Le Fils du Requin (Son of the Shark) (Ludovic Vandendaele, Erick Da Silva)
Many years ago, I pressed record on the VCR in order to tape something I was watching before going to bed tired. However, I accidentally had the wrong channel set, and instead of taping the rest of the movie I was watching, I ended up with a lot of stuff from Showcase, including one of their late night Revue features. One of the items on the video was Son of the Shark. I thought what the heck and decided to watch the first 2 minutes of it. I ended up sitting through the whole thing, entranced in a way that few films have entranced me ever since. I watched the copy I had on that blank tape a couple of times, until one day -- go figure -- I ended up accidentally taping over it a few years later. It was a bitter irony to have taped it in error in the first place only to have lost it all over again. The loss prompted me to start to look for getting a copy from somewhere, anywhere. It didn't ever re-air on TV and no video stores in Saint John seemed to have it, so I ended up recently purchasing my very own copy on ebay for four bucks, and I'm glad I did. Son of the Shark represents the kind of independent feature you inexplicably want to share with others and shamelessly promote for the rare and precious find it is.
Perhaps one of the most astonishing aspects of the production is the fact that it has been based on a true story. Apparently, two brothers did in fact vandalize a small town in France, as is depicted in the film, although some of the details have been changed. The story begins as we see reckless street urchins Martin (Ludovic Vandendaele) and his younger brother Simon (Erick Da Silva) driving a stolen school bus. Giggling and howling like hyenas, they then send it flying off a cliff. From there, it's an even further downward spiral into the antics of the two trouble-makers. There are few crimes the boys won't consider committing, including theft, vandalization and sexual assault (in spite of having barely hit puberty yet). They are sometimes tracked down by the authorities, but due to their young age they remain free from the clutches of the law, not to mention their alcoholic and abusive parents. So, the pair gets split up, each is relegated to a foster home, and then they resume their pattern, which is to escape, reunite again with each other, and cause more damage.
In some ways, the brothers are also forced to act like adults. In one scene, for example, they do their laundry together. 14-year-old Martin is the more literary of the two, often consulting a dilapidated novel where he finds himself quoting to himself select passages which mirror his desire to have been born the son of a female shark rather than be born of human mother. Simon, a bully despite his younger age of 12, is inseparable from his brother during the acts of terror. Basically, they create havoc without care for anyone or anything else because, in their world which is devoid of role models or figures of authority, they see no harm in it. Their destructive personalities cause a rift, however, when Martin begins to act on his feelings for the lovely Marie (Sandrine Blancke). In a passage of startling cruelty, Simon forces Martin to choose between him and the object of his affection while a frightened Marie stands shivering at knifepoint.
The film was released before other similar movies that depict amoral youths such as Kids, Murder by Numbers or Bully, and it remains the best (although Kids is probably more of an equal than a lesser offering). The disturbingly psychotic performances by Vandendaele and Da Silva offer few telltale signs of a conscience behind their eyes. Yet, because their crimes are presented with a comic kind of spryness, it is difficult to be uniformly distanced from the boys. Their heinous acts of mischief may be condemnable, but the more their backgrounds are exposed -- particularly in a magnificent seen where Martin is interviewed at the police station -- the more the characters resonate.
Visceral movies like Son of the Shark are scarce. I can think of a half-dozen of its scenes that have stayed with me over the years because of their powerful imagery and visuals. Directed by Agnès Merlet, there is an uncompromising brutality that is essential to one of her messages of the film, which is that it takes much more than good intentions for a bad apple to turn itself into a sweet-smelling rose. Human beings can only form connections and bonds with people whom they trust implicitly into their lives. Otherwise, they are outcasts in the aquarium of life, left either to be eaten by other fish, or to become a shark themselves, set apart through their quest to survive. The ending of the picture is particularly rewarding, as it ties together a number of symbols in a scene that implies the only place these little shark boys could possibly end up is at sea itself, minding watch over all the little fishies below. Smart, gripping and thought-provoking, this is a most extraordinary film.
