État des lieux (1995)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Jean-François Richet

Writers:

Patrick Dell'Isola (writer)
Jean-François Richet (writer)

Plot Keywords:

French Suburb

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Cyril Aubin
Cyrille Autin	...	Samuraï
Emmanuelle Bercot
Anne-Cécile Crapie	...	Deborah
Andrée Damant	...	La mère
Marc de Jonge	...	Agresseur
Laurent Delatte	...	Ouvrier
Patrick Dell'Isola	...	Pierre
Arco Descat C.
François Dyrek	...	DD, le père
Base Enemy	...	Rap singer
Sebastien Faure	...	Flic
Stéphane Ferrara	...	Uzi
Luc Gillig
Franck Gourlat
Fabrice Guibora
Gwenole Guyomard	...	Chef d'atelier
Jean-Claude Hodebourg
Donald Kibouillou
Holiden Kibouillou
Yannick Lee Trebalag
Laurent Menoury	...	L'autre frêre
Fred Morisse
Patrick Paroux	...	Flic
Laurent Richet	...	Laurent
Rémy Roubakha	...	Agresseur
Blaise Stenzy Nioka
Unit Technik
Lionel Teng	...	Boxeur

Also Known As:

Inner City (International: English title)

Runtime:

80 min

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12

Company:

Actes et Octobre Production

Trivia:

In large part, this was funded by director-writer Jean-François Richet by a lucky casino wager of his unemployment check.

Movie Connections:

Features Harlem Nights (1989)

Despite dogmatic moments the film shines through as a fresh and angry portrayal of life in a french inner city.

"Etat des lieux" belongs to the "genre" of french realist cinema that takes as subject the country's inner cities (banlieues). The most famous of this set of films is undoubtedly Mathieu Kassovitz's "Hate", but "Etat des lieux" is probably the most intriguing on several accounts. Firstly, if this means anything, it is the only film actually made by someone from the inner cities. Secondly, it is striking because of two contradictory aspects. On the one hand it is filmed in a naturalistic, quasi-documentary manner resembling the social realist films of the british. On the other hand, it is a very demonstrative film, and the message put over is clearly a traditional Marxist one. A message driven home by the politically aware hero, factory worker Pierre Seface and by performances of the french rap group "Assassin". Filmed with a low budget, "Etat des lieux" is as winning in its humanity and realism as it is heavy in its more dogmatic moments. However, sometimes filmed with references to soviet revolutionary cinema, "Etat des lieux" comes across as something fresh and angry, denouncing the daily alienation of the working-man and the tedium of the consumer society.