Dark Diamond (2016)
Pier Ulmann lives from hand-to-mouth in Paris, between construction work and petty theft that he commits on behalf of Rachid, his only “family”. But life catches up with him the day his father is found dead in the street after a long decline. The black sheep of a rich Antwerp family who deals in diamonds, he has left his son nothing, apart from the story of his banishment from the Ulmann family and a thirst for revenge.
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Great Film overall
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
The acting in this movie is really good.
Pier Ulmann cases houses and works with Rachid in break-ins. His estranged father Victor dies penniless. Victor mangled his hand while cutting a diamond for the family business and then lost his inheritance to his brother Joseph. After the funeral, Pier's cousin Gabi offers him a job renovating the diamond office. Gabi is trying to push the business into a bigger wholesaler buying from Vijay Sha Gopal's cutting operation. Joseph vehemently disagrees and tries to buy Rick De Vries' cutting operation to work on boutique specialty large stones. Pier sees the opportunity to case the office and avenge his father. He infiltrates the family business and befriends Gabi's boxing wife Luisa.This is an intriguing noirish story but director Arthur Harari needs a more stylish flair. The most memorable scene is killing a pigeon. The movie starts off with a bloody scene. That may have raised my expectations but it doesn't maintain that intensity. The lead is reserved for the most part due to the story. It's not really a caper movie or a thriller. It's a family dysfunction movie.
This film partly from Belgium is a vengeance tale. A young man decides to avenge the death of his father, which he knows has been provoked by his uncle, the deceased's brother: a diamond broker in Antwerp. So our lead plans his vengeance, helped by a couple of hoodlums of his acquaintance. This feature is not a masterpiece but a well made like TV movie piece of work. I found it maybe a bit too long however. Just note the presence in the cast of Ahmed Benoman, a sort of Edward Bunker. An ex con and also novelist, writer of authentic tales of despair, violence and brutality. A man who unfortunately died just after the shooting of this movie. He plays here the Rachid character, a hoodlum. His performance is outstanding, especially in the scene where he kills a pigeon, only to show the lead character what it makes to kill. A so powerful scene. A good little film.