By akademiotoelektronik, 08/05/2022

4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Black Box Review

A new model plane crashes during a flight from Dubai to Paris. Mathieu Vasseur (Pierre Niney), a sharp technician from the BEA (Bureau of Investigation and Analysis), hopes to assist his superior Victor Pollock (Olivier Rabourdin) in the investigation into the crash. But, served by his reputation as an asocial alarmist, Vasseur was sidelined. Thanks to the black box recordings of the crashed plane, research soon points to an Islamist attack as the head of the investigation, Pollock, mysteriously disappears. The politico-industrial stakes of the affair are such that the boss of the BEA (André Dussollier) is forced to appoint Vasseur as a replacement. The latter sets off on a new track ‑much more serious‑ which not only arouses doubts among those close to him, but also obsesses him. Perhaps, to the point of madness...

But what a good surprise this Black Box, a captivating thriller which offers as a bonus one of its best roles to the gifted Pierre Niney! Filmed on the bone by the effective Yann Gozlan (director of Burn out, An ideal man and screenwriter of another nugget The mechanics of the shadow), extremely well documented without ever being indigestible, the film maintains from start to finish thrilling suspense.

A thriller full of false leads

It is not simply a question here of straining the nerves of the spectators, but also of leading them into the paranoid spirit and the sensitive ears (fabulous soundtrack!) of the obsessive acoustician camped by Pierre Niney. Under the windfalls of a Hitchcock or a Coppola from the Secret Conversation period, the feature film excels in multiplying false leads by brilliantly playing on the double score of thriller and psychological drama.

On this subject, we may regret that the secondary characters embodied by André Dussollier or Lou de Laâge lack a little extra depth. But Yann Gozlan proves to be a sufficiently skilful director to manage to make them exist even during more fleeting appearances.

Black Box, a pearl released without much promotion last September, proved to be one of the good public surprises of the start of the school year. Almost 1.2 million spectators trembled alongside the unsympathetic Mathieu Vasseur. We hope that the 4K UHD release of this excellent thriller with undeniable technical qualities will broaden this audience. And we can't wait to taste Yann Gozlan's next feature.