La mécanique de l'ombre (2016)

The unemployed Duval is contacted by a mysterious organization to transcribe intercepted calls. He accepts the job with no suspicions, since it restores stability to his life, but it will soon result in political shenanigans of all kinds.

Director:

Thomas Kruithof

Writers:

Thomas Kruithof (original scenario), Yann Gozlan (original scenario)

Stars:

François Cluzet, Denis Podalydès, Sami Bouajila

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
François Cluzet	...	Duval
Denis Podalydès	...	Clément (as Denis Podalydès de la Comédie Française)
Sami Bouajila	...	Labarthe
Simon Abkarian	...	Gerfaut
Alba Rohrwacher	...	Sara
Philippe Résimont	...	De Grugy
Daniel Hanssens	...	Albert
Bruno Georis	...	Le bras droit de Labarthe
Olivier Bony	...	Le voisin
Bernard Eylenbosch	...	L'homme de main
Alexia Depicker	...	La responsable RH
Nader Farman	...	Al-Shamikh
Angelo Dello Spedale	...	Pernot
Yves Jadoul	...	Le vieil homme du couloir
Christian Hening	...	L'employé de ménage (as Christian Hening de Franceschi)

Storyline

The unemployed Duval is contacted by a mysterious organization to transcribe intercepted calls. He accepts the job with no suspicions, since it restores stability to his life, but it will soon result in political shenanigans of all kinds.

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Plot Keywords:

telephone call | one word title | office worker | office | fired from the job | 

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Belgium France

Language:

French

Release Date:

11 January 2017 (France)

Also Known As:

The Eavesdropper

Filming Locations:

Brussels, Brussels-Capital, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

$5,200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

2425 Films,Scope Pictures,Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Duval being hired to perform a menial and seemingly pointless administrative task, working alone in an empty office space, is very similar to the establishing plot of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League", in which pawnbroker Jabez Wilson is hired by the fictitious League to daily attend an otherwise empty office and copy out pages from the Encyclopedia Britannica by hand.

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Goofs

We see Duval (François Cluzet) typing with two fingers, but in the close-ups we see the hands typing with ten fingers.

User Reviews

Atmospheric French Thriller that can be a bit predictable

Scribe or ' La mécanique de l'ombre' is a Film starring Francois Cluzet ('Untouchable') as an accountant who loses his job after a bit of a meltdown. He takes two years to get his life back on track and then receives a telephone call one night offering him a job.

Well he hardly has anything better to do so he accepts despite there being some very strict rules – but all he has to do really is type out transcripts of telephone conversations. What at first seems like an easy gig soon takes on a much darker hue when he realises what is being revealed in the tapped phone calls.

Now this is really well made and the acting is superb. The plot is original up to a point and the direction and cinematography are professional and I really liked it as a film. However, it suffers from the thriller disease in that it has to have a few twists and a climactic end etc. I sort of spotted them all - except one and so for me it did tread a path that appeared a tad well worn. Despite that it is still a film with much to applaud hence my rating.