I Am the Ripper (François Gaillard, 2004)

Six years before François Gaillard directed the awesome giallo-tributes Blackaria and Last Caress he made his feature length debut with I Am the Ripper (released by Salvation Films in the UK on DVD). When I asked Gaillard about this film he seemed a bit shocked and just laughted, so of course I got even more curious to check out his early skeleton in the closet. There's three comments on IMDB, two positive and one negative - and it only have 90 votes. Stuff like that just makes me seek up the DVD, purchase it and watch it. I can't stop myself.

I was a bit confused at first, because the movie was credited to an Eric Anderson, which of course is the alias Gaillard used while directing (and doing everything else) on the movie. I don't know why he didn't want to use his real name, because it's not a bad movie. Just very, very, very, very, very, very cheap. I mean, it looks like it's shot with a H8 camera, or maybe S-VHS in some takes, but the visual effects - stuff that you can creat in magic bullet for Adobe Premiere for example - looks more to belong in something shot on DV. 

What's the story then? Oh, it's first of all a wild one. Very wild. Some young people having a party in a flat, suddenly something that looks like Ghostface (from Scream) shows up, but with a skeleton-ish face instead of a ghost, and starts to kill everyone he can see with knives...and later also guns. Suddenly it becomes a John Woo-style action flick, including jumping sideways while shooting at each other. Soon everyone is dead and the last survior makes a deal with the killer - who happens to be Death himself: they're gonna have a final duel and our hero have 24 hours to prepare himself.

And then it gets extra weird.

I Am the Ripper is a crazy, cheap mix of Hong Kong heroic bloodshed, slasher, kung fu, anime and slapstick - with a certain amount of nudity and foul language. It's very French in that hyperactive, cocain-French kinda way. The opening scene reminded me of the opening in Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive, introducing tons and tons of characters with ultra-fast editing, speed-up footage and wacky dialogue. 

There's always a weakness when dressing up young guys in suits and sunglasses to make them look cool - because they really never do - believe me, I've done it myself! But it's also a part of almost everyone who wanted to make indie-action. It's just fab to make a tribute to John Woo and Chow Yun Fan, not matter if you're 25 years old and hardly can grow a moustache. But that's cool.

I Am the Ripper shows a lot of talent and is a lot better than most of these almost home-made films that's exploded on the scene since it got so easy to buy a cheap consumer camera. I love stuff like this. It's creative, it's silly, it's fun. It doesn't take itself seriously, which sometimes is very good. A pretentious filmmaker making something like this would end up with a boring piece of crap.

That's why we should be grateful that François Gaillard is kicking around world of indie cinema. He and his independent collegues in the showbiz is much needed. 

Comments

[Megatron]

"When I asked Gaillard about this film he seemed a bit shocked and just laughted, so of course I got even more curious to check out his early skeleton in the closet."

Strange reaction......you have no background info why he reacted like that...?

"I Am the Ripper is a crazy, cheap mix of Hong Kong heroic bloodshed, slasher, kung fu, anime and slapstick - with a certain amount of nudity and foul language."

Now you´re talking!

"It's very French in that hyperactive, cocain-French kinda way."

I think I know what you mean......Dobermann(1997) comes to mind, Les Dalton (2004) etc.

"The opening scene reminded me of the opening in Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive"

I haven´t seen it.

"There's always a weakness when dressing up young guys in suits and sunglasses to make them look cool - because they really never do - believe me, I've done it myself!"

Sure about that...?

You have the face of a serial killer, or a asassin......maybe you and Widegren do something like The Tournament(2009) and dress you up in a costume.....come on!

"That's why we should be grateful that François Gaillard is kicking around world of indie cinema. He and his independent collegues in the showbiz is much needed."

I haven´t seen any of his films.....soon, is what I keep telling myself.

Good review and thanks.