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Fred
1997 Crime / Thriller / Drama
 Review
Several filmmakers have attempted to combine social realist drama and
the traditional film noir thriller but few have been as successful as
French director Pierre Jolivet, who has practically created a new genre
in French cinema, the policier social.
Fred is probably the best
example of this – a tough, suspenseful thriller with all the obvious
film noir trappings, but relocated to the grim urban landscape of the
French industrial suburbs. Other good examples of Jolivet’s work
include: En plein coeur (1998) and Ma petite entreprise (1999).Pierre Jolivet’s films are distinguished by their hard-edged realism and well-drawn characters with whom an audience can easily identify. In Fred, Vincent Lindon gives a sympathetic performance as the classic noir hero, a man who becomes an outsider merely because he is unable to find work. Even the cops, represented by François Berléand, appear to be at a loss, relying on heavy drinking to make their lacklustre lives bearable. Jolivet paints a gloomy world in which potentially good people are mired in despair and ennui, becoming victims of the thugs and hoodlums who prey upon a disillusioned post-industrial society like vultures feasting on a decaying corpse. © filmsdefrance.com 2009 Write a review for this film...User Comments
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Director:
Pierre Jolivet
Starring: Vincent Lindon, Clotilde Courau, François Berléand, Stéphane Jobert, Albert Dray Synopsis
Fred is an unemployed crane operator who lives in the industrial
suburbs with his girlfriend Lisa. The latter has a young son, the
product of another relationship, and works in research
laboratory. The burden of unemployment weighs heavily on Fred and
so when his friend Michel asks him to do him a favour, he jumps at the
chance. It is only later that he begins to smell a rat. Why
couldn’t Michel drive that lorry to the depot instead of him? Was
he mixed up in something illegal? Another acquaintance,
Yvan, persuades Fred to go with him to the site of a rundown
factory. Here, the two men are attacked by two strangers.
Yvan falls to his death and Fred realises that he will be an obvious
scapegoat for his murder. Sure enough, it isn’t long before the
police come knocking on Lisa’s door. Determined not to be
imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Fred sets out to prove his
innocence...
Credits
 More French Thriller |
© filmsdefrance.com 2009