''Black Heaven'' (original title: ''L'Autre monde'') is a 2010 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Gilles Marchand and starring

Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (born 4 December 1987) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. Career Theatre Between 1998 and 2002, he was a member of the chorus at the Opéra National de Paris The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary op ...

, Louise Bourgoin,

Melvil Poupaud Melvil Poupaud (born 26 January 1973) is a French actor, author and filmmaker. Career Poupaud's first appearance was, as a child, in Raúl Ruiz (director), Raúl Ruiz's 1983 film ''City of Pirates''. He met Ruiz through his mother, Chantal Poupau ...

and

Pauline Etienne Pauline may refer to: Religion *An adjective referring to St Paul the Apostle or a follower of his doctrines *An adjective referring to St Paul of Thebes, also called St Paul the First Hermit *An adjective referring to the Paulines, various reli ...

. It tells the story of Gaspard, who is lured by a beautiful girl into an obsessive, deadly video game.

Plot

Gaspard is a young man who leads a visibly carefree life in the

South of France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...

. His life changes when his new girlfriend Marion finds a

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

in a changing room on the beach. This belongs to a certain Dragon and several messages are addressed to a certain Sam. The last message contains a time and location for a date. Gaspard and his girlfriend also decide to go to the appointment, where they do indeed see both Dragon and Sam show up. Sam turns out to be a beautiful young woman whose real name is Audrey and to which Gaspard is immediately attracted. Instead of returning the cell phone to Dragon, Marion and Gaspard decide to follow Audrey and Dragon instead. After a visit to a DIY store, both couples end up in a deserted corner at the end of a dirt road. Marion and Gaspard have lost sight of Audrey and Dragon for a moment, and when they find them again, a tragedy appears to have occurred: Dragon and Sam/Audrey have tried to commit suicide using a plastic snake and Dragon's car. Marion and Gaspard make an attempt to save them, but for Dragon, their help comes too late. Audrey with faint signs of life survives by Marion giving her rescue breaths until the medics arrive. The experience has scarred Gaspard heavily. He continues to see Marion, but he secretly fantasizes about Audrey. Through another message on Dragon's cell phone, he discovers that both Dragon and Audrey were active on an

online computer game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and s ...

called "Black Hole". Sam turns out to be the name of Audrey's avatar in this game. A second chance encounter with Audrey as he finds her and finds a tattoo up to her butt cracks which says "heaven" as gets dressed while naked in a changing room in real life makes Gaspard search for her alter ego in the gaming world. Eventually he finds (thanks to his own avatar Gordon) Sam back in a virtual private club in Black Hole. During the night, she

skinny dipping Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is ''skinny-dipping''. In both British and American English, to swim means "to move through ...

in her house with Gaspard and his two friends following her, getting out of the swimming pool naked and dancing in her robe, After a few dates in the virtual world, 'Sam' (who doesn't know that 'Gordon' is actually Gaspard) and 'Gordon' make a pact: he has to hurt his girlfriend for her, she will spend the night with her savior (Gaspard) in return. After Gaspard fulfills his part of the pact by brutally dropping his girlfriend, he is disappointed by Audrey. Instead of making love to him, she spends the night with his friend Ludo. When the disillusioned Gaspard returns home, he discovers that Vincent - Audrey's brother - has broken into his home. Vincent tells Gaspard that his sister has long been suicidal. He also discovers that Vincent was spying on them the day Gaspard and Marion were able to save Audrey. Vincent admits his sickly fascination with suicide, and Gaspard suddenly understands that it is Vincent who uses his sister to lure young people into suicide pacts. He tries to contact Sam/Audrey through Black Hole and manages to make a date at the apartment she shares with her brother, not knowing that it was actually Vincent who controlled Sam within Black Hole. When Gaspard arrives at Audrey and Vincent's apartment, he is overpowered by Vincent after a short conversation with Audrey. He cuffs his hands and drags him to the roof of the apartment building, with the intention of pushing him off. Just before he succeeds, Audrey attracts her brother's attention by jumping off the roof herself. Realizing that his sister is dead, Vincent stops trying to kill Gaspard. The next morning, both Gaspard and Vincent are in the police station. Gaspard is reunited with Marion, who hugs him after seemingly forgiving him for his past behavior.

Cast

as Gaspard * Louise Bourgoin as Audrey *

as Vincent *

as Marion *

Pierre Niney Pierre Niney (; born 13 March 1989) is a French actor. He made his acting debut in the two-part television miniseries ''La dame d'Izieu'' in 2007, followed by films such as ''LOL (Laughing Out Loud)'', ''The Army of Crime'', ''Romantics Anonymous ...

as Yann * Ali Marhyar as Ludo *

Patrick Descamps Patrick Descamps (born 13 December 1956) is a Belgian actor and stage director. Theater Filmography Dubbing External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Descamps, Patrick 1956 births Living people People from Mons 20th-century Belgian male ...

as Marion's father *

Swann Arlaud Swann Arlaud (born 30 November 1981) is a French actor. He has appeared in films such as '' Romantics Anonymous'' (2010), ''Les Anarchistes'' (2015), ''The Wakhan Front'' (2015) and '' Baden Baden'' (2016). Career In 2020 Arlaud won the César A ...

as Dragon

Music

The music is composed by Emmanuel D'Orlando and M83's Anthony Gonzalez. It also features songs from previous M83 albums. # "In the Cold I'm Standing" (''

Before the Dawn Heals Us ''Before the Dawn Heals Us'' is the third studio album by the French electronic group M83, released in January 2005 to positive reviews. The album was released on the Gooom label in Europe and on the Mute label in the United States. It was the ...

'') # "Farewell / Goodbye" (''Before the Dawn Heals Us'') # "*" (''Asterisk'') (''Before the Dawn Heals Us'') # "Facing That" ('' M83'') # "Violet Tree" (''M83'')

References

External links

* {{Gilles Marchand French independent films 2010 films Films directed by Gilles Marchand Films about video games 2010 independent films 2010s French films