Dans la compagnie des hommes
France,
2003, 121 min
Shown in 2004
CREDITS
- dir
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Arnaud Desplechin
- prod
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Arnaud Desplechin
- scr
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Arnaud Desplechin, Nicolas Saada, Emmanuel Bourdieu
- cam
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Stéphane Fontaine
- editor
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Laurence Briaud
- mus
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Paul Weller
- cast
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Sami Bouajila, Anna Mouglasis, Jean-Paul Roussillon, László Szabó, Wladimir Yordanoff
- source
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WORLD SALES Wild Bunch, 99 rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris, France. FAX: 33-1-53-01-50-49. EMAIL: lkalmar@exception-wb.com.
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COMMENTS
Arnaud Desplechin in person.
OTHER
Power and corruption—and the men who rule with them—are ruthlessly scrutinized in this multilayered French work set in a shadow realm of arms dealers and blood ties. Part Shakespearean family tragedy, part political noir, it recalls such American paranoid thrillers of the 1970s as All the President’s Men and Marathon Man, revealing protagonists who work in the shadows, the unseen kings of the contemporary jungle. Kent Jones writes, “Arnaud Desplechin’s latest is based on a play by British writer Edward Bond about a family business dynasty coming undone. Bond writes on a vast, Shakespearean scale, putting racism, Oedipal and class conflicts into the mix. Rather than simplify this tough, thorny material, Desplechin dives in headfirst, working in quick, bold strokes: His handheld camera seems to be scuttling everywhere, picking up the smallest nuance of every violent exchange and every backroom power shift. Inspired by Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard, the director also takes us in and out of his own story, filming his actors in rehearsal and even throwing in a scene from Hamlet to broaden the women’s roles. This is one rough, tough movie, with moments you will never forget.”
FACTOID #200
Rockers, an entry at the 1978 SFIFF, was the first and only Jamaican feature film screened at the San Francisco International.
