Killing Zoe

Infobox Film
name = Killing Zoe


caption =
director = Roger Avary
producer = Samuel Hadida (Producer)
Quentin Tarantino (Executive Producer)
Lawrence Bender (Executive Producer)
Rebecca Boss (Executive Producer)
writer = Roger Avary
starring = Eric Stoltz
Julie Delpy
Jean-Hugues Anglade
music = tomandandy
cinematography = Tom Richmond
editing = Kathryn Himoff
distributor = October Films and Live Entertainment
released = August 19, 1994
runtime = 96 mins
country = USA
France
location =
language = English
French
budget = $1.5 million [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=killingzoe.htm Killing Zoe (1994) ] ]
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:133621
imdb_id = 0110265

"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 [http://www.videovista.net/articles/disturb10.html barely bearable - top 10 disturbing films listing at videovista.net ] ] and has been labeled by Roger Ebert as "Generation X's first bank caper movie." [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940909/REVIEWS/409090302/1023 :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews :: Killing Zoe (xhtml) ] ]

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 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 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 well she'll show him the 'real' Paris.

Production

"Killing Zoe" was director Roger Avary's feature directorial debut. Producer Lawrence Bender had scouted a bank location in Los Angeles as a possible filming location for Reservoir Dogs. Knowing he could attain the location for very little, and being a savvy producer, Bender called 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 quickly write one in a reported week and a half. Avary stated he wanted to make "an art-house film for both the coffeehouse crowd and the exploitation crowd."cite web| last = Cheshire| first = Godfrey | date = September 1994 | url = http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_n9_v24/ai_15729165 | title = Hollywood's new hit men - writer-directors Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary and producer Lawrence Bender - Interview | work = Interview Magazine]

The movie, despite taking place in Paris, was filmed almost entirely in Los Angeles, California. Only the opening credit roll was filmed in France. cite web| url = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rules_of_attraction/about.php | title = The Rules of Attraction Production Notes | work = Rotten Tomatoes]

In an interview contained on the DVD, director Roger Avary explains how he wanted to make a movie about how nihilistic he felt his generation was, and said that watching Eric Stoltz in the film was like seeing his evil twin come into creation. He wrote the script specifically for Eric 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 world class actors as talented as Jean-Hugues Anglade, 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.

Cast

*Eric Stoltz ... Zed
*Julie Delpy ... Zoe
*Jean-Hugues Anglade ... Eric
*Tai Thai ... François
*Bruce Ramsay ... Ricardo
*Kario Salem ... Jean
*Salvator Xuereb ... Claude
*Gary Kemp ... Oliver
*Cecilia Peck ... Martina
*David Richard Thompson Burnt Vault Guard

References

External links

* [http://www.avary.com/ Avary's Domain]
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