Persécution (2009)

Director:

Patrice Chéreau

Writers:

Patrice Chéreau (screenplay)
Anne-Louise Trividic (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 December 2009 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The solitary Daniel and Sonia share an uneasy love/hate relationship. Daniel's life is disrupted by...

Plot Keywords:

Male Rear Nudity | Female Nudity | One Word Title | Male Frontal Nudity

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Romain Duris	...	Daniel
Charlotte Gainsbourg	...	Sonia
Jean-Hugues Anglade	...	Le fou
Gilles Cohen	...	Michel
Alex Descas	...	Thomas
Michel Duchaussoy	...	Le vieil homme
Tsilla Chelton	...	La vieille dame
Mika Tard	...	La serveuse
Yannick Soulier	...	L'homme de 40 ans
Hiam Abbass	...	Marie
Fabio Zenoni	...	Un copain au café
Xavier Robic
Nelly Antignac
Louis Bellanti
Bastien Bernini
Nathalie Kousnetzoff
Julie Lescat
Patrick Mandon
Patrick Martinot
Corinne Masiero

Directed by
Patrice Chéreau

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Patrice Chéreau		screenplay
Anne-Louise Trividic		screenplay

Produced by
Rémi Burah	....	co-producer
Christoph Hahnheiser	....	co-producer
Bruno Levy	....	producer

Original Music by
Éric Neveux

Cinematography by
Yves Cape

Film Editing by
François Gédigier

Casting by
Pascale Béraud
Jeanne Millet

Costume Design by
Caroline de Vivaise

Makeup Department
Gérald Porcher	....	key hair stylist
Gill Robillard	....	key makeup artist

Production Management
Emmanuelle Jacobson-Roques	....	assistant unit manager
Olivier Lagny	....	unit manager
Nicolas Royer	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Antoine Garceau	....	assistant director
Cecilia Rouaud	....	second assistant director
Lucie Wagner	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Cyril Père	....	property master

Sound Department
Charlotte Butrak	....	trainee sound editor
Guerric Catala	....	dialogue editor
Butrack Charlotte	....	assistant sound editor
Olivier Dô Hùu	....	sound mixer
Thomas Guytard	....	boom operator
Alain Lévy	....	post-synchronisation
Michel Monier	....	sound consultant: Dolby
Nadine Muse	....	sound editor
Guillaume Sciama	....	sound
Damien Tronchot	....	assistant foley engineer
Jean-François Viguié	....	assistant sound editor

Visual Effects by
Frédéric Savoir	....	visual effects supervisor

Stunts
Stéphane Boulay	....	stunts
Jean-Jacques Domingues	....	stunts
Pascal Garnier	....	stunts
Gregory Loffredo	....	stunts
Laurent Mulot	....	stunts
Christophe Roblin	....	stunt driver
Olivier Schneider	....	fight choreographer
Sebastien Soudais	....	stunt double: Jean Hugues Anglade

Camera and Electrical Department
Brice Bailly	....	electrician
Stéphane Bourgoin	....	chief electrician
Maxime Cointe	....	first assistant camera: "b" camera
Mathieu Dequirot	....	electrician
Virgile Gomez-Fernandez	....	electrician
Antoine Gueugneau	....	additional camera operator
Marie Lafont	....	video assist operator
Tom Mitaux	....	electrician
Fabienne Octobre	....	first assistant camera
Mathieu Quarrit	....	grip
Thierry Ramanana	....	grip
Dougé Raphaël	....	second assistant camera

Editorial Department
Guerric Catala	....	assistant editor
Ornella Del-Vecchio	....	digital conformation
Sophia Del-Vecchio	....	digital conformation
Isabelle Julien	....	colorist
Frederic Jupin	....	digital conformation
Sylvie Lager	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Loris Bernot	....	music assistant engineer
Stéphane Reichart	....	music scoring mixer

Other crew
Lysiane Biagini	....	location scout
Suzanne Durrenberger	....	script supervisor
Séverine Guignard	....	production secretary
Aurore Jactat	....	legal advisor
Frédéric Savoir	....	consultant: digital technology

Production Companies

• Move Movie (co-production)
• arte France Cinéma (co-production)
• Azor Films (co-production)
• Ce Qui Me Meut Motion Pictures (co-production)
• Mars Distribution (co-production) (as Mars Films)
• Black Forest Films (in partnership with)
• Uni Etoile 6 (in association with)
• Cofimage 20 (in association with)
• Sofica Soficinéma 4 (in association with)
• Soficinéma 5 (in association with)
• Canal+ (participation)
• CinéCinéma (support)
• Arte France (support)
• ZDF/Arte (support)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (support)

Distributors

• Mars Distribution (2009) (France) (theatrical)
• Arte Vidéo (2010) (France) (DVD) (also Blu-ray)
• Against Gravity (2010) (Poland) (theatrical)
• Cooperative Nouveau Cinema (2010) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2010) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Orlando Films (2010) (Israel) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• Amazing Digital Studios

Other Companies

• Amazing Digital Studios  titles

Also Known As:

"Hajsza" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Katadioxi" - Greece (festival title)
"Perseguição" - Brazil (festival title)
"Zagubieni w milosci" - Poland (imdb display title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

France | Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | Netherlands:12

Company:

Move Movie

Those who love Chéreau can take the next train

"Persecution: active, systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group or individual."

After watching "Persecution", you might just wonder who is really persecuted: Daniel, the short-tempered main character, stalked by a stranger who claims he's in love with him, Sonia, Daniel's girlfriend with whom he argues frequently and can hardly connect, or simply the spectator. Watching a film like this is anything but a treat: unlikeable characters, stark settings, ugly photography, it is French "psychological" cinema at its worst. I don't have a problem with Chéreau, I understand he makes films for an adult and educated audience. Some of his daring choices (as in "Intimacy" for instance) are challenging but interesting, at the very least enough thought provoking to get something out of them. Unfortunately, "Persecution" is a pretentious and overblown piece of work, as if Chéreau gradually became more and more full of himself over the years to eventually forget one essential thing: the audience. "Gabrielle", released in 2005, was already a "stiff" and dry film, well played and well directed, yet haughty and cold. As Chéreau's works get more and more personal, spectators are more and more kept at a distance by the filmmaker. The problem is that films are made for an audience (even if it's not a broad one), not just for the pleasure of wasting money. When artists create works that not only have no appeal for most of the people, but also have seemingly no clear purpose, I believe they lose the sense of reality. I assume that is what happened to Patrice Chéreau, who has proved with other films that he is more than an able director. I don't mind watching a film where the main character is complex, obsessive and quite unlikeable (remember "Naked" directed by Mike Leigh). I don't mind watching wordy films (I've had my share of Woody Allen's and Eric Rohmer's flicks). But I resent films where I am left out, where the story has nothing to catch my attention. Romain Duris (who plays Daniel) is as convincing as a home renovator as Gérard Depardieu as a nun but is very good at getting on everyone's nerves, including the spectators', Charlotte Gainsbourg as the aloof girlfriend is remarkably dull, Jean-Hugues Anglade's intriguing character is sacrificed, secondary characters are not fleshed out as they should have been (poor Hiam Abbass has only a few lines to say). Even what would have been interesting leads were given up by Chéreau (for instance, we never know whether the stalker's character is a figment of Daniel's imagination or not, and that could have added an uncanny touch to "Persecution"). At its worst, the film is extremely repetitive when things begin quickly to stall. In spite of a good opening scene, I couldn't care less about what was going to happen to any of the characters. In other words, I never felt that "Persecution" was a movie really worth my time.