I Want to Be a Gangster (2008/I) Asylum (original title)

Director:

Olivier Chateau

Writer:

Olivier Chateau

Release Date:

16 April 2008 (France)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

Jack, a young thug, mingles with a bunch of hard boiled gangsters and tries to outsmart them. He ends up tied to a tree on a chain like a dog. A new adventure begins, not the one he had wished for.

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Torture | Neo Noir | Violence | One Word Title

Cast

Julien Courbey	...	Jack
Jean-Marie Lamour	...	L'homme
Jacques Frantz	...	Le patron
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...	Le grand patron
Abel Jafri	...	Le décontracté
Alexandre Pesle	...	L'assistant
Frédéric Saurel	...	Le gardien
Ménélik	...	Le joueur roulette #1
Bruno Le Millin	...	Le joueur roulette #2
Jeanne Savary	...	La femme
François Feroleto	...	Le frimeur
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Karim Belkhadra	...	Homme de main #1
Franck Monsigny	...	Homme de main #2

Directed by
Olivier Chateau

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Olivier Chateau

Produced by
Olivier Chateau	....	producer
Julien Guéris	....	delegate producer
Franck Llopis	....	delegate producer

Original Music by
Signalflow

Cinematography by
Christophe Larue		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Olivier Chateau		(edited by)

Production Management
Jean-Charles Berlan	....	production manager
Zacharie Cortes	....	assistant unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mike Baudoncq	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Jean-François Machet	....	foley artist
Jean-François Machet	....	sound re-recording mixer
Brice Picard	....	sound editor
Brice Picard	....	sound mixer

Visual Effects by
Michel Reynaert	....	visual effects supervisor

Music Department
Simon Bridonneau	....	music editor

Other crew
Delina Pierre	....	script supervisor

Thanks
Igor Sekulic	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Every Pictures
• Hurricane Production (in association with)
• Les Films à Fleur de Peau (executive production)

Distributors

• Les Films à Fleur de Peau (2008) (France) (theatrical)
• Los Banditos Films (2009) (Germany) (all media)
• Synapse Films (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Visual Factory (2008) (worldwide) (all media)

Also Known As:

"Asylum" - France (original title)

Runtime:

France:80 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color | Color (Technicolor)

Certification:

France:U (with warning)

Company:

Every Pictures

The chain

With such a low rating and no comment,who will watch this excellent thriller which forms a sharp contrast to the average level of the French so called film noir of the era? The first third may seem trite and with its subjects of Russian roulette or "the gays who would enjoy smoking cigars(?)" ,it could lead the director in Tarantino territory.Things go better with the "test" you've got to pass to be part of the gang ;there's a lot of black humor in the scene in which the hero "teaches" a young recruit (a head's relative)how to hold up a bank.

But the movie really takes off when the young hero "ends up tied to a tree like a dog in a forest where there 's nobody miles around";or almost nobody should I write.With very restricted means,the film becomes closer to some of HItchcock's enclosed space movies,such works as "rope" or "lifeboat" .To write more would be a spoiler.If you find the final unexpected twist far-fetched (and it is in a way),remember the plane .

The gangsters scenes which are actually a long flashback are badly introduced with pretentious pictures in the "present",but apart from this,this is an unfairly overlooked thriller.