''Killing Zoe'' is a 1993

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

written and directed by

Roger Avary Roger Roberts Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on ''Pulp Fiction'', for which they won Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Acade ...

and starring

Eric Stoltz Eric Cameron Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor, director and producer. He played the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film ''Mask'', which earned him the nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Support ...

Jean-Hugues Anglade Jean-Hugues Anglade (born 29 July 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, known for his roles as Eric in ''Killing Zoe'', Zorg in ''Betty Blue'' and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita in ''Nikita''. Personal life Anglade was born i ...

and

Julie Delpy Julie Delpy (; born 21 December 1969) is a French-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, includi ...

. The story details a safe cracker named Zed who returns to France to aid an old friend in performing a doomed bank heist. ''Killing Zoe'' was labeled by

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

as "

Generation X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western world, Western demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years a ...

's first bank caper movie." In 2019, Avary directed the semi-sequel '' Lucky Day''.

Plot

Zed, a professional

safe-cracker Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or the key. Physical methods Different procedures may be used to crack a safe, depending on its construction. Different procedures are required to open different safe ...

, comes to

Paris 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 ...

to help a childhood friend, Eric, with a bank heist. While in the taxi on his way to the hotel, the cab driver offers to procure a prostitute for him in the evening. As Zed emerges from the shower, the prostitute, Zoe, arrives. After having sex, they talk amicably and express their mutual affection. Zoe confides that she is studying art and has a "very boring" day job. They are interrupted when Eric barges in and brusquely sends Zoe out of the room. Eric takes Zed back to his residence, where Zed meets Eric's friends. Eric explains his plans: the following day is

Bastille Day Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...

and virtually everything is closed except for a holding bank they plan to rob. Zed forgoes his rest time to spend the night partying with Eric and his friends at a seedy jazz club, which Eric refers to as 'the real Paris'. As they binge, Eric confides to Zed that he has

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, which he contracted through intravenous drug use. The next day, Zed is awakened by Eric as they prepare to enter the bank. Donning carnival masks, Eric's team quickly kill anybody who fails to cooperate as Zed is escorted to the bank's safe. Their plans begin to fall apart as the police show up, with the team realizing they will either have to shoot their way out of the bank or go to jail for life. Eric blows open a vault with an explosive, finding a large supply of

gold bar A gold bar, also called gold bullion or gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping. Larger gold bars that are produced ...

s, but the thieves can't leave the bank alive with their fortune. Tensions rise even higher when Zed recognizes Zoe who coincidentally works at the bank and attempts to protect her, much to Eric's fury. A gunfight erupts between Eric's team and the police, with Zed caught in the middle. Most of the thieves are killed, leaving Zed and Eric to fight each other. The police kill Eric. Injured, Zed is led away quickly by Zoe, who falsely states that he is a bank customer. They drive away in her car, where Zoe promises Zed that when he gets well, she'll show him the 'real' Paris. While some have speculated the title of the film derives from the assumption that Zed contracted HIV from having Eric's blood spill on him and he will thus pass it on to Zoe, Roger Avary has stated, "Zoe means 'life' in Greek, so the title of the movie can be interpreted as 'Killing Life.' "

Cast

as Zed *

as Eric *

as Zoe *

Gary Kemp Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet. Kemp wrote the lyrics and music ...

as Oliver *

Kario Salem Kario Salem (born May 23, 1955) is an American television, film, stage actor and screenwriter. Early life Salem, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, is a 1973 graduate of Agoura High School in Agoura, California. Career In 1997, Salem ea ...

as Jean * Tai Thai as François *

Bruce Ramsay Bruce Ramsay (born December 31, 1966) is a Canadian film, television and stage actor. Career Ramsay's screen debut was opposite fellow Montrealer Elias Koteas in the film '' Malarek'' (1988). Ramsay and Koteas went on to appear in two other fi ...

as Ricardo * Salvator Xuereb as Claude *

Cecilia Peck Cecilia Peck (born May 1, 1958) is an American film producer, director and actress. She is the only daughter of actor Gregory Peck and his second wife Veronique Passani. Career As an actress, Peck was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for '' ...

as Martina * Ron Jeremy Hyatt as Bank Concierge * David Richard Thompson as Burnt Vault Guard *

Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...

as Voice of Moïse

Production

''Killing Zoe'' was director

's feature directorial debut. When scouting filming locations for ''

Reservoir Dogs ''Reservoir Dogs'' is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunke ...

'', the crew found a bank. Producer

Lawrence Bender Lawrence Bender (born October 17, 1957) is an American film producer. Throughout his career, Bender-produced films have received 36 Academy Award nominations, resulting in eight wins. Bender rose to fame by producing ''Reservoir Dogs'' in 1992 an ...

phoned a writer he knew, Avary, and asked if he had any screenplays that took place in a bank. Avary quickly wrote the script for ''Killing Zoe'' in a week or two. Avary stated he wanted to make "an art-house film for both the coffeehouse crowd and the exploitation crowd." Set in Paris, the film was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles, California. Only the opening and end credit roll and some small car driving clips were filmed in France. In a DVD interview, Avary explains how he wanted to make a film about how nihilistic he felt his generation was and said that watching Stoltz in the film, was like seeing his evil twin come into creation. He wrote the script specifically for Stoltz; he and Stoltz admitted they had a fantasy to rob a bank (though Stoltz qualified this with 'and not go to jail'!) and making this film was as close as they would get. Avary stated that, as a first time director, it was a dream to work with actors as talented as

and

. ''Killing Zoe'' is notable as the first feature film to use the new Otto Nemenz Swing & Tilt lenses, which were used during the heroin sequences for perspective distortion instead of their original purpose of perspective correction.

Reception

The first market screening of ''Killing Zoe'' took place at the Raindance Film Market in October 1993. The film premiered in North America at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994. The film won the Grand Prize award at the 5th

Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Fil ...

held in February 1994. Jury members that year included

Roger Vadim Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (; 26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author, artist and occasional actor. His best-known works are visually lavish films with erotic qualities, su ...

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...

, and

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

. The film went on to win the 1994 Cannes Prix Très Spécial.

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 ...

gives the film a score of 36%, with an average rating of 5.30 out of 10, based on 28 reviews. The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "Senselessly violent and mean-spirited, ''Killing Zoe'' fails to deliver a much needed cleverness to back up its hyper-stylized flourishes."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Killing Zoe 1993 films 1990s English-language films 1993 multilingual films 1993 crime thriller films 1990s heist films 1993 independent films American crime thriller films American heist films American multilingual films American independent films Films about murderers Films directed by Roger Avary Films set in Paris Films shot in Los Angeles French crime thriller films French multilingual films French heist films French independent films 1990s French-language films HIV/AIDS in American films Films about hostage takings Films with screenplays by Roger Avary Films scored by Tomandandy English-language French films 1993 directorial debut films HIV/AIDS in French films 1990s American films 1990s French films