The Common Man (French: Dupont Lajoie) is a 1975 French drama film directed by Yves Boisset[2] and produced by Sofracima. It was entered into the 25th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize.[3] In the United States, the film was released under the title Rape of Innocence.[4]
| The Common Man | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Yves Boisset |
| Written by | Yves Boisset Jean-Pierre Bastid |
| Produced by | Gisèle Rebillon Catherine Winter |
| Starring | Jean Carmet Jean Bouise Jean-Pierre Marielle |
| Cinematography | Jacques Loiseleux |
| Edited by | Albert Jurgenson |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $10.9 million[1] |
Plot
editGeorges Lajoie is a white family man who owns a small Paris café where his clientele routinely complain about immigrants in the country. Georges, his wife Ginette, and college-age son Léon go on holiday to Loulou's campsite, an annual seaside retreat in the south of France. Once there, they reunite with their family friends the Schumachers and the Colins. Together, they gossip about the non-French vacationers. Brigitte, the 21-year-old daughter of Madame Colin, catches the attention of Georges.
One day while wandering beyond the campgrounds by himself, Georges stumbles upon a nude, sunbathing Brigitte. He flirts with her, but when she bluntly refuses his advances, the situation ends in rape and murder. Georges dumps Brigitte's body near a construction site and barracks where several Algerian laborers live. When the body is discovered, the vacationers are quick to blame the Algerians and resolve to seek vengeance, with Georges stoking the mob's bloodlust. Police Inspector Boulard is assigned to investigate the crime, but his work is continually impeded by self-serving politicians, hesitant witnesses and his own superiors, who pressure him to blame innocent immigrant workers instead of the guilty "honest French citizens."
Cast
edit- Jean Carmet as Georges Lajoie
- Pierre Tornade as Colin
- Jean Bouise as Detective Boulard
- Michel Peyrelon as Albert Schumacher
- Ginette Garcin as Ginette Lajoie
- Pascale Roberts as Madame Colin
- Jean-Pierre Marielle as Léo Tartaffione
- Robert Castel as Loulou
- Pino Caruso as Vigorelli
- Isabelle Huppert as Brigitte Colin
- Jacques Chailleux as Léon Lajoie
- Henri Garcin as the senior official
- Odile Poisson as Mme Schumacher
- Victor Lanoux as the Strong man
- Mohamed Zinet as Saïd's brother
Critical response
editThough the film was a commercial success in France, it received criticisms for "failing to fully explore the issues of French anti-Arab racism that lie at the heart of the narrative".[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ JP. "Dupont Lajoie (1975)- JPBox-Office". Retrieved 10 January 2017.
- ^ Fountain, Clarke (2012). "NY Times: The Common Man". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
- ^ "Berlinale 1975: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (29 July 1976). "Boisset's 'Rape'". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
- ^ Higbee, Will (2002). "Yves Boisset's Dupont Lajoie (1974): racism, civic cinema and the 'immigrant question'". Studies in French Cinema. 2 (3): 147–156. doi:10.1386/sfci.2.3.147. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
External links
edit- The Common Man at IMDb
- Dupont Lajoie at the TCM Movie Database