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Le couperet (2005) -- Sinematurk - Trailer (Quicktime)

Overview

User Rating:
7.5/10   2,636 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Costa-Gavras
Writers:
Donald E. Westlake (novel)
Costa-Gavras (writer) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for Le couperet on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
2 March 2005 (France) more
Genre:
Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller more
Plot:
A chemist (Garcia) loses his job to outsourcing. Two years later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
1 win & 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Chan-wook Park to remake Le Couperet (The Ax)
 (From Affenheimtheater. 13 October 2009, 1:37 PM, PDT)

Park Chan-Wook Has an 'Axe' to Grind
 (From CinemaSpy. 9 September 2009, 2:25 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
Family, Work and Society more (18 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
José Garcia ... Bruno Davert
Karin Viard ... Marlène Davert
Geordy Monfils ... Maxime Davert
Christa Theret ... Betty Davert
Ulrich Tukur ... Gérard Hutchinson
Olivier Gourmet ... Raymond Machefer
Yvon Back ... Etienne Barnet
Thierry Hancisse ... Inspecteur Kesler
Olga Grumberg ... Iris Thompson
Yolande Moreau ... Préposée poste
Dieudonné Kabongo ... Quinlan Longus (as Dieudonné Kabongo Bashila)
Jean-Pierre Gos ... Garagiste
Vanessa Larré ... Prédatrice
Serge Larivière ... Inspecteur Police
Jeanne Savary ... La présentatrice TV
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Arcàdia (Spain: Catalan title)
The Ax (International: English title) (literal title)
The Axe (Australia) (TV title)
more
Runtime:
France:122 min
Country:
Belgium | France | Spain
Language:
French | Dutch
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | Dolby Digital
Filming Locations:
Beaufays, Belgium more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Visa d'exploitation en France: #110116 more
Movie Connections:
References Psycho (1960) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
2 out of 6 people found the following comment useful.
Family, Work and Society, 8 April 2007
Author: andrabem from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Costa Gavras is a master of the political film. Political films in general are not my cup of tea. They try to convey some kind of message to the public, and they do it by portraying the persons in a stylized way, losing in depth in the process. People are portrayed realistically but their conflicts are simplified because the political film intends to portray society and its problems - unemployment, hunger, class exploitation and so on - in other words, they talk about the big (lack of bread, for instance) and forget the small (emotions like loneliness and sadness, for instance).

Many political films concerned about their objectivity are quite emotionless, or else their emotions are one-sided - bad and ugly live here, beauty and love live there, or the other way around.

FEW POLITICAL FILMS are able to bridge this gap: to talk about society and at the same time not forget the individual man and his/her very complex universe and contradictions. SOME OF THESE FILMS ARE the masterpieces of neorealism: "Ladri di Bicicletta" and "Umberto D" by Vittorio de Sica, "Los Olvidados" by Buñuel and many others.

Costa Gavras doesn't reach this goal. His films are efficient and convey their message to the public, but they lack warmth.

"Le Couperet" is nonetheless an interesting film - a man that works as a chemist loses his job and after 2 years of unemployment decides to kill whoever stands in his way to get another job - so he places an ad of an imaginary enterprise in the newspaper offering a chemist job (his professional area) and rents a post box to read the answers he gets. He reads all the résumés and proceeds to kill all the people that are equal or more qualified than him - so that in the end he'll get the job because he will be the only remaining choice. All the while he will go on living normally with his family. He will suffer emotional crises, his marriage will become strained but no one will suspect anything at all of his alternative activities.

The film, after all, is very entertaining and gives a sad picture of France (and Western Europe I would say), suffering economic crisis and rising doubts. Is it possible with the globalization to maintain a very expensive Social Welfare and have to face a growing economic erosion? In USA (as far as I know), for instance, some unemployed people live on the streets or under the bridges. In France and Western Europe, unemployed people are still taken care of. Till when? Many enterprises are closing or cutting expenses (that means firing people).

Costas Gavras films are good because they make questions about the world in which we live, they make us think, but his films don't really touch me - I would say they provide food for thought but not food for the heart.

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