Killing Zoe (1993) a retrospective
Roger Avary’s remarkable debut film is still shocking but with the ultimate feelgood denouement
Oh for the heady days of watching Killing Zoe for the first time and telling everyone who cared to listen in my first honest to goodness real life job how incredible Roger Avary’s debut film was! It was the time of an awkward existence on the 8th floor of a skyscraper in my home city of Portsmouth and when not clocking in and out of a job I wanted but didn’t overly care for, I collected broken hearts and VHS video cassettes, one of which was a prized copy of this largely French crime drama set in Paris and a reckless gang of “junkies” living high on drugs and high on life before tackling “the biggest job in French history”. The job for this cosmopolitan gang of renegades is an audacious bank heist on Bastille Day but as ring leader Eric is so very keen to reinforce “Before we do the job, we live life”, and from a apartment loft full of drugs we follow these desperate criminals through the streets of Paris to a Jazz Club for the night of their young lives and individual lives clearly lived on the very edge, free from a society they have no wish to participate in, and more drugs, more life and everything to extreme excess. Could it be their last night alive? Is it a final 24 hour period of drug fueled hedonism? What is the time? Does time have any meaning anymore?
It certainly does for Zed but he’s lost, even though he’s reunited with his best friend Eric after 11 long years. But how did we get here?
Here’s the opening 17 minutes:
Driving through the streets of Paris, the opening credits and your cast list of players are detailed in blood red as the car we are in navigates the busy streets of the French capital before arriving at Charles-de-Gaulle airport and after parking in a taxi layby and the first of the film’s black screen segues, the rear door opens and in close-up, we are introduced to “Zed” (Eric Stoltz) for the first time. Looking somewhat dishevelled, tired and weary, Zed responds to the taxi driver’s incessant chatter that he doesn’t speak or understand French, only speaks English and following a good natured apology and now conversation in English with the taxi driver Zed asks, for the first time of many in the film, “Do you know what time it is?”. The driver responds with a laugh that it’s daytime and following a routine discussion on his fine choice of hotel, whether he’s been to Paris before or is he here on business, the taxi driver asks if Zed is married. “I used to” is Zed’s short response, to which the driver passes him a card.
“A wife for the night?” the driver suggests.
Zed smiles.
We now cut to Zed approaching his hotel room as he walks behind the concierge. Following an awkward tour and showing of his room, the concierge points to his expected package which arrived “in the night, after the night last night” and following another awkward period of the concierge awaiting his tip before taking a bunch of US dollars from Zed’s wallet, he asks again “Do you know what time it is?” The concierge responds with the time in French before leaving the room, leaving Zed flustered and none the wiser. A brief cut later sees a ripped open box containing Zed’s package (but no package), his clothes scattered across the hotel room floor and after passing a nightstand containing Zed’s watch, pack of cigarettes and the card containing the name of his taxi driver, we find Zed enjoying a luxurious shower until with repeated knocks on his hotel room door, he opens the door to the sunshine smile of “Zoe” (Julie Delpy) and Zed cannot believe his luck! His companion for the evening is a confident, gum chewing, young and beautiful chatterbox who immediately makes herself at home on the bed and following the transaction of cash for sex and “no weird stuff”, as Zed dries himself from the shower, Zoe flicks through the TV channels until settling on the 1922 black and white movie Nosferatu.
There is a relaxed air despite being strangers and after exchanging names, Zoe exclaims with a smile “That’s funny! We both have Z names!” before suggesting Zed stay partially naked in his towel, however, Zed requests they swap positions and roles and after laying on the bed and donning her sunglasses, he places his hands behind his head and asks Zoe to undress, slowly. “OK, Mr. America. Zed!” she teases in response, to which Zed playfully responds with a smile “That’s Captain America, baby!”. Now fully undressed and after tossing her chewing gum into the adjoining bathroom, Zoe slinks just out of shot as the camera instead focusses fully on the black and white film on the TV and a pattern is set: there is now a three way cut between the classic film on the TV and close-up alternating shots of Zoe and Zed before a final dissolve between Nosferatu and Zed sees Captain America reaching a sexual climax as a door closes behind the fictional vampire.
We now cut to Zoe tenderly kissing Zed as they lie naked after sex. Zoe is playful and full of both smiles and questions. “Do you ask all your clients about their business?” Zed responds equally playfully. “No. Just the one’s I like” she responds and as Zed lights a cigarette, Zoe continues that they “fit together” and a little more seriously, she “feels safe” with him and that his body language highlights what a “good man” he is. Asked whether he likes her too, Zed, again playfully, responds that she’s open and honest and talks more than any prostitute he’s ever been with. “I’m not a prostitute” Zoe protests, smacking him hard on the chest as the mood threatens to sour. She is in fact an art student and working as an escort pays the fees her 3 day a week “boring job” won’t cover, and now with the atmosphere returning once more to one of playfulness and after Zed says he hopes to see one of her art projects one day, the scene ends in passionate kisses, smiles and laughter.
Fade to Black.
Enter Eric!
Breaking and entering into the lover’s tryst is a truly magnificent performance from Jean-Hugues Anglade as gang leader and enfant terrible “Eric”. Excited to see his long lost friend perhaps, or maybe just anxious to resume living his high and reckless life and now with his best friend he hasn’t seen for 11 years, Eric is overly keen to show Zed the real Paris and introduce him to both his gang of masked robbers and a plan long in the making and now just hours away from becoming a reality. Jean-Hugues Anglade heads a cast list of just 27 total credited roles of which only 8 are major or notable, including Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet fame and Djimon Hounsou in a voice only role. There’s a dead cat (sorry) and a marmoset called “Henri” who likes being called “Chim Chim” but “we don’t always get what we like”. Unless of course you’re seeking a beautiful ending to a brilliant debut film, and one in which I smiled broadly through the opening half an hour, winced at the excessive drug taking through the next 30 minutes and then cheered as we as an audience receive the ending the film deserves.
And here I am, three decades on, still extolling the virtues of a debut film to strangers but not on the 8th floor of a glassed in skyscraper, but to you, dearest reader.
Fancy a hot chocolate from the vending machine?
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to. They also look far, far better in print!
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon