Cite De La Peur -
Here is the of Cité de la peur . The Setup: A Terrible Film Festival The story begins at the Cannes Film Festival (the "Cité" of the title is a pun on "Cannes"). A low-budget, absurd horror film called Red Is Dead is about to premiere. The film’s producer, a nervous and clumsy man named Serge Karamazov (Alain Chabat), is desperate for success.
It sounds like you’re referring to (known in English as The City of Fear ), a cult French comedy film from 1994 directed by Alain Berberian, starring the legendary comedy trio Les Nuls (Alain Chabat, Chantal Lauby, and Dominique Farrugia). cite de la peur
They travel from Cannes to Paris, chasing clues that make no sense. The killer (still in the diving mask, still carrying a baguette) keeps striking. He kills a projectionist by forcing him to watch a bad film. He kills a script supervisor by… giving her a bad review. Eventually, after many nonsensical chase scenes (including one where they run through a museum and discuss existentialism while being chased by a mime), Simon has an epiphany: the killer is copying the murders from Red Is Dead . But since Red Is Dead is a fictional film, the only person who could know the script is… Here is the of Cité de la peur
The killer is (played by the director of the real film, Alain Berberian, in a cameo). Why? Because the director was furious that Serge had rewritten his script, turning his serious psychological thriller into a stupid horror-comedy. So, he decided to literally kill the film by murdering people in the most ridiculous way possible—with a baguette—to make the whole project a laughingstock. The film’s producer, a nervous and clumsy man
It’s not a “long story” in the literary sense (like a novel), but rather a parody of crime thrillers and film industry tropes. However, I can tell you the as a long, detailed narrative.
In the final confrontation, the director (in diving mask, holding a baguette) explains his elaborate, pretentious motive involving the death of cinema. Simon, trembling, tries to arrest him but trips. Agnès, by pure accident, knocks the director unconscious with a falling prop tombstone. The film ends exactly as it began: with a screening. Red Is Dead becomes the biggest hit of the year, not because it’s good, but because people think the baguette murders were a genius marketing campaign.
Simon accuses Serge. Serge, flustered, admits he wrote the script. But then Serge accuses Agnès. Agnès accuses the caterer. It’s a mess. Finally, through a series of absurd deductions (including a clue about a rare type of breadcrumb found at every crime scene), Simon realizes the truth.