I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed details
| Format: | 15 DVD |
|---|---|
| Starring: | jean-Pierre Leaud, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Mathieu Amalric, Fabienne Babe, Charles Berling, Simon Abkarian, Josiane Balasko |
| Director: | Serge Le Peron |
| Genres: | Thriller - Crime, Drama, World Cinema - French |
| Studio: | FUSION MEDIA |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed |
15 Feature |
DVD Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 38 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | 26 Feb 2007 |
| Main languages: | French |
| Subtitles: | English |
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Most helpful review
Complex thriller
By IanStewart (129 reviews) from Melton Mowbray , 16 Sep 2007[Highly rated reviewer]
This film is a dramatisation of the 1965 political kidnapping of Moroccan revolutionary, Mehdi ben Barka. The opening scene shows the central character Georges Figon (Charles Berling) lying dead in his apartment, with his own eerie voice-over talking to the police 'lads' who are investigating the crime. From there, the story winds back in a complex series of seemingly disconnected scenes, which finally come together to give some sense of why and how Figon got killed. I said 'some sense', because the story ends without any neat clarity about who did what. Is each character a gangster, a secret agent, or a mixture of the two? And whose side is each person on - or are they playing both sides at once? We never learn that for sure. I'm guessing that the real world of espionage is pretty much like this.
The acting is excellent throughout. Berling has a 'marathon' part, hardly ever being off screen throughout the film. Ben Barka himself is well played by a remarkable look-alike, Simon Abkarian. (There is newsreel footage early in the film, where we see the real ben Barka).
Oddly enough, maybe the acting is too good. What I mean is that all the characters in the story (with the possible exception of ben Barka) are convincingly portrayed as being self-centred, mercenary, decidedly unattractive people. Berling plays the amoral Figon so well that I never attached to his character - Figon was a guy that I just wouldn't have wanted to know, so in the end I wasn't much interested who had killed him or why.
I'd say, watch this one if you'd like to see a very well-produced, complex thriller, one that will get your brain working at full blast just to follow the plot.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(11)are all governments corrupt
By andysbar (34 reviews) from London , 03 Dec 2011a political thriller disguised as film noir[of a sort] apparently based on a shameful French truth its storytelling style may be a little to frenzied for some viewers but its well made and i sugest anyone renting this watch the interview with the director in the extras,are all governments corrupt ?- Was this review helpful to you?
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Mysterious
By ida55 (7 reviews) from BudeCornwall , 03 May 2009This French film is convoluted, involving and well worth your time. In case you don't know who Ben Barka was, check Wikipedia before you watch te DVD. You'll be glad you did.- Was this review helpful to you?
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I saw Ben Barka get killed
By a customer from Ledbury , 15 Apr 2009A complex thriller that will get your little grey cells working overtime. Good script and acting. Definitely recomend it.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Customer Review
By a customer from UK , 23 Jun 2008Charles Berling's performance as Georges Figon is outstanding and shows a twitchy, nerve-wracked, delusional chancer who becomes fatally drawn into an assassination conspiracy. Jean-Pierre Leaud as the film director, Georges Franju, withered as an old fig, is also admirable. Indeed, all the principal actors work well together and provide a strength which does much to hold together a movie that sometimes trips itself up by attempting to offer too many layers of a story simultaneously. However the appearance of Paris in the mid-1960's is effectively evoked, as are its political tensions, and the whole is underpinned by a very good jazz score.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Really worthy it!
By a customer from Bermondsey, London , 31 Mar 2008This is not an easy one-a French take on film noir/thriller but it does deliver. Watch the interview with the director at the end - the film is much more than it looks it is very ambitious and it does deliver! Really worthy it!- Was this review helpful to you?
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