Monsieur Hire

Having read some of the negative reviews regarding this film, I think the first thing to make clear here is that there is no point in watching this film if your idea of a perfect movie is Jurassic Park or The Da Vinci Code.

This is a film that focuses not on the story itself, but more on the characters and the emotions that reside within them. The above mentioned films take an idea for a story (a dinosaur filled wildlife park or a mysterious religious secret) and then devise a plot which is by far and away beyond what would ever happen in the real world.

In contrast, Monsieur Hire takes a story in which very little happens: A man is suspected of a murder. The man is a reclusive misfit, devoid of charm or humour, but he harbours a love for a woman he has never even met: a woman he knows only through seeing her from his apartment window. Unlike the aforementioned films, the plot, from beginning to end, can be summarised within just a few sentences. But it is what is behind the plot which makes this movie incredible. It is the notion of love which drives the film.

The acting and directing show passion that is more intense and sexual than anything I have seen, yet it does so without even a hint of what you would expect from a film described as "intense" and "sexual". The intensity of the love shown by the protagonist is beyond anything that one would have seen before, and yet it is far from the purity that one would normally associate with such an emotion. Indeed, it is dark and tense, and due to the questionable character of its object, one is left in turmoil as to whether this love is to be admired, pitied or instead viewed as just desserts for a man of his nature.

Those who have scored this low on the basis that the characters do not conduct themselves in a "believable way" confound me. The whole point of a film is that it takes you away from the everyday scenario. Most movies show you fairly ordinary people involved in extraordinary stories. This one shows you extraordinary characters involved in a story which (in itself) is fairly ordinary. To score this low based on its plot is to criticise Opera for its storyline. The whole point of the opera is its music, and the whole point of this film is its incredible portrayal of emotion. Brilliantly acted, brilliantly directed, and this will haunt you for some time.

If you need your films to be Hollywood factory typecasts then don't watch this. You won't enjoy it. Go and rent out The Expendibles, and leave Monsieur Hire to those who appreciate art when they see it. I'm sorry if that sounds pretentious. I enjoy a cheesy Hollywood flick as much as the next person, but it's sad that there are people who can't see beyond Stephen Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis.

Monsieur Hire

For a man who likes great cinematography, nice colors and a pretty female face, this film offers all of the above for me.

Director Patrice Leconte usually makes stylish movies and this is no exception. It's beautiful to view. So is Sandrine Bonnaire, the leading lady. I'll have to see what other films have her in them. There are numerous closeups of her in this movie. This French effort doesn't show much "skin," yet the film has an erotic appeal. That tells you something.

Michel Blanc, the male lead, plays a strange character but he's fascinating to watch, too.

To be honest, the film has its slow moments but it is mesmerizing at times, too. The story is interesting overall and aided by two surprise twists at the end.

I am perplexed and frustrated over why this film is not available on DVD on which this great photography could really be shown off.

'Monsieur Hire' is a film where you can find elements of horror, mystery, romance and comedy blending with each other and the result is a really endearing piece of work.

This is a film that is majorly about the deceptiveness of appearances. 'Monsieur Hire explores the distinctions between what appears to be the truth and what is the actual truth, both in terms of facts and in terms of the nature of characters. Patrice Leconte uses the the screenplay and his camera to play around with the viewers with certain misleading shots and by deliberately withholding information. Certain ideas get set up in the minds of the viewer, but these ideas get undercut and turned on their heads with the unearthing of the actual truths towards the later parts of the film.

Patrice Leconte's style of artistically using the lighting and his way of establishing thematic and character conflicts by the using of colour(blue and red) reminded me of Kieślowski. 'Monsieur Hire' foreshadows films like 'The Double Life of Veronique' and 'Three Colours trilogy'. It also has a Hitchcock-like vibe to it in the way the film keeps the viewer guessing and on the edge of the seat with the way the mystery elements are handled. The camera movements are fluid, especially the sideways movement which at times contradict the movement of the characters in the scene. The beautiful operatic score helps Leconte to establish the theatrically poetic vibe that he is going for.

'Monsieur Hire' is driven forward by a dynamic, passionate and tender performance by Michel Blanc. He has to play a character who stays completely detached from the rest of the world, is very unsociable and not at all gregarious. Maybe similarities can be drawn between the characters of Hire and Gerd Wiesler from 'The Lives of Others'. Blanc forces the viewer to completely sympathise with him and root for him.

In a nutshell, 'Monsieur Hire' is a poetic, touching and visually polished piece of work that I can't help but recommend.

"Monsieur Hire" is a compelling and deep character study which tells of a reclusive and peculiarly enigmatic and antisocial man, the title character, who is a suspect in a murder investigation and who obsessively watches a beautiful young woman from across his apartment courtyard. A methodically plodding, plaintive, and somber film-making masterwork, "M. Hire" offers none of the big budget bennies and cheap tinsel and titillation of the usual Hollywood fare. Likely to be a love it or hate it flick, "M. Hire" should appeal most to Europic devotees and those into psychodramas and character studies. (B+)

Solid and perfectly paced camera work and direction, players of exquisite talent and nuance, make this Simenon novel a powerful film . The winsomeness and cunning of Bonnaire, one of France's great actresses as the love object; the fanatic and unsettling calm conviction of the police detective played by Andre Wilms; the furtiveness, loneliness, and longing of the brilliant Michel Blanc; and the cowardliness and thugness of Thullier, a man made to play the thug, combine to make both a believable tale and a great metaphor for our need for "the other." The Brahms loop in the vital scenes of longing are a masterful touch. A work of great competence, sensitivity, and truth. What is essential in the novel but too subtly hinted at in the film, is anti-semitism only suggested by the revealing of M. Hire's original family name in questioning by the detective. A truly great film.