... |
Dr. Bernard Chernezé |
| Didier Flamand | Dean |
| François Levantal | Pathologist |
| Francine Bergé Francine Bergé Francine Bergé is a French film and stage actress .- Filmography :*1962 : Les Abysses*1963 : Judex*1964 : La Ronde*1965 : La Religieuse... |
Headmistress |
| Philippe Nahon Philippe Nahon -Biography:Nahon is best known for his roles in French horror and thriller films, including I Stand Alone, Humains, Calvaire, Irréversible, The Pack and Haute Tension, and he has been featured as a nameless butcher in three films by Gaspar Noé – Carne, I Stand Alone, and Irréversible .-Filmography... |
Man at highway intervention station |
Filming locations
Exteriors were shot on location near GrenobleGrenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
in the communes of Albertville
Albertville
Albertville is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.The town is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics.-Geography:...
, Livet-et-Gavet
Livet-et-Gavet
Livet-et-Gavet is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Isère department...
, Avrieux
Avrieux
Avrieux is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-External links:*...
, Apprieu
Apprieu
Apprieu is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France....
, Bourg d'Oisans
Le Bourg-d'Oisans
Le Bourg-d'Oisans is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.It is located in the Oisans region of the French Alps. Le Bourg-d'Oisans is located in the valley of the Romanche river, on the road from Grenoble to Briançon, and on the south side of the Col de la Croix de Fer...
, Vallorcine
Vallorcine
Vallorcine is a municipality in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes State in south-eastern France.-Geography:Located at the foot of the Mont Blanc Vallorcine is a tiny and so far unspoilt little ski village located within the Chamonix Valley and forming part of the Domaine de Balme ski...
, Vinay
Vinay
Vinay may refer to:* Vinay , a common masculine Indian name* Vinay, Isère, a commune in Isère, France* Vinay, Marne, a commune in Marne, France* 21644 Vinay, a main belt asteroid with an orbital period of 1370.4239593 days...
and Virieu sur Bourbre
Virieu
Virieu is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France. It is also called Virieu-sur-Bourbre.-External links:* *...
.
The university was actually the Onera Modane-Avrieux wind tunnels Centre
Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales
Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales or Onera is the French aerospace research center. It is a public establishment with industrial and commercial operations, and carries out application-oriented research to support enhanced innovation and competitiveness in the aerospace and...
at Villarodin-Bourget
Villarodin-Bourget
Villarodin-Bourget is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-References:*...
, Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
45°12′49.53"N 6°43′1.90"E. The glacier scenes were filmed on the Mer de Glace
Mer de Glace
The Mer de Glace is a glacier located on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, in the Alps. At long and deep, it is the longest glacier in France.-Geography:...
beneath Mont-Blanc and above Argentiere
Argentière
Argentière is a picturesque skiing, alpine walking and mountaineering village in the French Alps, part of the commune of Chamonix Mont Blanc. Altitude: 1252m .-Geography:...
in the Chamonix Valley
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
, Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It borders both Switzerland and Italy. The capital is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland; to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc and Aravis mountain ranges and the French entrance to the Mont...
.
The house on stilts by the river can be seen here 45°6′26.45"N 5°55′59.27"E.
Awards
The Crimson Rivers was nominated for five César AwardCésar Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
s: Best Director
César Award for Best Director
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Director .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
, Best Cinematography
César Award for Best Cinematography
The following are the winners of the annual César Award for Best Cinematography .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
, Best Music
César Award for Best Music Written for a Film
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film . Before 2000, the award was called "César Award for Best Music".-1970s:...
, Best Editing
César Award for Best Editing
The César Award for Best Editing is one of the annual César Awards given by the French Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema. Eligible films are usually in the French language.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:...
, and Best Sound
César Award for Best Sound
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Sound .-Winners and nominees:*1976 : Nara Kollery *1977 : Jean-Pierre Ruh *1978 : Jacques Maumont...
. It also received one European Film Awards nomination for Best Director and two nominations for Best Actor (Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel). It was also nominated for the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
San Sebastián International Film Festival
The San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...
.