Tip Top

Here is a screwball farce, a mix of comedy and suspense that is somewhere between Godard and Almodovar.
 
Tip Top begins as your average, run of the mill thriller. Esther (Isabelle Huppert) and Sally (Sandrine Kimberlain) investigate the possibility of police involvement in the murder of an informant in a small French town.
As the film continues, you come to the realization that nothing is linear is this movie of multiple tones - from dark comedy to sex farce to serious film noir. The piece is as intriguing as it is periodically unsettling.
 
Serge Bozon is no novice to the absurd. He's always had a pension for wacky situations and characters. But Tip Top is  also a crude social commentary on racism and immigration. Imagine Peter Sellers meets Spike Lee.
 
This blend of burlesque and gravity could have been a miss if it were not for the hysterical cast - Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kimberlain, François Damiens and Samy Nacéry - an odd mix, of dramatic actresses and comedic actors, which creates a fascinating opposition of style on screen. 
 
"The resulting clash of tones initially seems jarring, but ultimately original and invigorating." - Variety
 
"This police procedural is staged by the director Serge Bozon as a musical without music". - New Yorker
 

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