Les Nerfs à vif

Au moment de sa sortie en salle, ce thriller de Scorsese ne m'a fait ni chaud ni froid. Mais aujourd'hui, j'ai l'impression qu'il s'agit du meilleur « Hitchcock posthume ». La musique de Herrmann, les plans de caméra, le visage de Jessica Lange, dont le personnage s'appelle en plus Leigh… Marty est un diable, un caméléon qui fait brillamment écho à l'héritage du Maître, tout en agrémentant sa soupe d'un phénoménal De Niro en psychopathe et d'un voile de perversion sexuelle excitant. Un truc plutôt pour les connaisseurs. La cinquième étoile lui échappe de justesse, car il s'agit plutôt d'une expérience éphémère que d'un plaisir à long terme. (17/03/2010)

Already the opening shot of De Niro's tattoos on a chiseled body gives us a hint that we are going to see something interesting. Scorsese is back on his game and this remake easily surpasses its black and white predecessor. It's worth seeing, if only for the scene where De Niro as a supposedly bohemian teacher seduces Julliete Lewis – what she does is fabulous acting. I'd give it five stars, but the ending is unfortunately stupid, drawn out in the classic Hollywood way. (11/05/2003)

It might not be a terrifying cloak, but it is a cape of solid fear. (24/12/2007)

That Martin Scorsese knows how to create tension is a well-known fact. What's worse is that Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange here consistently choose weak moments, and everything thus ends up depending on the shoulders of the focused demon Robert De Niro. It is precisely in the shadow of his slow nervousness of the hated lawyer that the final catharsis on the ship seems clichéd and unnecessarily exaggerated. (10/03/2007)

A perfect homage to the genre with exemplary tension building, gripping atmosphere, and a formally stylized approach uncommon for Martin Scorsese, plus some camera tricks. Roboert De Niro is indescribably brilliant, and the ending is simply demonic. Perfection itself. (30/10/2004)

Scorsese's hyperactive, hysterical, episodic, and unrepentantly coked-up direction simply can't tighten up stories with fewer characters. Watching not particularly well sequenced scenes where four overacting actors scream wildly at each other can be tolerable, even enjoyable for subjective biopics covering the span of several years when basically all the characters are on drugs (Goodfellas, Casino). It's worse with the story of a middle-class family threatened by a relentless rapist, which takes place over the course of several days. Basically, it's a kind of frantic Schadenfreude filled with comical camera zooms, but despite my unbounded respect for the director, I have to admit that Cape Fear isn't much more than a cutely goofy snack. (16/04/2018)

Scorsese is indeed a master artist. He manages to extract the maximum from a simple premise, squeezing every bit of potential out of it. I haven't seen the 1962 original, and I'm not sure if I'll ever be in the mood for a film that's over half a century old, but I can say that I find it hard to believe that the original could surpass the remake. The standout here is Robert De Niro, who delivers an iconic performance as a maniacal lunatic with impressive ease (that slicked-back hairstyle might have added to the believability). Nick Nolte also delivers a strong performance, but De Niro maintains a slight edge and doesn’t let anyone surpass him. The revenge plot is fairly ordinary, but the execution compensates for that. The intense music and the suffocating atmosphere of the impending moments, where you have no idea what the slimy criminal will do next, were striking. De Niro’s emotionless face shots were especially unsettling. The only thing missing from a perfect score is a more developed ending; everything that survived bordered on fantasy. Still, it’s a well-executed film, and I give it 81%. (23/08/2018)

Martin Scorsese simply shows that this genre is not unfamiliar to him, just as Robert De Niro demonstrates his acting abilities, portraying a truly despicable scumbag in this case, someone you don't even want to look at for fear of him. It's quite interesting to see what Nick Nolte looked like then and what he looks like now. Acting-wise, he's not as strong as Robert De Niro, but he certainly doesn't drag the film down. (27/11/2015)