''Black Box'' () is a 2021

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller film directed by Yann Gozlan. It is a co-production between France and Belgium. The film stars Pierre Niney. The film had its world premiere at the

Alliance Française French Film Festival L'Alliance Française French Film Festival is an annual French film festival in Australia organised by Alliance Française. With the intention of highlighting the richness and diversity of French cinema, the festival supports a selection of 35+ new ...

on 5 March 2021.

Premise

Matthieu, a talented young

black box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

analyst, is tasked with investigating a mysterious fatal plane crash.

Cast

Production

Development

Director and co-writer Yann Gozlan is a

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

enthusiast and had wanted to make a film on the subject for a long time: "This universe, incredibly cinematic from my perspective, with colossal financial stakes, where divergent interests co-exist (aircraft manufacturers, airlines, pilots...), seemed to me like an original and exciting setting for a film". In preparation for his role, Pierre Niney spent several weeks working alongside agents from the

Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA, ) is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those inve ...

(BEA): "There, I ended up finding an investigator with a profile similar to that of Mathieu. From there, as usual, I did a kind of journalistic work: I shadowed him, I spoke with him and asked his permission to film him so that I could find inspiration in his gestures, his way of working and his speed on the computer. The job of an acoustician is very technical, it was important to be able to replicate the details with precision".

Filming

Filming began on 9 September 2019 in the

Paris region Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In October 2019, filming was reported to have taken place at

Epinay Studios The Epinay Studios are film production studios located in Epinay in northern Paris. It was a complex with two distinct and separate structures. The earliest was built in 1902 by Eclair Film. A second studio was controlled by the French subsidia ...

Épinay-sur-Seine Épinay-sur-Seine (, literally ''Épinay on Seine'') is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The church of Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne d'Enghien, designed by Paul Tournon, may be fo ...

. That same month, the city hall of

Cergy Cergy () is a Communes of France, commune in the French Departments of France, department of Val-d'Oise, in northwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre Zero#France, centre of Paris, in the "new town#France, new town" of Cerg ...

was used as a production space.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 32nd

in Australia on 5 March 2021. It was theatrically released in France by

Studiocanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...

on 8 September 2021.

Reception

Box office

The film was a major success in France, where it sold 1.2 million admissions, grossing a domestic total of million and a worldwide total of million.

Critical response

''Black Box'' received an average rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 33 reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' published a positive review of the film, writing, "If the nature of the conspiracy that the hero faces is perhaps a little too obvious, the film is nevertheless distinguished by the qualities of a narrative that skillfully keeps the viewer in suspense".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Black Box (2021 film) 2021 films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films 2020s mystery thriller films 2021 thriller films French mystery thriller films Belgian mystery thriller films French-language Belgian films StudioCanal films France 2 Cinéma films Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films directed by Yann Gozlan Films set in France Films shot in Île-de-France Films shot in Val-d'Oise Films shot at Epinay Studios Films scored by Philippe Rombi