JE SUIS CHARLIE (L’humour A Mort)
TIFF DOCS D: Daniel Leconte, Emmanuel Leconte. France. 90 min. Sep 16, 7 pm Bloor Hot Docs Sep 17, 9:15 pm Scotiabank 9 Sep 20, 1 pm Scotiabank 10. See tiff.net. Rating: NN
The brutal murders earlier this year of the 11 journalists and cartoonists at the French satiric magazine Charlie Hebdo should have made for an incendiary documentary. Unfortunately, the father-and-son directing team of Daniel and Emmanuel Leconte drop the ball, presenting a confusing, unbalanced mess.
Granted, interviews with the journalists who survived the attack, including Coco, the woman who let the Islamist extremists into the building, are harrowing. And there’s fascinating footage of the deceased journalists – including editor Cabu – from 2007 after the magazine reprinted Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad as a terrorist.
But there’s little context, no -attempt to interview Muslims and, for a film about cartoonists, a total lack of style, unless you count the ridiculous menacing music on the soundtrack.
