Written and directed by Richard Bean, Franck Spadone is modern French noir/thriller set in the ugly underbelly of modern day Paris. Stanislas Merhar plays a less than moral man named Franck Spadone who makes his living as a professional pickpocket on the streets of the French capital. His two friend, Bruno (Christophe Le Masne) and Pablo (Antoine Fayard) work with him and the three of them are pretty prolific in their chosen occupation.

Laura (Monica Bellucci of Irreversible and The Passion Of The Christ is a gorgeous woman who works in a Parisian strip club. One night while taking the subway home from work to her apartment, Franck and his two accomplices rob her but Franck sees her as more than just another victim and falls instantly in love with her, captivated by her beauty despite the rather unusual circumstances under which the two meet.

Franck finds the club that Laura works at and begins hanging out there all the time, just to see her. What Franck doesn't realize is that a lot of big time criminals also spend a lot of their free time in the club as well. Through various connections that Franck makes at the club, he ends up in the middle of a gang war, when all he really wanted in the first place was to get closer to Laura. Sadly for Franck, Laura is already involved with a lowlife mob boss who talks Laura into seducing the boss of a rival gang. When Franck finds out about this he decides to defend her and remove her from the situation. Sparks fly, and so do bullets as Franck does what he believes in his heart is right, even if the object of his affection isn't really anyone he knows all that well and even if his affection is actually more like infatuation, and not necessarily a healthy infatuation at that.

Franck Spadone hits just the right balance of art house and exploitation. The film looks absolutely fantastic with a prominent Lynchian use of primary colors giving certain scenes in the club an almost Twin Peaks-like feeling of 'odd.' The camera movements are often slow and languid and suit the European setting very well, taking it all in and presenting the events in a very stylized manner.

Bellucci as always is simply gorgeous to look at, and the fact that she's a very good actress on top of her obvious physical beauty makes her perfect for the choice of the female lead. She and Merhar have an interesting on screen chemistry, and as their relationship 'develops' through the film as the storyline progresses, they both handle the obvious emotional and mental challenges well in their performances. They're equal parts believable and cool but at the same time almost otherwordly, much like the film itself is.

While at times the pacing seems a little bit slower than it might have been ideally, Franck Spadone is an above average thriller with a solid cast and some very nice camerawork. While it won't appeal to all tastes (it does have its share of sex and violence, in addition to a very distinctly European look), those who appreciate French noir should find a lot to like about it.

Video:

While it's nice to see the movie presented in 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen, unfortunately this transfer suffers from some poor compression and the end result is a rather fuzzy looking image with blotchy black levels and poor color separation. While it doesn't render the film unwatchable, it does make some of the darker scenes a little harder to navigate than they would be otherwise and it does take away from the enjoyment of the movie. Flesh tones at times look a little off as well. Considering that the disc is almost completely void of extra features and that there's only one audio track on the disc (and it isn't a huge DTS track either), it was surprising to note that the bit rate was on the lower end, usually hovering between three and four.