Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq looks like another silly DVD on the shelf, and I rented it fully expecting to take the MST3K route with it. However, it had a couple things going for it that weren’t advertised on the box: it stars Gerard Depardieu and it’s in French with subtitles. Even bad movies are palatable when they’re in a foreign language. Surprisingly, Dark Portals was really good.
Vidocq is an historical figure. His exploits described in the opening credits of Dark Portals really happened. He was betrayed by love and wound up in prison. He was the chief of police and later became the first modern private investigator. In Dark Portals, he’s played by Gerard Depardieu who bears an uncanny resemblance to the existing portraits.
Dark Portals starts with the death of the title character and picks up with Etienne, Vidocq’s biographer. The film is mostly a mystery that cuts between Vidocq’s investigation of the deaths of three wealthy men and Etienne’s investigation of Vidocq’s death. The common thread of both investigations is The Alchemist, a seemingly supernatural figure in a black cloak and a mirrored mask that captures souls.
In France, Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq was simply called Vidocq, which makes more sense because there isn’t a single portal of any kind in the movie. This was originally released in France in 2001 (it was only recently released in the U.S.) and was one of the first movies to use the computer image enhancement technology that George Lucas developed for Star Wars Episodes II and III, and that we now see everywhere.
Dark Portals is written and directed by Pitof, who worked in computer generated visual effects before he got started writing and directing. This film shows that he was a promising director, despite the irritating usage of one name, and could have been a visionary. Maybe he still is in France. I hope so. He probably used up all his credibility in Hollywood, where he’ll always be the director of Catwoman. I hope he gets another shot, because based on his work on Dark Portals, he got royally screwed with Catwoman. A director can really only do so much with a bad script and bad actors.
Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
