Tod eines Schiedsrichters

Jean-Pierre Mocky is a master in the construction of films with detestable characters, of grotesque pretentiousness in an insolent and unpleasant way, mediocre of course, who behave like animals, for the jubilation of the spectator. This allows to denounce many things as often with the director.

Between Michel Serrault who plays a psychopath, Eddy Mitchell who is a referee who lacks psychology, haughty and mediocre, and the whole gallery of characters who gravitate around: none of them is to be saved, none of them arouses empathy. Not even Carole Laure, Eddy Mitchell's fiancée, or Jean-Pierre Mocky himself in the role of the cop on duty who is always behind the times.

Michel Serrault and his band of monsters, physically and psychologically ugly, pursue a referee who made them lose their match, for an ultimate manhunt, with deaths and collateral destruction, passing by the stadium, a television set, a disused factory, modern and soulless dwellings, to finish in the bowels of the Earth, with an ironic end that can irritate.

A nice punch for the viewer.

This topic speaking of raging hooligans was a rare, unusual but a golden opportunity for an offbeat, quirkly director as Jean Pierre Mocky, who has never been better when criticizing many modern world problems, with his own style and atmosphere. This movie is terrific, tense, gritty, without any risk of boredom for the viewer. It may be not always realistic for the audiences. It is dark, gloomy, it may leave a bad, bitter taste in the mouth. I warn you before watching. Michel Serrault plays an evil, disgusting, disturbing character, evil lead character. And keep care about the ending, you may fall from your chair. Beware not to hurt your lower back, ankle, hips.....The adaptation from the book looks like the one concerning ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, a novel written by William Mc Givern. Same basic material, same DNA, but a total different development.

NOTE: This review should be read in conjunction with my review of "Coup de tête" (1978).

It is an oxymoron that the word "arbitrary" has the same roots as the word "arbitre". Something that is arbitrary defies the law, happens illogically. The "arbitre", on the other hand, is the referee, the one who imposes the law in the football field. And for this, he is often the victim of attacks by fanatics.

It is difficult to determine why one becomes a sport fanatic. Influence from friends, passion with the sport are some of the factors. Regardless, the fanatics' actions often result to the deaths of innocents, and blot the copybook of the sport. Jean-Pierre Mocky's work "À mort l'arbitre !" examines exactly this exaggerated behaviour of football fanatics and hooligans.

The film revolves around a referee, Michel (Eddy Mitchell) who attracts the wrath of some hooligans when he whistles a penalty for the team they support. Their leader, Rico (Michel Serrault) decides to punish the referee in the most despicable of ways: to kill him.

This is one of the few films in French cinema that have football as their topic. In the first part of my examination of the role of football in French cinema, I had written that football mostly serves as the occasion to examine deeper social issues, as exemplified in the movie "Coup de tête" (1978). Mocky's work, on the other hand, revolves completely around the sport, especially one of its most negative aspects, that of blind fanaticism.

The hooligans in the movie are clearly presented as the villains; they have no redeeming qualities, being either so cartoonish that they border on the comical, or so preposterous that no justification can be found for their actions. Rico's neurotic nature and deep hate for anyone who doesn't side with his team classify him on the second category.

Contrary to other films, that have tried to show the human side of the hooligans and the societal reasons because of which they engage in their often lethal actions, Mocky's film is a criticism of their bringing violence to a beloved sport. This is why he portrays them so hyperbolically. This way, every human quality is lost and all that remains is their villainous side.

While Mocky has been characterized the most anarchic of French directors, in this film he takes the side of the order as exemplified by the referee. Michel whistles the penalty because this is fair, and not due to any negative inclination towards Rico's team. The fact that the hooligans behave so irrationally to someone that is innocent reinforces Mocky's inclination to the referee, without which football would be a barbarous sport, without any of the rules that give it its relative civility and make it appropriate for a general audience.

In the film, the players don't play a single role. For, it is not them that cause the violence associated with the sport, but the hooligans. In most cases, when a death is caused by a hooligan attack, the players of all teams unite and send a message of piece. The hooligans, though, don't have such cooperative instincts. They do what they do for their individual team. The other teams and their supporters are viewed as enemies. And, when someone harms their team, they must pay, like poor Michel in the movie.

It s unfortunate that the film's plot also has truly disappointing elements. What at first is an examination of the behaviour of hooligans evolves into a thriller, that even has a car chase in the last sequence. Whilst the director's choice to show the personal life of the referee was maybe meant as an attempt at humanising him more, it serves more as a diversion from the film's real subject. The weak score, typical synth music of the time, has neither artistic merit nor hit potential and sounds bland and forgettable.

Mocky's film is a condemnation of violence in football, of the mentality that creates hooligans, that is unfortunately combined with a much overdramatic story. Still, it is commendable for its attempt at examining the sensitive topic of hooliganism in French football when the topic was largely absent from films.

Like Claude Chabrol's, Jean Pierre Mocky's CV is filled with a very long list of films but if the former's one includes a generous crop of masterworks, you can count on the fingers of your hand, the works which reach this scale in Mocky's copious filmography. "A Mort l'Arbitre" should be on the top of his most palatable pieces of work. Even if the somewhat botched job of the venture can irritate, it's a work that bears the hallmark of its auteur and is quite well controlled in the starting point and its development.

Because he whistled a penalty which made the local team lose, Maurice Bruno (Eddy Mitchell) is hunted down by a bunch of wild supporters led by Rico (Michel Serrault, one of Mocky's favorites). In spite of the efforts made by the police superintendent Granowski (Jean Pierre Mocky) flanked by his female partner, the situation's getting out of hand...

"A crowd is dumb, she always follows the craziest one". Mocky's opinion is perfectly illustrated in his work. The filmmaker plumps for a tawdry society phenomenon which is still a topical one more than twenty years after the shooting of the film: dogged football hooligans who are ready to commit acts of violence when something's wrong at a football game. Made in a quite homespun style, Mocky's film conjures up a discomforting climate thanks to a judicious choice of the scenery (Maurice's apartment located in an eerie, imposing place the underground gallery at the end of the film) and a suspense deftly maintained.

If you must choose 10 films by Mocky to remember, this one would have a meaty place.