Film Review
In
Rapt, director Lucas
Belvaux continues his unflinching commentary on the dehumanisation in
contemporary society which he began with
La Raison du plus faible, but
from the other end of the social spectrum. Here, the central
protagonist is not a hard-pressed worker who looks like a refugee from
a Ken Loach film but a filthy rich financier and fully paid-up member
of the haute bourgeoise. Inspired by the real-life
abduction of Baron Edouard-Jean Empain in 1978, the film portrays a
man's slow and humiliating descent into Hell, contrasting his brutal
treatment at the hands of a group of thuggish kidnappers with the
monstrous behaviour of his family and his colleagues when his
embarrassing peccadillos enter the public domain via a media-led
feeding frenzy.
Rapt is Belvaux's most
powerful piece of cinema to date, even bleaker and more visceral than
the gritty
Cavale segment of his famous
Trilogie (2002). What is
perhaps most remarkable about this film is that the protagonist is not
one we would ordinarily sympathise with. Stanislas Graff is an
arrogant hedonistic aristocrat who casually abuses his wealth and power
for his own amusement. Surely he deserves everything he
gets? But in the course of watching Graff's degrading decline to
the state of a virtual animal and seeing his dignity utterly wiped away
we cannot help feeling pity for him and anger at the way he is being
treated. As the inhumanity of the world around him becomes more
and more evident, Graff's own humanity is revealed to us and he becomes
almost a martyr, a pitiful wretch who ends up being stripped of his
pride, his status, his wealth and, ultimately, his
identity.
With his exceptional flair for mixing genres (here noir-like thriller
and social satire), Belvaux crafts a chilling fable for our times, one
which explores the duplicity of individuals, the venality of corporate
culture and the power of the media to totally destroy people's lives.
Yvan Attal's portrayal of the central character is harrowing in its
realism, a gut-wrenching tour de force that throws into sharp relief
the cruelty and viciousness that exists within our society - not just
in the heads of violent criminals, but also in the boardroom, the
newspaper offices, even the family home.
Rapt is an intensely provocative
reflection of a society that has lost both its moral compass and its
soul.
Following the success of
Rapt
at home and abroad, the American independent film production company
Smuggler Films has brought the rights to a remake. The film,
provisionally titled
Abduction,
is currently in pre-production and is scheduled for release in 2013.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Next Lucas Belvaux film:
38 témoins (2012)
Film Synopsis
Successful businessman Stanislas Graff discovers the true meaning of
horror when a band of thugs kidnap him and subject him to the most
degrading and brutal period of captivity. Graff refuses to crack
and instead chooses to endure this barbarity with courage and
dignity. When he is finally released he faces an even greater
ordeal. Everyone seems to have found out every sordid detail of
his private life...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.