I... For Icarus (1979) User Reviews

Top notch thriller

[chandler-47 · 9/10 · 14 January 2006]

I'm not tired to say this is one of the best political thrillers ever made. The story takes place in a fictional state, but obviously it deals with the murder of Kennedy. A truthful and honest district attorney (played by Yves Montand) does not believe that the murder was planned and executed by the single man Daslow (=Oswald) and though all other officials want to close the case he continuous to investigate with his team.

The screenplay is written tight and fast and holds the tension till the end. Just the part dealing with the Milgram experiment about authorities is (though not uninteresting) a bit out of place. The ending sequence - explaining who Icarus really is - partly shot in slow motion and intensified by a Morricone soundtrack is the most powerful sequence I have ever seen in a movie.

Political and conspiracy thriller with outstanding acting , excellent editing and competent filmmaking

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 21 June 2019]

Highly controversial examination of a magnicide from the viewpoint of an intelligent investigator . A recent and fictional re-elected President of a fictitious state has been assassinated, similar to death JFK's 1963 . As a magnicide takes place , then a determined , stubborn prosecutor investigates and while emerging a dark and twisted conspiracy behind it . In the course of his search he proves a different look at the strange deeds . In this especulation the investigator organizes an expert team and he finds evidence that casts serious doubt on the committee's "lone-gunman" theory. Things go wrong when happen deaths of many of those involved , including several witnesses , the supression or ignoring of evidence by others and as the event leading to unexpected consequences , adding a surprising finale .

Riveting , persuasive thriller , this is a fascinating account of an assassination , after that , one of the members , Ives Montand , of the investigation committee refuses to sign the final report and is given the task of investigating once more . The picture stills grips almost throughout because of the subject and Montand's exploration and examination of it . Political thriller inspired by the conspiracy theories surrounding the magnicide of JFK's 1963 . A very bold and clever yarn that basically told the "JFK" story thinly posing as having taken place not in North America . Considered to be by some to be a cinematic masterpiece , others see it as a revisionist and provoking story that should be taken with a grain of salt . However, the phsychological test sequence which is admittedly a bit boring and a little over long, being based on the Milgram experiments at the university of Yale. As the picture follows in the wake of ¨Executive action¨ 1973 by David Miller and the notorious JFK 1991 by Oliver Stoner starred by Kevin Costner as prosecutor Garrison , an alike-character Ives Montand . Ives Montand gives conviction to his role as Le procureur Henri Volney . Although plenty of unknown secondaries , being poorly support cast . No matter , the facts win out here . It is very well acted by Ives Montand who had a long and prolific career as Europe as Hollywood , he even played with Marilyn Monroe in Let's make love . He starred a great number of films , being his first great hit : Wagers of fear . Following Gates of the night , Grand Prix , Is Paris burning ? , Le sauvage , On a clear day you can see , Red Circle , Jean de Florette , Manon des Sources , among others . And he performed various controversial and political films as Stage of siege , Guerra est finie, Special section , The confession and Z .

The picture contains an attractive score by maestro Ennio Morricone and is splendidly directed by Henry Verneuil, a Turkish director working in France from the 40s. Although not a director of great reputation among the critics, his movies have almost all been aimed squarely at the commercial market. Verneuil is an expert on heist-genre such as he proved in ¨The Sicilians clan(68)¨ also with Gabin and Delon, ¨The burglars(1971)¨with Omar Shariff and Jean Paul Belmondo , furthermore on Warlike genre : ¨Weekend at Dunkirk¨and ¨The 25th hour¨and only one Western : Guns of San Sebastian(68)¨. He seemed to have dropped out of the film-making after 1976, but in 1981 unexpectedly reappeared with yet another of his caper film : ¨Thousand millions of dollars¨. Rating : Good movie and above average, a must see for Ives Montand fans .

Breathtaking

[Darbs · 8/10 · 14 April 2000]

The first time I saw this film, I was in shock for days afterwards. Its painstaking and absorbing treatment of the subject holds the attention, helped by good acting and some really intriguing music. The ending, quite simply, had me gasping. First rate!

A brilliant, unique thriller about assassination and manipulation

[hoschi2k · 10/10 · 1 November 2001]

First time I saw this movie was in the eighties, but reviewed now this thriller is still actual. Some newer movies focus on similar topics, but they do not match this french milestone.

A president - obviously JF Kennedy - gets shot in an open car during a public appearance. The resulting huge investigation finds the "Lee Harvey Oswald" figure of this movie guilty, but one member of the jury insists in further inquiry. He reveals some surprising evidence ...

Unlike Oliver Stone's JFK - a movie with the same plot - this one does not play with emotions, but concentrates in a exciting description of a conspiracy and how everything fits together, drawing a new picture of the assassination. Even a real psychological experiment is used for this explanation of the crime scene. Compared to JFK this movie is more reasonable, intelligent and thrilling. Parts of the plot can be found in a lot of newer movies, I had a kind of deja vu sometimes sitting in the cinema.

"I... comme Icare" is a "must see". Its unique and brilliant, and the music by Ennio Morricone is wonderful. This movie deserves a very good ranking, if it was a Hollywood production it would be famous for sure.

one of the greatest conspirological thrillers of all time

[rainfall · 10/10 · 24 April 2005]

Henri Verneuil's film may be not so famous as Parallax View, 3 Days of the Condor or JFK but it is certainly not worse and sometimes even better than these classic representatives of the genre. Action takes place in fictional western state where fictional president has been killed. After several years of investigation, special government commission decides that president was killed by a lone gunman. But one man - prosecutor Volney, played by Yves Montand - thinks there's something more to be investigated and so the film starts. This movie doesn't deal with some exact theories, but it embraces the whole structure of relationship between government and society in today's world. Such film could be made only in the 1970-ies but it will never lose it's actuality. Furthermore, it's even a bit frightful how precise are it's oracles. 10 out of 10.

This is absolutely great cinema

[Gensyn · 10/10 · 24 November 2005]

Highly memorable, intelligent and suspenseful movie from one of French movies' true geniuses, the formidably able Henri Verneuil. The plot is an exact parallel of the JFK assassination, and takes place in a non-descript, fictional country. The film, visually as well as plot-wise, is razor-sharp. Shot with meticulous precision, it follows Henry Volnay, the Procuror who takes on himself to unravel the coup. In many ways, it's a very disturbing movie, not the least for the cold and analytical precision of its comment on a so-called modern state's inner workings. The atmosphere and characters are all utterly believable, and Verneuil left nothing to chance in its tight plotting. On another level, this relatively little-known movie just had a 15 years head-start on Oliver Stone, who was acclaimed for the "JFK" movie, a inferior film in many areas, the least of which not being credibility...

It's a masterpiece, any cinema lover should see it, preferably in its original French version with subs.

Gripping

[nicholas.rhodes · 15 November 2001]

Henri Verneuil was one of France's top movie makers and this film is a prime example of that. It is based on the JFK assassination but takes place in a fictitious country ( not France or America ) and treats the whole affair in great detail. Although the language of the film is French, the décors are deliberately impersonal and not typical of any country or indeed typical of all countries (!! if you see what I mean ) Yves Montand is excellent as the investigator, I find this kind of role suits him well just as in Police Python 357 - a solitary man making tendious and throrough investigations The film is constructed in such a way that you never get bored even through the phsychological test sequence which is admittedly a little over long. The film has not been shown on French TV for some time and is not available on DVD here but I see Police Python 357 appears recently on DVD so I 'm sure that I comme Icare will surely follow suit.

One of the best thrillers I have ever seen!!

[edgar.tuerk · 10/10 · 18 January 2000]

Finally a thriller which omits the car chases, explosions and other eye catching effects. The movie combines a simple plot (assasination of a french president) with an excellent background. It takes a look behind mans behavior with authorities, and explains why we would obey almost every order (even murder) which would be given to us.

Furthermore it shows us how secret services can manipulate the run of history and how hardly they can be controlled. The best thing on this movie is, that there is no classic "Hollywood end" which can easily be predicted.

classic.

[dominik-dukat · 6/10 · 7 December 2005]

In every aspect a true classic. Brilliant script, good camera work plus the outraging performance of the french actors. I see no necessity whatsoever to draw a comparison to "JFK" as it was produced 22 years earlier and forms part of a completely different movie genre. Especially enjoyable is also the music in the picture which was surprisingly written by Ennio Morricone and is as usual a delightful experience.

Interesting: Watching the credits at the end, it can be observed that the final shot has the form of an I.

"I as In Icarus".

Better than J. F. K.

[filmfreund · 10/10 · 21 January 2002]

I saw this film for the very first time several years ago - and was hooked up in an instant. It is great and much better than J. F. K. cause you always have to think 'Can it happen to me? Can I become a murderer?' You cannot turn of the TV or your VCR without thinking about the plot and the end, which you should'nt miss under any circumstances.

Near Future Thriller

[andydavis-87880 · 6/10 · 5 May 2022]

Well acted by Montand but a rather dry procedural. The plot is basically a take on the JFK Assassination conspiracy material replacing Kennedy with the francophone Eurostate Jarry. The cityscapes are rather a character of the movie. Th Morricone soundtrack is excellent.

The quintessence of all conspiracy thrillers

[kluseba · 9/10 · 4 December 2016]

''I as in Icarus'' is a slow-paced yet very tense French conspiracy thriller that convinces with a realistic plot inspired by true events, an intense series of investigations and a strong acting carried by Yves Montand as incorruptible prosecutor.

The movie is obviously inspired by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Just as in the true case, the president of an anonymous, globalized and modern country gets assassinated in his car by a sniper. Just as in the original case, the main suspect dies under mysterious circumstances and is declared the sole executor of the crime. Just as in the historical events, a prosecutor refuses to accept this thesis and investigates further, unveiling step by step an unspeakable conspiracy that might shake up the world as one knows it.

Another inspiration for the movie comes from the fall of Chilean president Salvador Allende and the rise of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. It's important to know that lead actor Yves Montand was raised in a communist family and had openly criticized the violent revolution in Chile prior to the making of this movie. While more conservative viewers might criticize this movie for its underlying anti-governmental left-wing message, this film can't be seen as a propaganda picture since it raises far more questions than it actually answers. In addition to this, the film was at the pulse of its time when conspiracy theories were quite popular.

Another important element of this movie is the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures which is shown, explained and analyzed in detail in relation to mass genocides such as the abominable crimes of Nazi Germany in this film. This element is related to potential executors being used such as pawns in a game of chess.

All these elements offer a lot of food for thought to the viewer and also request quite some background knowledge, especially for younger contemporary audiences who might not be familiar with the events and experiments mentioned above. This is what makes this movie intellectually challenging, profoundly philosophical and an authentic document of its time in retrospective. This factual approach of the movie translates into detailed conversations, precise investigations and a unique ending as opposed to more emotional, stereotypical and vivid conspiracy movies in the key of bigger Hollywood pictures. Even though some elements of the film might seem old-fashioned today, the film's plot is still unusually captivating which makes this movie one of the very best of its kind.

To keep it short, this is one of the very best, if not the best conspiracy thriller of all times. It's unconventional, rebellious and realistic as it's clearly inspired by social and political events of the sixties and seventies. More than anything, it's an intellectually challenging film about the price of truth. Concerning its intentions, it makes me think of the equally brilliant ''Twelve Angry Men''. Those who like clever suspense movies should definitely be familiar with this often forgotten and still underrated masterpiece. Those who are simply looking for an entertaining crime film, might have to deal with some information overload.

Thriller, but not very

[bob998 · 7/10 · 31 August 2006]

Henri Verneuil represented the commercial cinema in France from 1960-1980. Always strong at the box-office, and usually telling dramatic and suspenseful tales of casino robberies, mafia score-settling and World War II battles, Verneuil could be counted on to give us two solid hours of entertainment on Saturday night. He worked with the cream of the male actors of his day: Gabin, Belmondo, Fernandel, Delon, Sharif, Anthony Quinn. I... comme Icare is the only time he directed Yves Montand. It's an oddly static film, taking place mainly in offices and conference rooms, containing not one chase scene and hardly any violence.

Montand gives a good performance, if somewhat dry, and he is well supported by the other actors. I couldn't help wondering what Costa-Gavras could have done with this story, on the basis of Z (the Lambrakis assassination) and L'aveu (the torture of Artur London in Czechoslovakia by Stalinists).

Far from formidable!

[brogmiller · 4/10 · 10 September 2020]

Although Yves Montand became slightly more 'conservative' with age he never ceased to be a political animal and frequently spoke out on corruption in high places. He had already appeared in the excellent 'Trilogy' of Costa-Gavras and one can fully understand why this film of Henri Verneuil would appeal to him as there are obvious parallels here with the assassination of John Kennedy sixteen years earlier, not to mention the deeply flawed findings of the Warren Commission and the unexplained deaths of eye witnesses. The subject matter itself is dynamite but the film alas is a wet fuse. Despite being lumbered with an utterly ridiculous grey wig and a pair of heavy spectacles Montand's star quality still comes through and his riveting performance is the only redeeming feature of this dull and dreary opus. All of the other characters are one-dimensional and acted for the most part by a cast of 'planks'. We also have to endure an interminable scene which replicates the 'obedience to authority' Milgram experiments carried out at Yale University. So as to avoid depicting any particular country the makers of this have chosen to ulitise the 'new' town of Cergy, the monstrous modernity of which mirrors this films absence of character and soul. A few colonnades, arches or domes would surely have made this film more watchable. The last scene in which Volney stands far too close to the window is effective and means that the film is finally over. The excellent production values, cinematography and the Gallic good taste that one comes to expect from Verneuil are totally lacking here and its overall tackiness gives one the feeling that it represents a cynically commercial attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator. As every schoolboy/girl knows, Icarus flew too close to the sun. This film does not come nearly close enough to be of lasting value.

Still a thrill

[Gerhard_Hoelscher · 5 November 2001]

I saw this movie the first time about 20 vears ago, when I was a teenager. Quite shocking then, it now reveals some lacks, though it´s still one of my favourites. I saw it last week, after I recorded it (German version) from TV. The plot is very close to the JFK murder facts, and the authors didn´t want to hide that. Look for the names, "Daslow" becomes "Oswald" when You rearrange the characters. :-) The too long chapter concerning the psychological experiment (based on the Milgram experiments at the university of Yale) is a little bit out of place.

But for the rest ... but see Yourself, You won´t regret it!

Gerhard

one of the best thrillers of european cinema

[erley-2 · 10/10 · 28 February 2001]

this movie I saw some 10 years ago (maybe more), I took it in a rental and never found it to buy even in French sites. The end is very surprising and intelligent. I would like very much to watch it again because I think it's as surpring as the Sixth Sense althogh a completely different kind of movie.

Excellent French Paranoid Thriller.

[Eumenides_0 · 9/10 · 19 June 2012]

Henri Verneuil's political thriller is a French take on the assassination of JFK. Yves Montand plays a magistrate investigating the murder of a president. After disagreeing with the findings of an official commission to find out what happened, he starts his personal investigation, reviewing the evidence, interviewing witnesses, discovering holes in the official interpretation and slowly revealing a network of influences that implicates organized crime, secret services and the government.

Yves Montand is excellent in his role. It's ironic - and perhaps not a coincidence - that he was chosen for this role. After all he's known as the murdered politician in Costa-Gavras' Z, so this is an inversion of his role. His character Henri Volney embodies all the values we want our civil servants to have: responsibility, courage, initiative, moral convictions.

Also fascinating is the subplot about Stanely Milgram's experiments on obedience and authority. In the 196's Milgram conducted experiments to find out how quickly people would surrender their will to others, in order to understand the mentality that allowed Germans to carry out gruesome crimes against innocent people. He discovered that people easily submit to authority figures and will commit atrocities in their name with little incentive.

The movie is well written, has excellent cinematography, good twists, gripping suspense, well-defined and likable characters, and a great but severely underused score by Ennio Morricone.

U must see this Period.

[trading-1 · 10/10 · 6 September 2006]

This is a must see for anybody who loves thriller's specially political thriller. One scene that stands out is Milgram experiment it is shot to perfection very rarely do we get to see a movie shot and scripted the way this movie is presented.

The movie starts with a Kennedy like assassination and a three member team is constituted to investigate the assassination. However one of the member does not agree with the final findings of the committee. As per the terms set that member would initiate a one man investigation into the assassination. This investigation gets him involved in into to deep and dark secrets of high office politics and the way they are controlled.

The french « JFK » or when french cinema was courageous (tv)

[leplatypus · 10/10 · 13 August 2015]

I have always heard that France is more liberal since 80s and that before, censorship was the way of life. If it's true , then why France avoids since to produce movies that makes people think and why the old cinema is more challenging ? This movie is the perfect proof : done in 1979, it's an extraordinary fiction about the JFK assassination and like Stone's movie, the big names are here : Verneuil as director and Montand as attorney ! Maybe this is the trail of my hobby for this case because this movie totally gripped me when i discovered it as a kid ! This fictive case is as opaque as the real one and reaches the same conclusion with involving the firms. Visually, the movie is astonishing because like the french comedy « Who killed Pamela Rose », the location are french but looks like America ! In addition, you will find a true classic moment of filmmaking with the scientific experiment about authority ! In conclusion, this movie, helping to understand the modern « democracy », is a sane therapy for every citizen: so try to forget the E … for entertainment that we are fed up daily !

Long procedural about the "Second Shooter Theory"

[vostf · 6/10 · 19 January 2014]

I... comme Icare works perfectly well on first viewing for it gathers everything to make a fascinating conspiracy thriller. The President is killed, the (Warren>Heiniger) commission investigating the murder is unable to reach beyond the decoy sniper while one of its members, attorney Henri Volney (Yves Montand) is honest enough not to be satisfied with a quick and painless conclusion.

The script cleverly progresses with growing evidence of a conspiracy and Yves Montand makes it all stick together. Now this is on first viewing, because if you watch it a second time you're bound to see how little subtlety goes into the story. Basically you have this fine storyline detailing progressively a well-balanced set of evidences on the road to explain the State Conspiracy behind the Second Shooter theory. On the other hand the movie itself is poorly directed and has mediocre production values. Sure conspiracy movies always tried to render a "gritty documentary look", but there are details here that look badly amateurish in such a full-scale feature.

In the end I would say it comes down to Agatha Christie's "Whodunit" situation: everything looks good because you are doused into a very complicated murder only to be given a sudden shot at the solution. The pieces of evidence in the script are prompt to come in place and it just does not make sense that attorney Volney was that passive and submissive during the previous year of the Heiniger commission investigation. OK this sounds like "icebox logic", but in the continuity there is never a sense that the Volney investigation may sometimes be in a ditch: they always have a new clue to investigate and they even seem to quickly discard some important leads: Nick Farnese and the cop who 'mistakenly' kills a witness for instance.

Then the ending conveniently bundles together the last elements of the conspiracy. Cleverly crafted, sure, but this is far from an impressive experience: 'I... comme Icare' is mostly a long exposition with cheap suspense shots. Eventually the only thing people do remember is the 1961-63 Milgram experiment re-enactment, used here as a very conclusive point - in the script - about the decoy killer's motivation.

one of the best political thrillers

[dromasca · 8/10 · 8 December 2023]

Henri Verneuil is a director whose films need to be re-watched and re-evaluated. It is not necessarily about his blockbuster films, the ones for which he gained fame as 'the most American of French directors'. Several of the films at the end of his career have a strong political tone. The first of them is 'I ... comme Icare' ('I for Icarus' in the English distribution) from 1979 - an elegant and stylish political thriller inspired by the assassination of JFK. Many film critics and historians consider it more interesting and better cinematically than the film that Oliver Stone would dedicate to the Kennedy case 12 years later. I think they are right.

The screenplay written by Verneuil together with Didier Decoin (who had received the Goncourt Prize in 1977) places the story in an imaginary country, democratically governed (elections, supreme court) and with a presidential regime. In the opening scene of the film, we witness the assassination of a re-elected president at the inauguration ceremony, in a scene that closely resembles the famous images entered in the public consciousness of the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In the following scenes, we understand that the individual suspected of murder, whose name is Daslow (anagram of the name Oswald), is actually the victim of a set-up, being eliminated immediately after his assassination in an execution disguised as suicide. A commission of inquiry is formed to elucidate (or perhaps cover up) the events. From here the plot of the film separates from the historical events. A honest and courageous prosecutor refuses to sign the convenient and too obvious conclusions of the commission's work, and is given the task of investigating and elucidating the case. Basically the movie starts here. Next we will follow the unfolding of an investigation as in a very good procedural detective investigation film. It is becoming increasingly clear that this is a plot with political implications at the highest level. The lives of witnesses and investigators are also in danger.

If the speculations surrounding the perpetrators and the reasons for JFK's assassination gave birth to some beautiful conspiracy theories, then we can consider 'I ... comme Icare' as one of the ultimate films that circulate such theories. But Verneuil's intention was, I think, partly different. Placing the story in an imaginary country, but which can be any of the European democracies or South American semi-democracies, he tries to draw attention to the phenomenon of the involvement of secret services in the political life of the most democratic states. One of the most memorable scenes of the film popularizes a real experiment that aimed to explain the causes that lead some people to blindly submit to authority (political, military, legal, universitary) and carry out the most absurd orders, even if they cause suffering of their fellow humans. The conditioning to obeying orders explains the ease with which criminal organizations or totalitarian regimes recruit executors and accomplices to their deeds. As a detective plot, the film is excellently made. Yves Montand plays here one of the roles he had specialized in in the decade that was ending, in political films such as those by Costa Gavras. Ennio Morricone composed the music. The cinematography is also remarkable. Verneuil shot the outdoor scenes in Cergy, a suburb in the northwest of Paris with a futuristic architecture, which is very suitable for the image of the imaginary country in which the action takes place and the atmosphere of slightly oppressive anticipation also present in the corridors of the institutions of justice. Effective and well executed, 'I ... comme Icare' is one of the best political thrillers I've seen, plus an opportunity to watch Montand, which is always a treat.

The Perfect Conspiracy Thriller

[ARCHA1D3 · 10/10 · 23 August 2016]

I like conspiracy thriller, like The Parallax View or Three Days of the Condor for example, but this one is my absolute favorite. You get an intelligent, minimalist, well written, well acted Suspense Thriller with a great Ennio Morricone Soundtrack. I think this Soundtrack is one of his best, and i am a big Morricone Fan.

The Flair and Style of this Movie is typical European 70ies, like the Costa-Gavras Movies (Z, The Confession). This Movie is almost documentary-like and it knows how to build an enormous tension all the way up to the end. You can feel the paranoia in this movie.

There is so much more to tell about the movie, but i always think that is better to know less about a movie before you watch them, just to be surprised what happen.

The President was JFK

[antoine-17 · 17 February 2001]

of course, even though we are talking about a French movie here. It should quite obvious to anyone who saw the movie that the Dallas shooting at JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald are the starting point of the story.

One of the judges in charge of the inquiry (Yves Montand) decides he does not agree with the conclusions of the committee he is a member of. Then trouble begins...

One of Verneuil's best movies, if you ask me. The other ones would be "Le corps de mon ennemi" and "Peur sur la ville." (Belmondo rules, and so does Marie-France Pisier!).

An exceptional thriller, with politics and history

[alesaavedra · 10/10 · 1 April 2014]

Yves Montand plays the role of a prosecutor who takes an investigation into the murder of the president JFK.

The film is based on the allegory of Icarus: if it is closer to the truth, it burns the wings. But in general, this film is a fierce critic of power in modern societies approach and particularly how power, whatever it may be, can bring a nobody to perform acts of great cruelty.

The film stages Milgram's experiments that have fascinated, that seems much based on this scientific demonstration of the human capacity to submit to authority.

Burnt by the Truth

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 17 June 2023]

When the reelected president Marc Jarry (Gabriel Cattand) is assassinated by a sniper, there are investigations and one year later, a thick report is produced. The authorities approve the document except the prosecutor Henri Volney (Yves Montand), who does not agree with the conclusion of the document. Together with a small team of investigators, they carry out their own investigation and learn many hidden dirty secrets about the witnesses and the investigation.

In the 60's, 70's and 80's, political cinema was a hit, and I particularly loved those directed by Costa Gravas and with Yves Montand, who was an icon. "I... comme Icare", a.k.a. "I... For Icarus" is a classic of the genre and only released recently on DVD in Brazil. The plot is visibly based on the assassination of John F. Kenned, as per the theory of the conspiracy, years before the release of "JFK". Like Icarus that has come to close to the sun, the prosecutor in this story reached too close to the truth. A must-see thriller! My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "I...como Ícaro" ("I... For Icarus")