Le couperet

Loved it! Loved it! A terrific satire of the modern corporate downsizing which destroys a man's pride and then everything else. Better yet, this social satire is packaged as an absurd black comedy - serial killer story. A picture of the world we're living in. Don't take the killings too seriously. Obviously, they are a metaphor for the desperation of the man. It's a little bit like "Shock to the System" but I liked this one better. Whether you laugh at this movie today or not, tomorrow this will be the reality for most all of us when only endless service jobs will have remained. Or, flipping burgers. I highly recommend this socially conscious movie, as I applaud its director for the courage to make it. Bravo!

Maybe the best 'noir' movie I've seen in the last years, and definitively the best Donald Westlake adaptation so far, "Arcadia" is the story of a man obsessed with a job, who thinks that the only way to get it is killing every candidate who can be better than him, and must cope with his many mistakes and family problems. It sounds like a tragedy, or a drama, but it is the best piece of black (or not so black) humor combined with noir I remember, which is surprising: I didn't know that Costa-Gavras had so much sense of humor. There are many symbols, allegories, but above it all, it mentions every controversial and denounce topic in existence for just one, two or three minutes, just to mention it. The result is, incredibly and amazingly, funny, intellectually engaging, extremely suspenseful (the results of every situation and, at last, the end of the movie are unpredictable) and a master class of narrative progression, at least until the last 20 minutes, where the movie drags. But until then it is a flawless masterpiece, and it deserves to be watched over and over again. José García is another surprise, a very good comedian.

I completely disagree with the reviewer who called this a'TV movie'. it's anything but... (did he see it on a TV screen?). It's a thriller that actually deserves to be called by that over-used adjective 'Hitchcockian' as we gradually identify more and more what the lead character who starts off as what, a hit-man, a serial-killer? As we get into his motives and hit and miss way of carrying them out together with unrelated encounters with the cops we are willing, despite ourselves, that he will succeed. Why does this not have a US distributor yet? I saw it with an appreciative crowd in Paris earlier this year. Jose Garcia who I last saw overdoing it in a so-so comedy called APRES VOUS is very good as the ordinary guy pushed to the limit and Karen Viard also always watchable as his blandly oblivious wife, who also becomes involved via a different set of crimes involving their family.

People who characterize this film as a comedy obviously haven't got it. The comic element is just a thin surface. This is a tragic story and a very strong political statement. Obviously Bruno's decisions and actions are absurd, but his circumstances are not. The movie offers an incisive look at the dark reality of chronic unemployment. Corporate greed leads to story after story after story of desperation. Westlake and Gavras know that in order to pass the message you have to lighten up the atmosphere (a la Truman Show), or else the viewer won't sit the whole movie. In order to appreciate the film you have to marginalize the main plot element (the murder story) and concentrate on all the subplots.

The thirty-nine years old executive Bruno Davert (José Garcia) has been working for fifteen years in a paper company. After a merging operation with a Romania's company, he is fired in a downsizing. While unemployed for two years, Bruno loses his self-esteem and sanity and his family loses the middle-class lifestyle without cable television, Internet and regular consumption. He concludes that there is too much competition in his sector for a few job positions and decides to literally eliminate his competitors, killing those more qualified than him.

"Le Couperet" is a sarcastic view of the greed of the companies and the effects of downsizing in the self-esteem and sanity of a man. The awareness of the economical situation in France (but could be in most of the nations) and black-humor of Costas-Gravas gives a fantastic satire to the greed of the corporations, aiming exclusively profits without any care for the human beings. The sub-employment, as means of survival; the exacerbated use of merchandising to force the consumption; the situation of the family, being emotionally shattered with the stressful situation of the husband and father; all of these elements are ironically presented in this tough and realistic social satire through a French middle-class family. José Garcia is stunning in the role of a bitter man fighting to find job position and serial killer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Corte" ("The Cut")