The gripping French film "Black Box" asks audiences to listen closely. Sound is the key to Mathieu's (Pierre Niney) job as a black box analyst for BEA, the French organization that investigates plane crashes. Mathieu can discern words and noises altering the levels of a recording — not unlike Gene Hackman's character in "The Conversation," or John Travolta's in "Blow Out."
Director/cowriter Yann Gozlan's thriller, which is as mesmerizing as those American films, opens with a tracking shot from the cockpit to the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) as a Dubai to Paris flight goes down — the crash itself is not shown — killing 300 people and 16 crew members. Mathieu's boss, Victor Pollock (Olivier Rabourdin), who is in charge of the investigation, does not ask Matheiu to assist him, which frustrates Matthieu. However, when Victor goes missing, Mathieu is asked to head up the investigation. Listening to the CVR, he considers that the crash could be a terrorist attack or a mechanical problem. As Mathieu digs deeper, he is unsure: were the pilots saying, "Emergency descent" or "Emergency Delta"?
