Seul Contre Tous

A butcher, recently released from jai I after a long prison sentence, has an affair with the owner of the bar where he works. She has promised him a new meat store, but changes her mind. Degraded and betrayed, he sets off for Paris with 300 francs and a gun. Filled with hate toward everything and everyone, he ponders on who most deserves to be shot.
The feature film debut Seul contre tous is a very dark description of the eighties in France, where unemployment, violence and hatred was part of everyday life. Philippe Nahon's portrayal of the butcher on a collision course with society, is well up there with de Niro's character in Taxi Driver, a film that Noe himself gladly makes parallels with. The butcher points his hate toward immigrants, women, former employers and the rich. His inner monologues fill up the film and are structured around title-cards with themes such as Morality, Tradition, Culture, Education, Religion and Class. I n one place the fi 1m warns the audience about the coming scene and gives them thirty seconds to leave the room. Such style tools are easily reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard and the French experiments with form during the 1960's. But in the end titles, Noe rather
thanks such contemporary French filmmakers as Matthieu Kassowitz, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, as well as foreign dignitaries such as Samuel Fuller and Shinya Tsukamoto.
Shot in 16mm-film which has been blown up to Cinemascope, and with literally gun shots as the markers forthe films quicker-than-lightning cuts and camera movements, Seul contre tous is a very style conscious and talented first film, which leaves no one untouched. The scene where the butcher is making up his mind whether he should kill the daughter, or start an affair with her, is something of the most tormenting one can see.
JAKOB ABRAHAMSSON

Premiärstatus
Svensk premiär: Medverkande
Philippe Nahon, Blandine Lenoir,Frankye Pain: Producent
Gaspar Noé: Manus
Gaspar Noé: Musik
Olivier Do Huu: Talat språk
French