Requiem for a Killer
Requiem for a Killer
R | 01 June 2011 (USA)
Requiem for a Killer Trailers

Lucretia is a killer for hire. Specialised in poisoning and passionate about opera, she'll have to fulfill a difficult contract in the heart of the Swiss alps. Posing as a singer, Lucretia will have to appear on the scene of the higly exclusive Festival d'Ermeux and try to kill one of her partners: British bariton Alexander Child. Having recently acquired a Scottish distillery, he remains the only obstacle to a strategic pipeline project with considerable economic stakes; having recently won a tough legal battle against British Oil, their last resort is to eliminate him. Complicating everything is Rico, sent by the French contra-espionage, who tries to infiltrate the orchestra and stop the plot against Alexander Child.

Reviews
Brightlyme

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

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Robert Joyner

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

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Alistair Olson

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

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Lachlan Coulson

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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gridoon2018

"Requiem For A Killer" is a lackluster star vehicle for the beautiful, ethereal French actress Melanie Laurent, who had just gained international fame by having a major role in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds". She is holding a gun on the cover, but she never once holds, much less fires, a gun in the movie; in fact, there is hardly any action in the movie at all. There is a little suspense, and a mystery whose solution is revealed to the viewers long before the on-screen characters, and some existential angst, and some opera singing (for which Laurent is obviously dubbed), and some sightseeing....but not enough of anything to really keep any type of audience happy. It's a handsome production, and Laurent is stunning, but if you're looking for a good female-assassin movie, this isn't it. ** out of 4.

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writers_reign

Once again a fine French actress was the selling point for me. Melanie Laurent has already graced some fine films as well as writing and directing the equally fine The Adopted. Requiem is the debut movie of writer-director Jerome Le Gris and I'd hate to have to pitch this to the suits in Hollywood. Europe's top hit man is in fact a woman who doubles as an opera singer, assassinations in Europe are controlled and farmed out by a priest, you're kidding, right. Only one of the four people who have reviewed it here seems to have caught on that this is a spoof in the tradition of those James Coburn's Derek Flint and Dean Martin's Matt Helm movies and if all else fails there is some spectacular scenery and lavish interiors to look at. Anyone who retched at the 'wholesome' catholicism as personified by Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald will savor the opening assassin where Laurent slips poison into the communion wafer, specifically the thirteenth wafer on the plate. As someone remarked this one may not get a wide release but Laurent is well up to snuff (sorry about that).

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grenelle

The deadliest hit-man in Europe is actually a woman and sings contralto. The toughest secret agent detailed to stop her is a guitar virtuoso. If you can swallow that and watch the rest of it as a straight thriller, you have a mental age of four. Tops.In fact, this is a hilarious send-up of three different genres all at once: Hitchcockian cat-and-mouse thriller, Agatha Christie whodunnit and Italian giallo. Perhaps the director (quite rightly) doubted that the producers would allow him to make three different films in this vein, so he lumped all three together. Which I suppose makes the whole even funnier.The script goes out of its way to invent the most bizarre situations and then sabotage them in the most outlandish ways possible. Witness the outrageous murder method employed in the opening sequence, or the episode where the killer uses poison to fulfill her contract, only to realise she is a breath away from having a mass murder on her CV. All characters behave like children in a playground sand pit, set to gorgeous strands of Handel's Messiah. And the film looks ravishing, too, in the best 70s fashion, both outdoors and in.Bound to be a flop at the box-office (way, way too tongue-in-cheek for the popcorn-munching crowd), but should become a cult classic if there's any justice in this world.

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GUENOT PHILIPPE

I almost fell asleep during the viewing of this french thriller. Characters, storyline, editing, everything is tepid, boring, predictable. Tcheky Karyo, who plays here a kind of "shadow man", is nearly a cliché. Cornillac is laughable as an undercover agent. Only Melanie Laurent could be worthwhile, but her character falls apart after one half hour. Yes, I expected much more from this movie, I must admit that. This kind of topic, I saw it several years ago, in a 74 US TVM, starring Yvette Mimieux - HIT LADY - and it was far better than this one. Avoid this lousy film, at all costs. You have been warned.Perhaps at the nearly ending, when Tcheky Karyo explains to Melanie Laurent some things about her and her father, you may catch some gripping sequence. But that's all.Run away from it.

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