Le grand alibi (2008)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Pascal Bonitzer

Writers:

Jérôme Beaujour (screenplay)
Pascal Bonitzer (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

30 April 2008 (France)

Genre:

Mystery

Plot:

Like every weekend senator Henri Pagès and his wife entertain guests at their beautiful mansion in a peaceful village near Paris...

Plot Keywords:

Gun | Family Reunion | Blood | Foreign Language Adaptation | Shooting

Cast

Miou-Miou	...	Éliane Pages - la femme d'Henri
Lambert Wilson	...	Le docteur Pierre Collier - un psy séducteur
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi	...	Esther Bachmann
Pierre Arditi	...	Le sénateur Henri Pages
Anne Consigny	...	Claire Collier - la femme de Pierre
Mathieu Demy	...	Philippe Léger - un jeune écrivain
Caterina Murino	...	Léa Mantovani - une actrice italienne
Maurice Bénichou	...	Lieutenant Grange
Céline Sallette	...	Marthe
Agathe Bonitzer	...	Chloé
Emmanuelle Riva	...	Geneviève Herbin
Dany Brillant	...	Michel - le chauffeur et factotum de Léa
Alain Libolt	...	Le contrôleur
Hélène Devynck	...	La journaliste télé
Hélène Frappat	...	La journaliste de presse
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nicolas Koretzky	...	Un inspecteur de police
Amandine Maudet	...	Elsa
Alexia Quintin	...	Une infirmière
Jonathan Sarazin	...	Jean

Directed by
Pascal Bonitzer

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jérôme Beaujour		screenplay, adaptation and dialogue
Pascal Bonitzer		screenplay, adaptation and dialogue
Agatha Christie		novel "The Hollow"

Produced by
Saïd Ben Saïd	....	producer

Original Music by
Aleksei Aigi		(as Alexei Aigui)

Cinematography by
Marie Spencer

Film Editing by
Monica Coleman

Casting by
Antoinette Boulat

Production Design by
Wouter Zoon

Costume Design by
Marielle Robaut

Makeup Department
Michèle Constantinides	....	key makeup artist
Stéphane Desmarez	....	hair stylist
Agathe Dupuis	....	hair stylist
Pierre Olivier Persin	....	special makeup effects artist
Manuela Taco	....	key makeup artist

Production Management
Abraham Goldblat	....	post-production manager
Nicolas Leclère	....	unit production manager
Vincent Léonard	....	unit manager
Sybil Nicolas	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yann Chemin	....	third assistant director
Julie Gouet	....	second assistant director
Sylvie Peyre	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Floc'h	....	poster designer
Jean-Louis Lalet	....	property master
Jean-Jérôme Lanoué	....	ripper

Sound Department
Jonathan Acbard	....	boom operator
Emmanuel Croset	....	sound re-recording mixer
Edouard d'Heucqueville	....	sound mix technician
Vincent Guillon	....	supervising sound editor
Pierre Picq	....	boom operator
Philippe Richard	....	sound
Maxime Saleix	....	sound mix technician
Hubert Teissedre	....	foley recording engineer
Hubert Teissedre	....	post sync recording engineer
Stéphane Vizet	....	boom operator

Visual Effects by
Jean-Nicolas Costa	....	computer graphics artist
Sarah Moreau	....	visual effects coordinator

Stunts
Alexandre Cauderlier	....	assistant stunt coordinator
Alexandre Cauderlier	....	stunts
Patrick Cauderlier	....	stunt coordinator
Patrick Cauderlier	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Michel Bubola	....	electrician
Emilie Colin	....	first assistant camera
Romain Gouillard	....	gaffer
Moune Jamet	....	still photographer
Timothée Lebarbenchon	....	third assistant camera
Hadrien Ricol	....	electrician
Gabin Siol	....	additional grip

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Priscillia Van Sprengel	....	dresser

Editorial Department
Giulia Rodino	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Tony Arnoux	....	press attache
Lydia Bigard	....	script supervisor
Juliette Crété	....	location scout
Iliana Lolitch	....	making-of director (as Iliana Lolic)
André-Paul Ricci	....	press attache

Production Companies

• Angoa-Agicoa (support)
• CinéCinéma (participation)
• Medusa Film (co-production)
• Procirep (support)
• SBS Films
• Sofica Soficinéma 4 (in association with)
• Sofica UGC 1 (in association with)
• TPS Star (participation)

Distributors

• JMH (2008) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Medusa Film (2008) (Italy) (theatrical)
• UGC Distribution (2008) (France) (theatrical)
• UGC International (2008) (France) (theatrical)
• Seven Films (2009) (Greece) (all media)
• UGC Video (2008) (Germany) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Duboi
• T.E.S.T. (end titles)

Other Companies

• Mairie de Saint-Aubin  thanks
• Mairie de Villiers-Le-Bûche  thanks
• Panavision Alga  camera equipment provided by

Runtime:

France:93 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | France:U

Company:

Angoa-Agicoa

Trivia:

The detective Hercule Poirot, the investigator in the original novel, is absent from the film.

Agatha Christie in the French style

The legal successors of Agatha Christie were known to be very strict with film producers. Their terms of reference indeed implied that the screen adaptations of Lady Agatha's mysteries were to be set exclusively within the four-decade period (1920's-1960's) in which she had been active and in the very places she had described (England most of the time of course). Then in 2000 or thereabouts they suddenly relented and started accepting adaptations that were less faithful to the letter provided of course they stuck to the spirit of the original work. As a result, the stories could be updated, the action relocated while the sacrosanct investigators (Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, …) could be replaced by more anonymous though not necessarily less colorful local sleuths…

Would Miss Christie's celebrated whodunits survive such a treatment?

It looks as though they do.

In France Pascal Thomas was the first to step into the breach (he made two adaptations, 'Mon petit doigt m'a dit' and 'L'heure zéro' and his currently shooting his third one). Now it is Pascal Bonitzer's turn to offer French viewers his own re-reading of 'The Hollow', first published in 1944, oddly retitled 'Le grand alibi' (a title previously used for the dubbed version of Hitchcok's 'Stage Fright').

The common point of the three films is that their plot has been transposed to contemporary France, that they are very faithful to the source novel (their plot twists have not been altered or very little) and that they play by the rules of the detective story genre, never outsmarting the writer and each time providing the viewer with a very satisfying mystery climax.

What distinguishes them is the tone adopted. While Thomas' two films have a quirky offbeat poetic humor Bonitzer slashes at his characters in a harsher, more down-to-earth way, notably through nasty, biting dialogs.

A senator (self-assured, no-nonsense Arditi), his conventional wife (hilariously goody-goody Miou-Miou), some of their relatives and their guests (womanizer Lambert Wilson, sex-bomb-with a brain Caterina Murino and others all played by very competent actors) are not left unscathed by Bonitzer (and Christie, it goes without saying)'s scalpel.

Anyway, whether adapted by Thomas or Bonitzer, evidence is that there is more to Agatha Christie's crime stories than just well constructed but hollow pulp fiction. What allows her writings to transcend time and borders is the characters she created, most of them hiding their vices behind the varnish of good manners. Finding the murderer is also unveiling the dark side of human nature. What is more universal?