In Paris, the eighteen year-old Nathalie Magnan (Marie Gillain) works in a clothing store during the day and escorts successful men in a nightclub in the night. Nathalie lives with her boyfriend Eric (Olivier Sitruk) and his moronic friend Bruno (Bruno Putzulu) in an apartment she rents. Eric dreams on traveling to the United States with Nathalie to open their on business but his father does not finance him. Eric plots a scheme with Bruno, Nathalie and her friend Patricia (Clotilde Courau) to raise money. They should go with their costumers to their apartments and once inside the apartment, they should the door open so that they could rob the apartment. Things do not work well and Patricia decides to give up and not participate in the heists. But when their plan goes wrong, Eric and Bruno have to kill their victim."L'appât" is a French movie by Bertrand Tavenier that show an alienated youth in France that thinks in getting easy money despite killing their victims. The impressive story seems to be very realistic and when I saw it for the first time in the 90's, I was scared with the behavior of Nathalie, Eric and Bruno. Now the violence has increased worldwide and the impact of the murders reduces, but anyway, "L'appât" is still a great movie. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Isca" ("The Bait")

This movie inspired from actual events reminds me another film just released; guess what: 24 JOURS, the story of the abduction, torture and killing of Ilan Allimi, also a true event occurred in 2006. The schemes are very alike but not filmed in the same way. The Alexandre Arcady film is more tense, more suspenseful. And that doesn't reduce the efficiency of the Tavernier's piece of work. I like both. They are just made in two different ways. That's all. More than eighteen years are between the two of them. the best would be to watch them both one after the other, to compare at the best. A very interesting experience.

"Fresh Bait" is all about a beautiful 18 year old French "good time girl" who becomes involved in a scheme which her boy friend hatches to get capital to start a retail business in the US. Things go wrong resulting in murder and more. This flick offers good but not great casting, direction, production value, etc. but fails in story. Not suited to any genre, "Fresh Bait" plods along with too much redundancy, runs too long, bogs down in miscellany which doesn't propel the plots forward, and becomes so ludicrous as to be funny when it's supposed to be serious. Only the very poignant final scene reveals the serious nature of the film which it failed to develop during it's run time. Passable stuff only for French film buffs who've seen all the good stuff. (B-)

This 90's oeuvre of well-known French director Bertrand Tavernier is certainly one of the most impressive dramas about alienated youth in movie history. The way Nathalie and her friends (excellent performances, especially from lead actress Marie Gillain!) behave towards each other and the human beings they encounter and destroy on their long trip downhill, raises deep questions about contemporary ethics and moral values. The story, based on a true account, is depicted in a cold, almost documentary style, which makes it even more disturbing. Not for the squeamish!