La boîte noire (2005)

English title: Black Box.

Synopsis: A man suffers a car accident and enters a coma, during which he mumbles incoherent stuff which may provide clues to some mysteries in his past.

Appraisal (SPOILERS): I watched it twice in order to sort out some obscure points, but some things remain obscure: (1) the phrase "Finoil buys the AC group" is discussed at some point and a company named Comeco is mentioned which apparently rings a bell in the protagonist's mind but, as far as I can remember, it is the only mention to it in the film; (2) do all those murders in the first "awakening" mean anything? (3) in the last scene, why do we see him back in the hospital bed? is it just a recollection or is the second awakening also false? was he in the hospital due to a car accident or was he murdered while investigating at the site of his brother's death? (it is never explained what he was doing in Cherbourg after all, and I am not even sure it is ever stated that Cherbourg is also where he spent his childhood). Anway, aren't people getting sick of watching variations of the same story over and over? Note: this film is loosely based on a novella by Tonino Benacquista; I have read the comic book adaptation by the author himself, and it is a very different, and much more coherent, story. (In fact, I don't know which came first, the novella or the comic book, and whether they are similarly plotted.)

Rating: 18