Woah, that must've been some time ago that we talked about "Vidocq". Thanks for providing some background. I remember that every time I entered the title at imdb about half a dozen findings turned up which surprised me since I'd never heard of Vidocq before.

While the movie was certainly weird I remember that I was in a way pleasantly surprised. The main reason for that was certainly that I knew nothing about the story in general and also nothing about this movie in particular, so I had no expectations. Of course, I watched it because of Gérard Depardieu but as you probably know he's often going for quantity instead of quality so his movies are a bit hit and miss.
The "tricks" you mentioned notwithstanding I thought that the special effects were, relative to what the movie probably did cost, outstanding. And I don't know if you remember the director Pitof after this one made "Catwoman" and originally he was the main reason why I had hopes that that movie won't suck given what I've seen in "Vidocq". Well, we all know now how that turned out. :D