Scribe (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:

Scribe

Filming Locations:

Brussels, Brussels-Capital, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

$5,200,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,455,120

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

Befuddling plot, solid cast

A film with an intriguing first half hour and set-up, a 70s-style spy thriller with mysterious shadow figures, typewriters and cassette recordings, that loses its way as it dives down into an incomprehensible labyrinthine political head-scratcher.

The muted, stripped down palette and sets and the very intentional non-digital central setup of an accountant transcribing cassette taps does remind of past films like The Conversation.

As it moves on however the initial setup does largely seem like a gimmick to have a base to move off from.

The main reason to keep watching for me is the always-engaging Cluzet. Often called upon to play the 'everyman' in his films (e.g. Tell No One), here he plays Duval very downtrodden - unhappy with his working life, attending AA meetings and living a seemingly very solitary, structured life. And yet when he's embroiled into criminality, he's always believable. He struggles, a fish out of water, usually to be beaten back and really gave me my only reason to keep watching: I wanted to see what would happen to Duval.

A pity given the main parlour games between shadow operatives seeking for 'the notebooks' had lost my interest well before the 87mins were done but there's also nothing especially off-putting going on either.