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+ Best Crime Thriller of the Year + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Prison Movie of the Year
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| A gun-toting Tahar Rahim looks dangerous on this rather stressful poster for Jacques Audiard's A Prophet |
Just 19 years old and of Algerian background, our protagonist Malik gets a 6-year prison sentence, and soon after his incarceration he is given a fearsome task: Committing a murder.
A Prophet is written by Thomas Bidegain (Stillwater (2021)), Abdel Raouf Dafri (Gibraltar (2013)), Nicolas Peufaillit (Sous X (2015)) and co-writer/director Jacques Audiard (See How They Fall/Regarde les Hommes Tomber (1994)). The English title is a literal translation of the original French title.
Horrible, realistic and intense, the first half of Audiard's celebrated prison thriller also leaves space for glimpses of the internal lives for its criminal elements, - and A Prophet has the year's best/most horrific murder scene (murder by razorblade.) There are grand performances from Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian (2021)) in the lead and from Niels Arestrup (At Eternity's Gate (2018)) as the merciless Corsican gangster boss who takes him under his wing in prison.
SPOILER The ending is somewhat unsatisfactory, as one after such an epic sojourn longs for something more finished, and possibly hopeful, than what we are dealt here. Instead our hero ends up a criminal leader himself, which is more than a bit disheartening, especially held up against the film's title. Despite the strong performances and visual power (the cinematography is by Stéphane Fontaine (Samba (2014))), the deeper meaning of this expansive work remains unclear, except for the fact that it inevitably gives insight into the French underworld and the country's massive problems with criminal immigrants.
Related post:
Jacques Audiard: Rust and Bone/De Rouille et d'Os (2012) - Cotillard gives another awe-inspiring performance
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
Watch a one-minute clip from the film's Cannes red carpet premiere here
Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 17.8 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.36 times its cost)
[A Prophet premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 155 minutes. At least 17 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place in Paris, France. The film opened #34 to a 163k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #25 and in 83 theaters (different weeks), grossing 2 mil. $ (11.2 % of the total gross). France was the film's biggest market with 10.3 mil. $ (57.9 %); North America was the 2nd biggest, and UK was the 3rd biggest with 1.5 mil. $ (8.4 %). The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, lost to The Secret in Their Eyes/El Secreto de Sus Ojos from Argentina. It won a BAFTA, was nominated for a Goya, was nominated for a Golden Globe, won 9/13 César award nominations, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, won a National Board of Review award, the Jury Prize at Cannes (the Palme d'Or was lost to Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon), won 2/6 European Film award nominations, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Audiard returned with Raphaël Live Vu Par Jazques Audiard (2011, video) and theatrically with Rust and Bone/De Rouille et d'Os (2012). Rahim returned in You Never Left (2010, short) and theatrically in The Eagle (2011); Arestrup in Suite Noire (2009, TV-series) and theatrically in Farewell/L'Affaire Farewell (2009). A Prophet is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of A Prophet?
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