Kamikaze

When brilliant but batty boffin Galabru is fired from his lab job, he retreats into a private world. Incensed by the banal idiocy of the TV he endlessly watches, he invents a gizmo which can kill the presenters, who both fascinate and repel him. The death ray is so ingenious that no one can fathom how the murderer operates, and investigating detective Bohringer comes into bitter conflict with the Ministry of Communications. As co-scripted and produced by Luc Besson (who passed it to his former assistant to direct), Kamikaze is an ambitious if somewhat slim satire on a society enthralled by the bland output of the box; not only Galabru's savagely demented performance, but the sharp, sumptuous, and very mobile widescreen photography, constitute a contemptuous attack on a medium which anybody in their right mind will already know is inferior to cinema. Not exactly substantial, but stylish fun.