Vidocq

Vidocq (2001) is a dark fantasy-detective film from director Pitof, available to watch online on iFILM. In a storm-lashed 1830 Paris, a killer in a mirrored mask stalks the streets, and the detective hunting him has just vanished without a trace.

The legendary Eugène-François Vidocq dies confronting his quarry, the Alchemist, whose mask reflects each victim's own face in the instant before death. His young biographer, Étienne Boisset, arrives in the capital to reconstruct his mentor's final case and descends, clue by clue, into the same maze of lightning-struck alleys, hidden laboratories and salons where other people's fates are bought and sold. Gérard Depardieu makes Vidocq thunderous and unstoppable, while Guillaume Canet leads us along his trail.

This was the first feature shot entirely on high-definition digital cameras, which is why its lurid, almost comic-book look felt like nothing else in 2001. It's a film for fans of visual experiment and gothic gloom, where style now and then outruns the logic. Stream Vidocq (2001) online on iFILM.