Fran suggested my blog entries are too long and that she often found herself dropping off half way through reading them, so I’ll try and keep this one short and sweet. Also, I was advised to include more pictures - behold below!

Saw A Prophet last week with my good bud Mark. It was the first decent film I’d seen in a while as I’ve been rather busy though, weirdly, I managed to fit the first half of St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold in last week (don’t ask). Mark also hadn’t been to the cinema for a good couple of months so anticipation was high. Fortunately, we weren’t disappointed.

Gangster flicks (and books and TV shows and video games etc) are never going to go away but for me there has been so many good examples that I have a well worn cynicism for the genre. After Gomorrah I felt there wasn’t much more ground to tread but I was happy to be proven wrong in this case. Jacques Audiard, who directs, has done a few other very classy thrillers, the one that springs to mind is Read My Lips about a deaf secretary who gets involved in the seedy underworld of Paris tutored by everyone’s favourite dodgy yet dashing French – you guessed it – Vincent Cassel and was by all measures pretty damn good. This film – A Prophet - is similarly so. It’s an exciting moral tale set in a hard-knock prison which no-one in their right mind would ever want to spend more than 15 minutes visiting that hooks you right in from the start. The lead whose name I forget is bang on and it’s a tale of humble begininnings and the climb to success. More importantly, I feel it makes a convincing statement againts the polluting effects of racism but maybe that’s just me. Best of all, one of the main supporting actors (Niels Arestrup) is the spit of Anthony Worral Thompson:

Niels Arestrup:

Despite, or maybe because of this, this is a powerful, engaging movie with just the tiniest hint of the supernatural. Make no mistake, it’s a disturbing ride and easily earns it’s 18 certificate, yet, there’s a warm seam running through the tale. Most importantly though it’s a cracking story and that’s really what matters most not boring at any point. I loved it and I’m pretty sure you would as well.

Yes, even more than St Trinians II.

PS

I’m still off the tabs.

Bling drips from the diamante door handles of some Soho hotel room. A chipper young Frenchman waltzes in, unrecognisable as the nutter I’d witnessed slice the throat of his fellow inmate. “You seem a lot jollier than in the film,” I say, hoping my comment isn’t skewed in translation. “I’m going to smoke,” he replies. “Can you smoke in here?” “I don’t give a fuck! I stayed here last night and I froze. So if I want to smoke, I’ll smoke.” Ah, there he is.

Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup

Was it as intense to film as it was to watch?

Yeah it was intense it was hard everyday, but it was so nice, and I was so happy to do this, I enjoy doing this.

Did you go into a prison to get an idea of prison life?

It’s so weird, because here you can go into prison but in France you can’t. Just for this movie they tried to visit a prison and they answer came eight months later, and they’re making a movie with proper authorisation, so for me it’s impossible.

Where was it filmed?

It was all filmed on a set. Michel Barthélémy, the set director did a really amazing job; it looks real. When we get into the prison there were people living in the set before us.

Did you sleep there to try to get into character?

I tried a night in the set after the first week I slept there, but I realised that it didn’t help me, it meant nothing. I realised that I wasn’t in jail so I stopped. The set was realistic, but I couldn’t forget where I was. In the middle of the night I opened my eyes and thought “shit, where am I?” Just “where am I? Oh yeah, I’m on the set, not prison.” So it was better to focus on other things.

Did you do any other kind of research for the role?

I saw a lot of documentaries, and I saw movies and photos and I talked with ex-prisoners. But this only helped me for the second part of the movie. For the first part I had to forget all this to find another way of working with Jacques and talking and trying to think about the situation, the character and the way he acts at this moment. Malik was a virgin to the prison, so I am too. That’s why I discovered the set the first day of shooting. I knew that this could help me.

Which films inspired you most?

Mailnly foreign jail movies. One I remember in particular was a film by Brazilian director Hector Babenco called Pixote. I watched those movies because I thought it could help me, but it wasn’t exactly like that.

Is the film a statement of a story?

It’s fiction, totally fiction. But there is something real that there are groups in jail. There are Muslim groups in jail, but it’s more protection than spirituality.

How did your charter develop as an actor, then, during filming?

The character is getting more confident at each step and it was the same for me as an actor. And thanks to the direction and the script and everything and the situation. You know there is a moment when he is very confident so you have to play this, it’s not that hard to understand.

It that why he chose you, a relatively unknown actor?

Yes, it’s inherent to the project.

Do you see a mirroring between yourself and the Malik then?

It’s an idea, because there is one similarity between Malik and me: that he’s learning in prison and I’m learning during the shooting. And I grew up with the shooting and he grew up during his sentence.

Do you think there is a particular reason why Mailk is introduced as homeless?

I think you can’t identify with the homeless in the same way. When you see a homeless person you don’t care whether they are Arabic, Chinese or English, you just see a homeless person. When you first see Malik you don’t see an Arab, you see a homeless person. And with the question of the Arabic condition in France, it’s very clever to do that.

Was it tough doing the murder scene? It looked like quite a struggle.

Yes it was very hard to play because the first part just before I slices him, you can’t imagine what’s going on in his head. Everything goes wrong. He rehearses how to kill the guy, he doesn’t want to do it, but he has to do it. Nothing happens as they rehearse. So he has to improvise. It was difficult to play because you virtually kill someone, you see blood and for a moment you believe.

Was the set light hearted or quite dark?

No it was light, it was funny. The day of the murder scene I wasn’t laughing though. It wasn’t funny this day because we were all expectant on this scene. This was one of the most important shots of the film, and we shot it at the end of the shooting so we were all afraid this day.

What were you involved in before you shot A Prophet?

I was in a TV series called La Commune which was written by Abdel Raouf Dafri, who wrote Mesrine and the original script for A Prophet. Then after shooting one day I got the same car as Jacques Audiard and just said “hello.” And after this he saw the series and then he called me for auditions. I had eight auditions during three months; it was very, very difficult.

Did you feel confident during the auditions?

It’s crazy, I felt unconfident between all the auditions, but during the audition it was like no pressure; I was calm. But then when he says, “OK, lets see another time,” my heart starts beating fast again.

What are you involved with next?

I have projects. I have just finished a film with Kevin McDonald called The Eagle Of The Ninth, I’m playing a baddy.

Are you a baddy now?

Oh no! I hope I can do more.

First published in Film4.com

‘A Prophet’ (Un prophète) is the latest film from French director Jacques Audiard. It is a prison drama that carries us on the journey of Malik El Djebena from his arrival in prison up the ranks of both the Corsican and Arabic gang hierarchies.

While the national and ethnic divides are clearly delineated in the prison, Malik doesn’t understand these boundaries or he chooses not to understand them. To the Corsicans and French in the jail, he is Arabic but Malik simply belongs to himself, he speaks Arabic and French interchangeably without consideration.

He is roped into murdering an informant on behalf of the Corsicans who run the prison, a squalid and brutal murder that shocks the viewer. After this he is accepted reluctantly as a helper but never completely accepted.

His assimilation with some of the other Arabic prisoners coincides with the repatriation of Corsican prisoners ordered by Sarkozy which leaves their boss César (Niels Arestrup) almost alone in the jail. Malik begins to use both sides to his advantage and sets up criminal activities outside the prison.

The film is exciting, brutal and very reflective of the modern underbelly of urban France with its mix of French, Corsican and Arabic language. The performance of the newcomer Tahar Rahim as Malik is brilliant with his every emotion never spoken but evoked in a glance or a scowl.

However the film was not really at all how I expected, in the same way that Audiard’s previous feature ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’ (De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté) was not your typical gangster film either. ‘A Prophet is a prison drama but it is also much more.

There are scenes where Malik is visited by the ghost of his first victim which, although surreal, do not really break the realism of the film. Also the title alludes to religion and there are certain scattered references to aspects of both Christianity and Islam about which I am uncertain still if there is an important meaning attached.

I think this film is a masterpiece, but one that while visceral and instant in some ways, would also reward repeat viewings.

When I was a film critic in Belgium in the 1970s, I used to see five films a week in the various distributors’ screening rooms, whereas these days I am lucky if I get to five films a year. Journalism and politics combined leave little time for ‘normal’ activities. But I was lucky in my first 2010 cinematic outing, as I was taken this evening to see Jacques Audiard’s ‘Le Prophete’, a complex and compelling portrayal of a young Arab Frenchman’s graduation as hardman (yet still with a heart) in the violent world of a prison largely controlled by members of a Corsican mafia. Though gory in parts, the violence is never gratuitous and fascinatingly the story and acting are handled in such a way that the viewer remains concerned for and attached to the central character, Malik (Tahar Rahim), even after he starts commiting terrible murders as part of his survival strategy in the jungle into which he has been thrust. Niels Arestrup is brilliant in the supporting role of the Corsican Big Cheese. The film has already deservedly picked up a number of awards at Cannes and elsewhere and is being predicted for several Oscars. A marvellous testament to the ongoing vigour and artistic creativity of French cinema.

With the dregs of January swirling down the drain, audiences can prep themselves for classier fare. This month marks the return of two cinematic masters in the form of Scorsese and Polanski. Their works might look a little loosey-goosey, but there’s little doubt about the razor-sharp talents behind a pair of crime dramas from Israel and France. Finally, get some uplift as Shah Rukh Khan battles Homeland Security for his dignity.

Ajami
Release date: Feb. 3
The pitch: Israel’s problems—and lord knows there’s a lot of them—are filtered through several interlocking stories set in a tough neighborhood of Jaffa. It’s an Arab-Israeli Wire!
Fun fact: Jaffa gets a nod in the Bible as the port where Jonah boarded a ship on his ill-fated escape to Tarshish.
Why it could be great: After earning acclaim on the festival circuit, this tough drama won Best Picture and Director at the Israeli Oscars last year.
Why it could suck: There are very few happy endings in Israel.

My Name is Khan
Release date: Feb. 12
The pitch: An autistic Muslim (Shah Rukh Khan) finds happiness with a single mom (Kajol) in San Francisco. Then 9/11 turns his world upside down.
Fun fact: Last August, Khan was detained by Newark Airport security for questioning while promoting the film.
Why it could be great: SRK stars in a story that’s sure to tug the heartstrings of discriminated-against immigrants and angry liberals alike. There’ll be a few musical numbers, too.
Why it could suck: The emotional maelstrom reaches fever pitch when Khan embarks on an odyssey to meet Barack Obama himself.

Shutter Island
Release date: Feb. 19
The pitch: A tortured cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) is trapped on an island insane asylum when a hurricane hits. Can he hold onto all his marbles? From the novel by Dennis Lehane.
Fun fact: Robbie Robertson’s soundtrack features modern classical pieces from the likes of John Adams, Max Richter and experimental filmmaker Nam June Paik.
Why it could be great: Director Martin Scorsese seems to have thrown caution to the winds for a delirious tribute to his favorite horror movies.
Why it could suck: The trailer makes My Name is Khan look like a model of restraint.

The Ghost Writer
Release date: Feb. 12
The pitch: A ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) works on the memoirs of an ex-PM (Pierce Brosnan) with secrets to hide. Soon the poor scribe is up to his neck in conspiracy. From the novel by Robert Harris.
Fun fact: Beleaguered filmmaker Roman Polanski finished the film while under house arrest in Switzerland.
Why it could be great: Polanski has been on a hot streak since his Oscar-winning The Pianist.
Why it could suck: For every Pianist, there’s a Ninth Gate.

Un prophète (A Prophet)
Release date: Feb. 26
The pitch: An Arab (Tahar Rahim) discovers that there’s more Shawshank than redemption amongst the competing tribes of a French prison.
Fun fact: The Beat My Heart Skipped director Jacques Audiard first met his star when they shared a taxicab. Rahim went on to win European Film and Lumiere awards for his performance.
Why it could be great: Audiard’s thriller has been acclaimed as one of the best films of the year—even by critics who haven’t seen it yet!
Why it could suck: It’s only a little shorter than The Green Mile.

A young French man of North African descent (Malik el Djebena) is sentenced to 6 years in prison and goes inside naive, illiterate and vulnerable. Faced almost immediately with a gut-wrenching choice to kill or be killed, the film focuses on the hard realities and choices inside. It’s a character study in the same vein as ‘There Will Be Blood’ with the central performance by Tahar Rahim one that is tense, captivating and utterly believable. The character has to show guts and make tough choices often and the film is also a coming-of-age story, a mafia/gang drama, power struggle and an original take on the prison drama.

Shot with a very gritty realism and at times claustrophobic quality, there is still space for some great techniques and visual touches and the occasional freeze-frame character introductions help you to keep a check on the main players.

Captivating without glamourising, long at 2hr30mins, although it feels a little shorter. Sits comfortably between “There Will Be Blood’ and “Gomorrah’.

4 on 5

Info:

Director – Jacques Audiard
Starring – Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif
UK Release – 22 January 2010

A Prophet arrived in UK cinemas last week buoyed by the kind of critical and commercial success for which most film-makers would give their eye teeth. Jacques Audiard’s stark prison drama not only picked up awards at the Cannes and London Film Festivals, but has also been a surprise hit in France, with more than a million tickets sold to date.

The film tells the story of Malik (Tahar Rahim), a small-time criminal sentenced to a term of six years inside a tough French prison. Within days of starting his sentence, the young, vulnerable prisoner has been recruited by ageing Corsican mobster César (Niels Arestrup) to kill a fellow prisoner who has been lined up as a prosecution witness in an organised crime case. Whatever doubts Malik has about taking on this task are soon beaten out of him by the Corsican inmates and the prison warders who they control. He has a simple choice to make: kill or be killed. 

The murder, which happens early and brutally in the film, sets Malik on the path to becoming a full-time career crook. In prison he learns how to read and write, but also how to run a series of successful criminal enterprises both within and outside the walls of the jail. Rejected by his fellow Arabs, for whom he has already become too close to the Corsicans, Malik increasingly finds himself under the wing of César and his gang, who treat him with a mixture of affection and contempt. As their ‘little Arab’ he makes coffee and runs errands for them, all the while watching and learning the ropes like a dutiful protégé.

When Malik gets the chance to go outside the prison on day-leave he becomes truly useful to César, who himself has little prospect of release.  As the ‘errands’ he runs become more dangerous, the rewards become greater, and Malik insists to anyone who will listen that, like a budding entrepreneur, he’s ‘working for himself’. All the while though, his progress is being watched by the gradually-weakening mobster, for whom the young man is both a surrogate son and a threat. Also watching over him is the surprisingly benevolent ghost of the man he killed, who visits him for almost fraternal night-time chats in his cell.

A Prophet captures well the frustrations and harsh realities of life in prison today. Malik’s journey from small-time hoodlum to medium-level criminal is shown as not only an inevitable move but also as an intelligent one; as the best choice available to a resourceful young man under such circumstances. Even as he mires himself deeper in smuggling and violence, our sympathies seldom waver. What is he doing after all but learning a trade, and trying to better himself?

Niels Arestrup and Tahar Rahim in 'A Prophet'

As Malik rises, César falls, and the young man’s relationship with the increasingly isolated and miscalculating Corsican becomes the real subject matter of the film. We’ve been here before of course, with Audiard’s 2005 film The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which told a similar story of a strained ‘father-son’ relationship, from which escape for one meant disaster for the other.

There are moments of real, palpitating tension too: the various slicings and koshings and beatings that we see all seem horribly real. And is it during these, at some undetermined point, that we realise, and Malik himself realises, that moment-by-moment he is becoming a new César.

The possibility of redemption, when it arrives (and without giving too much away) is in the rather conventional form of a pretty young woman with a baby. And this is where, I think, for all of its carefully-observed realism and its white-knuckle suspense, A Prophet hits a bit of a brick wall.

Above all, you see, Audiard’s film is a genre movie. It may be a very good genre movie, but it’s one that seems content to stay comfortably within the confines that it has set for itself. However well-crafted its scenes then, it is always reminiscent of other films, of characters and situations that we already know well. The prison whack-job for example, reminded me of nothing more than the 1989 Tom Selleck film An Innocent Man. The corrupt guards, the politics of the prison yard, ‘the hole’: these are all, to a greater or lesser extent, clichés well-worn in dozens of prison movies, from Escape From Alcatraz to The Shawshank Redemption.

A great film would transcend these clichés, or avoid them altogether; A Prophet merely updates them and gives them a new, gritty setting. That’s not to say that it isn’t a good film, or an effective recreation of prison life, just that, in the grand scheme of things, it limits itself somewhat.

Condemned to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena cannot read not write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the other convicts. He is 19 years old. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang who rules the prison, he is given a number of “missions” to carry out, toughening him up and gaining the gang leader’s confidence in the process. But Malik is brave and a fast learner, daring to secretly develop his own plans. The version available for download of this 1080p movie trailer has been auto converted from 2D to Stereoscopic 3D in a side-by-side format!!!

Genre: Drama
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup
In theaters: February 26, 2010

- Download A Prophet Stereoscopic 3D Full HD Trailer
- A Prophet Stereoscopic 3D Full HD Trailer (mirror 1)
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- A Prophet Stereoscopic 3D Full HD Trailer (mirror 3)

Written by: Thomas Bidegain, Jacques Audiard, Abdel Raouf Dafri, Nicolas Peufaillit

Produced by: Lauranne Bourrachot, Martine Cassinelli, Marco Cherqui, Antonin Dedet

Directed by: Jacques Audiard

Rated R (for strong violence, sexual content, nudity, language and drug material)

155 min.

U.S. Release Date: February 12, 2010

After winning audience and jury awards in festivals all over the world since May of 2009 and grabbing a spot on The Academy’s short list for Best Foreign Film, Jacques Audiard’s Un prophète made its way to Park City, Utah for a screening at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival over the weekend.  Last summer, after the Cannes Film Festival, the London Times was quick to hail the film as “in the same league as The Godfather series.”  That’s right, not just the first or second (I’m not touching the third) The Godfather, but the series.  When I first saw the U.S. trailer back in November of 2009, I thought the film looked compelling, but when the quote from London Times flashed on the screen I thought, “no way.”  After seeing this film, I can see how Wendy Ide (columnist for London Times) could make this claim.

Un prophète follows the story of Malik el Djebena (played by Tahar Rahim), a 19-year old loner from North Africa.  Malik is sentenced to a 6-year prison sentence for violence against a police officer, an allegation that is adamantly denies.  The prison system that he is now apart of is separated into several cellblocks that are mostly divided up by religion or nationality.  Malik has no loyalty to any background, though he speaks French, Arabic, and Corsican, so he is placed in the cellblock that is shared by the reigning gang in the prison, the Corsicans, run by Cesar Luciani (played by Niels Arestrup).  Early on in Malik’s extended stay, he is approached by Cesar and his gang to execute a hit for them.  He is to kill an Arabic man named Reyeb who stays in the prison in exchange for “protection” by Cesar.  After many attempts to back out of having to kill another man, Cesar and the Corsicans leave Malik with no choice.

In one of the most intense scenes I have seen captured on film in at least the last year, Malik makes an attempt on Reyeb’s life and plunges himself deep into a criminal lifestyle.  Similar to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Jacques Audiard brings a character that is reluctantly pulled into a world of international crime.  Malik is caught in between the Corsicans and the Arabs inside the prison, while the Italians lurk on the outside and cause just as much trouble.  All the while, Malik and his friends want to get their own business started, and may be in a little over their heads.

It is amazing to me that Audiard can create such a vast world around the prison, while showing the audience almost nothing outside of it.  The cinematography inside the prison, with tight claustrophobic shots and using mostly natural light, puts the viewer in the shoes of the inmates as if we stayed there with Malik.  In scenes reminiscent of Scorsese’s Goodfellas, I love the use of the American rock and roll music to lay over some of the montages throughout the film.

I truly look forward to seeing more work by Audiard in the future, as well as Rahim.  Both give amazing performances in their own right, and I fully expect to see these guys standing on the stage come Oscar time.

So, today I saw a film that completely through my recent “top ten of the decade” list into disarray. This would/is my new number 2.

For years I wondered what else Niels Arestrup – the young and handsome and romantic character I once watched in a French television series – had done. I’ve finally come across him again, in a French jail, as the not terribly nice Luciani. I forget what his Danish-ness consists of, other than his name, but he seems to have been busy acting, albeit not in the English-speaking world.

There’s something to be said for going to see films you know nothing about, and French films fall largely in this category. I didn’t even realise that A Prophet was a French film until I looked it up on IMDb. That made the prospect of two and a half hours of watching prisoners in jail more appealing, somehow.

It’s all about a young Arab, Malik, who is sentenced to six years in prison, and who early on is forced by one of the powerful prisoners, Luciani, to kill someone else in order to gain Luciani’s protection. He really has no choice, so kills his fellow inmate in the most bloody manner.

At least, I think it was bloody. I stopped watching for a while there, and only fixed my eyes on the screen once the razor blade seemed to have gone, along with its effects. It’s not often in films that you get to see characters trying to wash their bloody clothes quite so desperately.

The deed secures Malik’s status within Luciani’s group, where he is ’safe’ but only ever considered a lowly Arab among the Corsicans. Malik decides to improve himself, so goes to school, but later on gets himself involved in more crime ranging from a bit of drug pushing to more violence and lots of blood. But there is method behind what he does, and Malik matures, even if he is anything but innocent.

All the actors do a great job, and the film provides fascinating insight into both French prisons and French society of a kind we rarely see. The sticks of bread they are fed in prison, and the single cells, and the polite form of address towards staff is refreshingly different.

Did I mention that Niels Arestrup has grown old since our last ‘encounter’? And now that I think of it, he was a bit of a crook then, too. Only handsomer.

With this film, Jacques Audiard returns once more to what are proving for him to be the bounteous hunting grounds of France’s criminal fraternity. Sentenced to a six-year stint inside a tough French prison for violent assault, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), a skinny, naïve, and illiterate teenager, soon finds himself caught rather precariously between two hostile factions. On the one side, there is the Corsican Mafia who effectively control the prison and who are led by César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), a squat, haggard, and vicious individual. On the other side, there is the immigrant-Muslim population, with whom Malik is only able to form a friendship with a prisoner called Riad (Adel Bencherif).

However, in crisis lies opportunity and Malik soon figures out how to adapt and thus use the situation in occasionally preternatural fashion to his own advantage. What follows then is a leisurely-told, but increasingly knotty and tension-racked tale of the six years that Malik spends behind bars. Indeed, the power of this film lies is in its ability to propel the various characters on a headlong collision course towards an inevitable conclusion and yet do so in such a meticulously layered way that there frequently seems to be nothing predestined at all about the film’s direction. In other words, the plot is akin to chess – the ultimate objective is clear, the action takes place within a confined space, but the manner in which the result is to be achieved can be nuanced to the point of obscurity.

In parallel to this, Mr. Audiard provides the audience with an “access all-areas” view of life on the inside of his custom-built prison set – be it the humiliation of strip searches, the law of the jungle amongst inmates, the perennially simmering racial tensions, the violent beatings, the corruption, the rampant drug use, the open channels of communication with the outside world, and, above all, the absence of any meaningful sense of prisoner rehabilitation within the system. Malik goes into the place as a bug-eyed and impressionable kid and ends up committing worse atrocities once imprisoned than he would ever have contemplated on the outside. In fact, everything that he sees and learns there makes him a better criminal, not a better human being.

Admittedly, it is not a flawless movie, with the (fortunately) infrequent attempts at humour particularly proving to be out-of-step with the gritty hyperrealism and generally unsympathetic tone of the film. Moreover, the central conceit that lies behind Malik’s ability to survive in prison is never adequately explained. Arguably, the film might not work as well if Mr. Audiard did make his thinking here more explicit. However, it still leaves something of a hole in what is otherwise an exceptionally well directed work.

Despite weighing in at a monstrous one hundred and fifty minutes, A Prophet makes for an intense and epic watch. In the lead role, Mr. Rahim commands the screen throughout, whilst Mr. Arestrup makes for a frightening brute of a man in the supporting role of Luciani. Indeed, it is arguable that not since La Haine has the rough end of French immigrant society been so provocatively portrayed in cinema. Equally, when combined with the two parts of the Jacques Mesrine biopic, it makes for a particularly strong triumvirate of contemporary films looking at the country’s criminal underworld.

NOTA : 9 RECOMANDAT

Download subtitrare Un prophète

Trailer Un prophète :

Un Profeta (francese: Un prophète) è un film del 2009 crimine francese regia di Jacques Audiard

Leggi altre notizie su: | Drammatico | Jacques Audiard | Tahar Rahim | Niels Arestrup

Un film del 2009, regia di Jacques Audiard, con Tahar Rahim / Niels Arestrup / Adel Bencherif / Gilles Cohen. Prodotto da Bim Distribuzione ()

Drammatico

Condannato a sei anni di prigione, Malik El Djebena non sa né leggere né scrivere. Solo al mondo, appare più giovane e fragile degli altri detenuti. A prenderlo sotto la sua ala protettrice sono un gruppo di prigionieri corsi che gli insegnano tutti i trucchi per sopravvivere. Malik sfrutta, però, tutto che ha appreso a suo vantaggio facendosi amici i Mussulmani, l’altro clan del carcere. Quando esplode una guerra tra i due gruppi Malik dovrà decidere da che parte stare.

Fiziski un garīgi nīkulīgais beznacionalitātes likumpārkāpējs Maliks El Džebena nokļūst cietuma dzirnavās, kurā zobus viens uz otru trin divi ultragrupējumi – arābi un sicīlieši. Nepiederība nevienai no konfesijām nozīmē samērā ātru pirmstermiņa atbrīvošanu no ieslodzījuma kā arī pusdienas pie viena galda ar erceņģeli Gabriēlu, tāpēc nākas zem mēles pabāzt žileti un novākt sicīliešiem nevēlamu ieslodzīto. Notikumu tālākajā gaitā pār viņu personisku šefību uzņemas itāļu šefs Cēzars Lučiāni, mūsu galvenais varonis iemācas slēgtā tipa iestādē lasīt, rakstīt un apgūst ekonomikas pamatus, lai celtos rangā un tālāk jau šefotu pats.

Šāgada Kannu festa galvenā laureāte, kas mēģina no sevis tēlot Folknera “Gaismas augustā” pārjēdzienošanu (jauktās asinis, reliģiskais aspekts), divarpus stundu laikā tā arī nespēj nākt pie kāda puslīdz konkrēta secinājuma. Odijārs par laimi iztiek bez visa tā stulbā mafijas romantizācijas breda, par kuru es tā nemīlu Kopolas “Krusttēvu” – tur goda kodekss, cēlsirdība un pārējā figņa; režisoram divas galvenās lietas ir izdzīvošana un babloss. Tajā pašā laikā ar piespiedu pasūtījuma slepkavību visa šī cīņa par minētajām divām vērtībām kļūst nevis vēl rupjāka ar traumām un sarkanajām kartiņām, taču iegūst dīvaina patētisma piegaršu. Un lai cik arī es nespētu pārmest “Krusttēvam” to, ko jau pārmetu, taču tur kā reizi nekādas šādas kognitīvās disonanses nav. “Pravietis” līdz galam nepārliecina, un viss.

in 2009 martcore says
apm. ņurd.

Grand prix du jury au festival de Cannes cette année, Un prophète, le nouveau Jacques Audiard (De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté, Un héros très discret…), avait fait du bruit. Film “coup de poing”, il décrit le quotidien d’un jeune détenu de 19 ans, Malik El Djebena, condamné à 6 ans de prison. Plus jeune, plus fragile que les autres, il se rapproche des corses, qui lui offrent leur protection contre de “petits” services. Petits services qui se transforment vite en lourdes obligations, et emmènent Malik vers une violence qu’il n’avait pas connue à l’extérieur. Très vite, il décide de ne pas être juste au service des corses, et développe son propre réseau en parallèle.

Tahar Rahim (Malik dans le film), dont c’est le premier long métrage, est extrêmement juste : il donne vie à Malik par un savant dosage de culpabilité, rébellion, responsabilité et liberté. Il n’en fait jamais trop, ne brûle pas les étapes, et donc ne tombe jamais dans la caricature. Il joue parfaitement ce détenu qui ne sait ni lire ni écrire, mais doté d’un instinct et d’une intelligence supérieures à la plupart des gens qui l’entourent.
Face au géant Niels Arestrup, qui interprète le chef des corses, il a toute sa place. Ces deux acteurs physiques sont portés par une mise en scène magistrale. On reste scotchés à notre siège devant ce film onirique, qui nous plonge dans un univers carcéral délaissé par le cinéma français. Cinéma français qui, grâce à Jacques Audiard, retrouve un peu de ses lettres de noblesse. Non, le cinéma en France n’a pas à offrir qu’un remake de la bûche, joué par les mêmes acteurs, produit par les mêmes producteurs, et réalisé par les mêmes réalisateurs. Ca fait du bien.
Une claque, à voir absolument.

Petite anecdote :
Jacques Audiard voulait trouver pour son film un titre qui rappelle le fatalisme et la dimension morale de la chanson “You gotta serve somebody” de Bob Dylan. N’ayant pas trouvé d’équivalence acceptable en français, il a choisi “Un prophète”, se concentrant sur l’aspect onirique du film. Peut-être un peu réducteur.

Un Prophète
Jacques Audiard :: France :: 2008 : 2h35

A young man is being admitted into prison. The scars on his body and face betray a violent past. He can barely read and write. He has no friends. Malik (Tahar Rahim) is 19 years old. Out on the concrete courtyard, he is recruited by the ruthless Corsican mafioso César (Niels Arestrup) to kill a rival passing through their prison. Malik is beaten into submission. His life could have ended right there and then. But that is not how it was to be. Malif comes out the corner fighting.

Most of the film is concrete slabs and dirt. There is the constant murmur of the rumours passed around in Arabic and Corsican if it is not in banlieue slang French. And then there is the violence. Nobody gets punished because nobody interferes. Even when inmates get killed there is no indication that they are being investigated. The detainees are all on their own. We do see the state’s legal machinery operating in the background with lawyers and judges shifting paper. We see the inmates work in the prison factory sowing clothes. We see the willing bullies being schooled. But the penitentiary staff shine mostly in their absence. Malik knows it is going to be a long 6 years.

He takes what he can get, and tries to make the best of himself. He could have made an excellent career for himself in the army, if life had been different. He has the adaptability, the patience, the dedication, the intelligence and the lack of moral restraint to make it far, in the right framework. If only he had been in an organisation which could contain and direct him, rather than unleash him, as prison did. We see him slowly becoming a man to be reckoned with, creating his own new order. Make no mistake, this young man is taking you along to the bitter end.

Un Prophète is a tough film to watch, but immaculately constructed. I can not claim to have captured the full finesse of the all the criminal dealings, but it does not matter. The audience is thrown into the story as the young Malik is. Thrown in, to live it with him. And live it, you will. It is a masterfully made film with a clever script, an excellent cast and a surprising attention to detail. A rare pearl in the genre, bound to be as rewarded as director Audiard’s previous De Battre mon coeur s’est arrêté, which won no less than 8 Césars!

www.un-prophete-lefilm.com

Kino par to, vai ir iespējams ar vienām un tām pašām rokām dauzīt ar beisbola nūju citus cilvēkus un pēc pāris stundām spēlēt klavieres – drīzāk nevis Džeimsa Tobaka 1978.gada filmas “Fingers” rimeiks, bet tāds brīvs pārstāsts, lai cik arī tas dīvaini nebūtu, vismaz Tobaka gadījumā. Centrā Francijas jaunās superzvaigznes režisors Odijārs (kas šogad Kannās paņēma galveno zaru) un aktieris Romēns Durī (kas iet Kasela, V. pēdās, taču netracina tik ļoti). Pārfrāzēt “Pirkstus” vispār ir ļoti nepateicīgs darbs – Tobaka filma ir kosmiska mēroga šedevrs, lieta lietā un vakuuma zirgs, taču tieši uz Francijas reāliju fona (kur multikulturālisma momentu var vienmēr iepīt, utt) izskatās pat pārsteidzoši labi, būtu jānodzer jau pēdējās sirdsapziņas paliekas, lai pateiktu, ka nebija kļova un interesanti. Jā, Odijārs ir patiešām ļoti labs režisors, gaidām , kad mums beidzot rādīs “Pravieti”.

in 2009 martcore says
apm. ņurd

“Un Prophète” est le nom du nouveau chef d’œuvre de Jacques Audiard, sorti dans les salles le mercredi 28 Août et qui nous démontre une fois de plus que le talent peut être un héritage, mais que surtout il se démontre par le travail.
Jacques Audiard a choisi de suivre les pas de son père; Michel Audiard, mais c’est une tache au combien difficile de succéder à un père dont les répliques planent encore dans l’inconscient collectif, rappelant ainsi à sa descendance qu’il pourrait un jour finir en orbite façon puzzle, si il ne continue pas à travailler dur.

Mais ne confondons pas les deux approches du cinéma du père et du fils. Le père, avant tout dialoguiste, étant dans le cinéma qui divertit et amuse tandis que le fils se consacre au cinéma qui souvent dénonce et conscientise le spectateur.

En pleine promotion de son précédent film “De battre, mon cœur s’est arrêté” Jacques Audiard le présente dans une prison, après cette projection pour lui le thème de son prochain film est une évidence, il traitera de l’univers carcéral. Pourquoi ? Car la prison s’est notre société en miniature, transformée par le prisme de l’échec, de la violence et de l’oubli. Cette société qui pour continuer à exister et à se préserver ferme les yeux sur la banqueroute de ses prisons, qui se réduisent à être uniquement des machines à punir, sans possibilités de réelle réinsertion.

Nous ne serons jamais ce qui amène le héros, incarné par un formidable Tahar Rahim, en prison mais nous suivrons pas à pas ce qu’elle fera de lui, toujours plus loin dans l’horreur pour la survie à tout prix.
Le héros n’aura de cesse de toujours dire: ” Je travaille pour moi, pas pour les autres” et se moquera des préjugés établis qui cantonnent par défaut chaque détenu dans sa communauté d’origine. Malik, le héros, donnera tout pour pouvoir faire son trou et trouver sa place au soleil à travers les méandres d’une administration corrompue et les turpitudes carcérales.
Les acteurs sont justes, Niels Arestrup est comme habité par son rôle de mafiosi corse et le film transpire la vérité, en n’abusant jamais de l’action pour l’action. Par ce procédé, Jacques Audiard nous permet de mieux comprendre l’ennui quotidien que ressent le taulard et nous plonge ainsi encore plus profondément dans la détresse des hallucinations éveillées de Malik, à la fois accusatrices et prophétiques.

Avec son film, Jacques Audiard autopsie notre société et prophétise une fin inéluctable de notre système carcéral.
Ce film doit être vu et apprécié comme une ultime mise en garde d’un saltimbanque militant face à notre aveugle lâcheté.

En 2003, un rapport du Comité européen de prévention de la torture, un organe du Conseil de l’Europe, avait fait état de “traitements inhumains et dégradants” dans les prisons françaises, conséquences de leur surpopulation; 82 détenus se sont suicidés dans une prison française depuis le début de l’année.

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Ayant vu Un prophète au Festival de Cannes, en avant-première, je dois dire que j’ai trouvé ce film tout simplement superbe.

La performance des deux acteurs principaux, Tahar Rahim et Niels Arestrup, comme le traitement singulier de l’univers carcéral.

 Pour l’anecdote, je l’ai vu sous la recommandation du réalisateur marocain Mohamed Zineddine…étant pour ma part, corse et, cela va sans dire, fière de l’être.

Aussi, au-delà de certaines polémiques liées à des « on dit », je souhaite plutôt m’attacher aux interrogations réelles qui, de mon point de vue, sous-tendent le film.

Une vie est-elle possible après la peine carcérale ? La peine carcérale permet-elle une réinsertion et une « droite réinsertion » des anciens détenus dans le « corps social » comme cela devrait être son objectif républicain (Rousseau) ou perpétue-t-elle la propension aux actes délictueux par une scission entre le regard que renvoie la société sur le détenu et le vécu du prisonnier, esseulé (Foucault) ?

 Ce point là est présent tout au long du film. Malik, confronté à la violence de l’univers carcéral, finit par trouver sa liberté dans le développement de son propre réseau de délinquance. Ainsi, au-delà de toute appréciation morale, c’est bien la question de l’efficacité de la peine carcérale qui est, en filigrane, posée.

L’insularité et la perpétuation des valeurs d’un peuple peuvent-elles passer outre l’intégration d’autres cultures ? Telles semblent être les grandes interrogations de l’œuvre de Jacques Audiard. Si l’on peut bien sûr considérer qu’un amalgame entre « Mafia » et nationalisme corse est un raccourci pouvant induire une confusion du spectateur, il n’en est pas moins troublant que le film de Jacques Audiard pointe un fait incontestable : le dépeuplement d’une île, d’un peuple, et la crainte de la disparition de ses codes.

La scène qui évoque, en filigrane, cette disparition qui menace, est sans doute celle où l’on perçoit la solitude de César Luciani, l’ancien parrain respecté et craint de tous, rouler à terre un coup de pied au ventre. Aucune jeunesse pour le défendre. L’absence de descendance (filiale ou agrégée) est sa faiblesse.

Le film ne donne pas à voir une Corse raciste. Il donne à voir une Corse en manque de descendance. Il donne à penser sinon une transmission de valeurs, à tout le moins une substitution de mœurs. Et c’est là toute la force de son propos.