Horrifying events take on an irreverent, cheeky look as three adolescents rummage through their victim's house and commit murder one second and fight over the remote control the next.
While based on true events that took place in Paris in 1984, Bertrand Tavernier's L'Appat is not meant to be a documentary. Rather, it feels like a small-scale noir infused with disorder and accidents. As much as the three adolescents are bent on breaking into their victims' homes, people with power and money whose contact Nathalie systematically organises in her address book, they are never able to device a more-than-makeshift plan. Often Nathalie, the bait, forgets to leave the door to the victim's apartment open for her accomplices; they cannot cope with more advanced security systems and Nathalie's usual way of abandoning a break-in plan at the last minute is by making an excuse to buy Cools cigarettes. Twice they come close to accomplishing their goal, only to discover that their victims' wealth falls far below their estimation. The adolescents grab what they can, and struggle to kill the victims off--hitting one with a heavy object on the skull, stabbing one with a letter opener.
One of the earliest sequences shows Nathalie complaining that Eric and Bruno have been watching Scarface for the "twentieth time". Whether this establishes the fact that Eric and Bruno have violent inclinations is irrelevant, but their immersion in thriller material complements to a certain extent their lack of remorse over their crime. Nathalie does show a trace of uncertainty and confides in her friend Patricia her knowledge (albeit not seeing it directly) that the two have taken lives in their last outings.
The police interrogates Nathalie, who up to the final second makes up stories along the way to hide her involvement. She finally gives up the truth, implicating however Eric and Bruno and rejecting having played a part in the murders. Her coy question at the police officer, "Will I be released before Christmas? Because I need to visit my father" ends the film on an unsettling note especially because Nathalie seems so uncannily innocent. Here Tavernier maximises the sense of teenage abandon and disregard, which he previously highlights by juxtaposing the murders (which take place behind closed doors) with Nathalie blocking out the victims' screams by listening to rock music on her walkman. As the camera focuses on Nathalie and her waiting for her companions to complete the job, it effectively turns its head away from the murder, reflecting Nathalie's attitude of disaffection. While L'Appat goes the full length capturing the adolescents' daily life as well as their crimes, it does not directly condemn them; yet its apparent lack of moral lesson and even giddy, slightly romanticising depiction of the threesome is exactly key to the compelling portrayal of dangerously carefree adolescent attitude and the darkness that actually lies in their yet immature souls.
