Prorok:Prophète, Un French Movie 2009
Release Date:10 January 2010
Genre:Drama | Thriller
Director:Jacques Audiard
Writer: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri, Nicolas Peufaillit
Language:French | Arabic | Corsican
Starring: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Hichem Yacoubi, Reda Kateb
Prorok:Prophète, Un Movie review
French filmmaker Jacques Audiard has followed 2005's ‘The Beat that My Heart Skipped’ with an engrossing, terrifying prison drama about Malik, a young French-Arab convict who enters a tough French jail and finds himself with even less freedom than he bargained for. In a performance from newcomer Tahar Rahim that recalls the brooding charisma of Romain Duris in Audiard’s last film, Malik finds himself on the verge of extinction but gradually wins himself the education he needs to survive – and maybe even triumph – in this most brutal of worlds. It’s a closed society which Audiard portrays in unflinching realist terms, indulging with impressive detail in the numbing rituals and rhythms of life in a high-security modern jail.
Malik enters prison a keep-your-head-down, solitary sort and leaves several years later an entirely changed character: it's the in-between that Audiard explores. An older lag, César Luciani (Niels Arastrup) – a porcine member of the Corsican mafia who is always surrounded by lackeys in the prison yard and who pays off prison guards left, right and centre - forcibly takes Malik under his wing and blackmails him into killing another prisoner. This act, which is presented with all the horror of the actual death without ignoring exactly what it means for Malik’s destiny, ensures that the young prisoner enters a criminal servitude from which he can’t escape. This prison is feudal and Malik is now César’s vassal. When Malik tries to appeal to the authorities, his ‘betrayal’ immediately comes to light and the vice is only tightened further on his existence.
Audiard sets most of the film within the claustrophobic walls of the jail, but as the story develops there are breakouts into the real world as Malik exploits a series of day-release grants to continue César's dealings outside. Initially, Malik is simply César’s puppet, whether running errands for him in prison or conducting nefarious dealings on his behalf in the outer world. But slowly Malik educates himself, both in the prison classroom, where he learns to read and write, and in the tough prison-yard arena of shifting criminal loyalties and fragile power structures which he knows he can exploit for his own gain and survival.
If some of the script verges on the generic as the plot becomes more and more wild, Audiard’s direction and unflagging concern for his central character ensure that ‘A Prophet’ is never less than believable, thoughtful and, although very uncomfortable at points, incredibly entertaining. Audiard handles a complex story with such confidence and precision that it doesn’t matter that the full ins and outs of the story are sometimes hard to follow. Much of the film runs on a sense of sheer dread as Malik, merely to keep on living, walks an ever-lengthening tightrope. The sense of location in the prison, which one assumes is a real jail, is very strong. The film’s greatest success, though, is that while many of its surface qualities – the mafia, the drug deals, the guns, the car crashes, the hitmen – are straight out of the movies, we never for a second feel that Audiard has taken his eye off the real world and the experience of his main character. If there's one scene that reflects that approach the most is when Malik takes a plane for the first time: not only does he open his mouth and stick out his tongue when going through security, as he does for his prison guards, but when the the food trolley comes round the plane, he grabs several croissants and struggles to release the meal tray. It's details like these keep the busy story of ‘A Prophet’ rooted in reality.
Focus Features announced today that French actor Tahar Rahim, the lead actor in my favorite foreign film of the year, Jacques Audiard's Un Prophete (read my review from Cannes), has been cast in The Eagle of the Ninth, his first big role since breaking out at Cannes earlier this year. The Eagle of the Ninth, being directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play), is a Roman epic adventure that's currently shooting in and around England. In addition to Rahim, the film stars Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, and Mark Strong. Definitely sounds like a project we should be keeping our eyes on!
The Eagle of the Ninth is set in the dangerous world of second-century Britain. In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia – to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth. Rahim has been cast to play the Gaelic-speaking Seal Prince, the fearsome leader of a band of warriors who pursue Marcus and Esca throughout the highlands.
The sounds a little bit like Neil Marshall's Centurion, but obviously with an entirely different story, but it's still intriguing to see two British productions set in ancient Roman. Either way, with the director and the cast involved in this, especially now with Rahim (who I think deserves an Oscar for his performance in Un Prophete), I'm looking forward to this much more than Centurion. We'll let you know when we hear more!
I had never seen a Jacques Audiard film before today, but now I want to go back watch all of his films. I was waiting to finally discover something exceptional here at Cannes, and this it. I caught Audiard's Un Prophete - which stands for just A Prophet in English - this morning and was mesmerized. Even though it has an immense 150 minute running time and it was very early in the morning, I was captivated from start to finish, never at all restless. From Tahar Rahim's stand out performance to Alexandre Desplat's amazing score to Stéphane Fontaine's wonderful cinematography, everything about Un Prophete is exceptional.
Un Prophete follows Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) from the moment he arrives in a French prison. In there, an inmate named César Luciani (Niels Arestrup) runs the joint - he has good relations with the guards, a group of 20 or so thug inmates under his control, and a grudge against the Arabs inside. As we soon find out, there is a mob-like society inside the prison, and right off the bat El Djebena is recruited to help carry out a mission. But this is only just the start. Not only does that first mission come to haunt him for the rest of his six year sentence, but he soon starts working his way up the ranks entirely on his own.
This might not be the best comparison, but I could call El Djebena a French Frank Lucas. Much like in American Gangster, Malik starts working with all the different "gangs" - the Arabs, Corsicans, French - not just one group, and he only works for himself (much like Lucas did). I make that comparison because as great as it was to watch American Gangster, it was even more thrilling watching Un Prophete unfold. Part of the way through his prison sentence, El Djebena gets the chance to take leave from prison for 12 hours at a time, and begins coordinating drug deals and hits on an even wider scope beyond the prison walls.
With each and every new scene, we're given something fresh, whether it be a new task from César or more information from the outside. Audiard is an incredible storyteller, that's obvious, but it really shows with the character of El Djebena and how he introduces us to more of the story as time goes on. It's not that there is any big reveal, but it's a coming-of-age like look at how one man goes from being a nobody to the most well-respect mobsters in the prison system. It's very well-paced, always moving swiftly, and never dull. And the performances from Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup are what made the film so riveting to watch.
What I love about the way Audiard approaches this is that there's no need to ever show how El Djebena ended up in jail. He's a new man from the moment he arrives in prison, and this is about that new life he's now living. César is also the driving force in the film, because there's so much mystery surrounding him, and at any moment we could discover that he has ties outside of prison that extend beyond drugs. While it's a great character study, Un Prophete is also a refined and exhilarating exploration of societies in prisons, feuds between different races in France, and just how far relentless determination can take someone.
Read more: http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/05/16/cannes-2009-review-jacques-audiards-un-prophete/#ixzz36nRt7yLU
Synopsis:
An impressionable and vulnerable Arabic man gets thrust into a hellish prison, and ironically discovers greater opportunities for success than he ever possessed outside of the bars, in this violent melodrama from French succès d’estime Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped). Tahar Rahim stars as Malik El Djebena, a petty criminal incarcerated for six years. Once inside and subjected to all of the standard brutalities that most prisoners endure (including a rough strip search), he is quickly educated in the "ways" of the prison, an institution torn violently between gangs of Corsicans and Arabs. The head Corsican thug, César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), offers Malik an ultimatum: either he rubs out an Arab inmate named Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), or he himself dies. Not only does Malik succeed with the hit, he earns the begrudging respect of the other prisoners, and -- after securing several days' release for good behavior -- uses off-time to forge a deeper and more multi-layered network of criminal ties than he ever dreamed possible. But as his own power and confidence grow, they threaten to outstrip César's own insistence on submission and obedience at all costs.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide .
Un prophète - Jacques Audiard,
Coupable d'avoir attaqué un policier à l'arme blanche, Malik El Djebena (le total inconnu Tahar Rahim, qui fait un boulot superbe de densité) atterrit dans une prison où règne le parrain Corse César Luciani (Niels Arestrup, qui s'est fait une tronche de Brando chicos-destroy, période Dernier tango à Paris). Immédiatement il est confronté à la puissance des réseaux de celui-ci et n'a d'autre choix, pour survivre, que de commettre un meurtre. Devenu un Corse (donc un traître) pour les Arabes de la prison, toujours vu comme un Arabe (donc un larbin un peu demeuré) par les Corses, il va louvoyer entre les "commissions" mortelles confiées par Luciani et les règlements de comptes pour sauver sa peau....
Je vais couper net aux polémiques débiles que je n'ai pu m'empêcher de voir fleurir un peu partout (j'ai beau tenter de ne rien lire ni entendre sur un film avant d'aller le voir de mes zyeux, parfois seule une retraite au monastère d'Amorgos serait susceptible de me préserver de tous spoilers).
Non, Madame Fadela Amara, ce film n'a rien à voir avec Scarface de De Palma. Le personnage principal n'est pas assoiffé de réussite matérielle, il est pris dans l'étau des luttes de clan et n'a d'autre choix que de composer avec son environnement pour tirer son épingle du jeu. L'argent facile n'est pas glorifié, la violence n'est pas esthétisée à mort, chaque "commission" le confronte à des dangers dont il ignore les contours et se solde non par une rétribution en tant que telle mais par la perspective de nouveaux crimes. En bref, ce n'est pas assez bling-bling pour donner des idées d'orientation à la caillera de banlieue.
Et puis non (là je m'adresse à d'autres), la fin n'est pas un happy end. Tout ce à quoi Malik a dû se plier n'est pas absous, ou alors il faut vraiment avoir envie d'interpréter de travers ce dernier plan où on le voit s'éloigner de la prison une fois sa peine purgée, accompagné de la veuve et du fils de son ami.... suivi de près d'un cortège de puissantes voitures noires (telles des nuages d'orage amassés à l'horizon), nouveau symbole de son pouvoir. Ce n'est pas là l'image d'un bonheur familial recomposé mais bien la continuité de la menace qui pèse sur sa vie et devant laquelle il ne semble y avoir d'autre solution que la fuite en avant vers toujours plus de crimes. Il n'y a là pas plus de parti-pris moralisateur que de point de vue réaliste (à mon sens en tout cas, mais je ne prétends pas être une experte de l'univers carcéral français.... pas davantage que Mme Dati en tout cas), juste une profonde cohérence de l'histoire et du traitement du personnage. Un peu comme à la fin de De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté, en somme, où Romain Duris était passé à un autre chapitre de sa vie sans pour autant avoir annihilé ses démons.
Sans vouloir faire de la psychanalyse pour magazines féminins il est clair que Malik, enfant des foyers, ne dispose d'aucun repère (aucun savoir, aucun appui) pour faire résistance au milieu dans lequel il est plongé, et qu'il est donc nécessairement condamné à l'adaptation, voire à la super-adaptation (puisqu'il parvient finalement à dépasser son protecteur, César). À ce propos je regrette que tant de temps ait été consacré, dans ce film déjà trop long (2h30) à dépeindre l'enchaînement des sorties de Malik (période décrite un peu facilement dans la presse comme son "ascension au pouvoir") au détriment de la destitution effective du vieux Corse, moment d'extrême ambivalence où l'on croit qu'un vague sentiment filial (ou tout au moins de la gratitude) pourrait intercéder en sa faveur et puis non, pas du tout, il ne s'agissait que de franchir un obstacle et le voilà franchi. Le moment est là, très fort, mais dure bien peu en regard du reste.
Dans l'ensemble la mise en scène d'Audiard se débrouille formidablement des contraintes du filmage dans une prison "en dur" (par opposition avec des décors mobiles) et joue de la claustrophobie de rigueur. Les, hum, plages musicales ne sont pas très heureuses à mon avis, elles "glamourisent" ce qui n'a aucun besoin de l'être et jurent terriblement avec l'esthétique générale du film (et m'agacent prodigieusement, voilà je l'ai dit).
Les instants oniriques (le fantôme de l'homme que Malik a assassiné, les daims fuyant dans la lumière des phares) sont davantage là pour nous dépeindre de manière impressionniste l'univers mental et émotionnel de Malik que pour apporter une touche de surnaturel (qui n'aurait pas grand rapport avec la manière dont l'histoire est racontée, de toute façon).
L'idée du fantôme de compagnie me plaît particulièrement en ce qu'elle montre que le meurtre n'a pas été "neutre" pour le jeune homme, ce n'était pas une corvée de plus, et qu'il s'est senti plus proche de cet homme, en cinq minutes, que de n'importe qui d'autre - au point de le réinventer en ami invisible. Ici aussi on voit le travail tout en cohérence sur le scénario: Malik a besoin de cet artifice d'imagination pour survivre.
Tags:
online Download, Download Free, free Prorok:Prophète watch movie, Prorok:Prophète online watch, Prorok:Prophète watch review story, movie Prorok:Prophète download,Prorok:Prophète watch, French Prorok:Prophète, French land Prorok:Prophète 2010 movie, watch Trailer, watch songs movie Prorok:Prophète, Cast and Crew Movie Prorok:Prophète
No comments:
Post a Comment