Michou d'Auber (2007)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.6/10   

Réalisateur:

Thomas Gilou

Writers:

Jean Cosmos (writer)
Thomas Gilou (writer)
(suite)

Release Date:

28 février 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drame

Plot:

Set in France during the struggle for Algerian independence, Messaoud's mother is terminally ill and his father...

Avis des utilisateurs:

Forget the politics, enjoy the human relations and comic situations

Ensemble

Gérard Depardieu	...	Georges
Nathalie Baye	...	Gisèle
Mathieu Amalric	...	Jacques
Samy Seghir	...	Messaoud / Michou
Medy Kerouani	...	Abdel
Mohamed Fellag	...	Akli (as Fellag)
Catherine Hiegel	...	La directrice de l'orphelinat
Philippe Nahon	...	Le cafetier
Bernard Yerlès	...	Le copain de Georges
Gérald Laroche	...	Robert
Chick Ortega	...	Viguier
Marie Kremer	...	Vendeuse papeterie
Gilles Détroit	...	Le curé
Robert Plagnol	...	Duval
Ludovic Berthillot	...	Max
Jean-François Gallotte	...	Berrutin
Romain Kraeutlin	...	Paul (as Romain Kraeutlein)
Cartouche	...	Messaoud
Valérie Mairesse	...	Monique
Romain Le Bourlat	...	Éric Viguier
Manon Tournier	...	Sylvie
Christian Bouillette	...	Le maire
Manu Layotte	...	Gabriel
Jean-Gabriel Nordmann	...	Officier militaire
Marie Legault	...	Odette
Roland Menou	...	Surveillant
Jérôme Keen	...	Employé Assistance Publique
Jean-Pierre Moulin	...	Père de Gisèle
Yvette Petit	...	Mère de Gisèle
Afida Tahri	...	Aïcha
Abdelhafid Metalsi	...	Saïd
Josette Motteau	...	Madame Lurcat
Alice Lautner	...	Marie
Alain Pigeaux	...	Vendeur du bazar
Baptiste Boget	...	Blondel
Jérôme Barroin	...	Garcin
Jocelyn Goyard	...	Claude
Alban Thuault	...	Pierrot
Messaoud Hattau	...	Le vieux Kabyle (as Messaoud Hattou)
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Audrey Ciais	...	La bonne du curé (uncredited)
Charles de Gaulle	...	Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
Quentin Grosset	...	Un orphelin (uncredited)
Benjamin Lemaire	...	Un orphelin (uncredited)

Réalisé par
Thomas Gilou

Scénaristes (in alphabetical order)
Jean Cosmos		writer
Thomas Gilou		writer
Messaoud Hattau		writer (as Messaoud Hattou)

Produit par
Luc Besson	....	executive producer
Michel Feller	....	producer
Pierre-Ange Le Pogam	....	producer
Michel Propper	....	executive producer
Mehdi Sayah	....	assistant producer

Musique originale
Alexandre Desplat

Image
Robert Alazraki

Montage
Francine Sandberg

Distribution des rôles
Fabienne Bichet

Création des décors
Laure Lepelley

Création des costumes
Catherine Bouchard

Directeur de production
Gregory Barrau	....	unit production manager
Eric Bassoff	....	post-production supervisor
Kader Djedra	....	unit production manager
Julien Flick	....	assistant unit manager
Marc Olla	....	production manager

Assistant réalisateur
Barbara Dupont	....	second assistant director
Julien Greco	....	additional second assistant director
Maurice Hermet	....	first assistant director
Sébastien Marziniak	....	additional assistant director
Romaric Thomas	....	trainee assistant director

Art Department
Tom Danos	....	carpenter
Britta Demasse	....	set dresser
Antoine Dore	....	property master
Rouches Frank	....	prop buyer
Anne Pelosi	....	assistant art director

Technicien du son
Fabien Adelin	....	sound mixer
Adrien Arnaud	....	foley editor
Emmanuel Augeard	....	sound editor
Thomas Bernard	....	sound recordist
Lohengrin Braconnier	....	sound recordist
Philippe Lauprete	....	boom operator
Philippe Lecoeur	....	sound
Bernard Le Roux	....	sound mixer
Fred Mays	....	post-synchronization

Effets spéciaux
Pascal Molina	....	special effects supervisor

Visual Effects
Stephanie Broussaud	....	Lustre assistant
Alain Carsoux	....	visual effects director
Nicolas Daniel	....	Lustre assistant
Nicolas Daniel	....	video operator: Duboi
Thierry Delobel	....	visual effects supervisor
Séverine De Wever	....	visual effects coordinator
Geoffroy Givry	....	digital compositor
Pierre Gosset	....	senior compositor
Élodie Ichter	....	Lustre assistant
Wulff Jeremy	....	digital compositor
Abdel Ali Kassou	....	I/O manager
Abdel Ali Kassou	....	imaging manager
Nicolas Kermel	....	digital artist
Emmanuel Le Courbe	....	digital compositor
Guillaume Le Gouez	....	digital compositor
Benoit Philippon	....	digital effects artist
Cyril Pichard	....	research & development
Joel Pinto	....	digital compositor
Sebastien Rame	....	digital compositor
Olivier Ryard	....	digital compositor
Rossi Sébastien	....	visual effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Yves Agostini	....	camera operator
Brigitte Barbier	....	director of photography: second unit
Pierre Garnier	....	key grip
Maxime Héraud	....	first assistant camera
Philippe Leroy	....	electrician
Flavio Manriquez	....	video assistant
Lionel Perrin	....	first assistant camera: "b" camera
Jérôme Prébois	....	still photographer
Vincent Richard	....	electrician
Nathalie Savale	....	second assistant camera
Loïc Savouré	....	first assistant camera
Benoît Theunissen	....	camera operator

Casting Department
Anne Barbier	....	extras casting
Audrey Ciais	....	casting assistant
Marie de Laubier	....	casting: children

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Nathalie Chesnais	....	costume supervisor

Editorial Department
Basile Belkhiri	....	avid technician: Digital Factory
Caroline Dulac	....	assistant editor
Celia Simonnet	....	post-production assistant
Sidonie Waserman	....	post-production coordinator

Music Department
Jérôme Lateur	....	music supervisor
Vincent Lebegue	....	music legal coordinator
Elise Luguern	....	music production supervisor
Bruno Mercere	....	music recording mixer
Mehdi Sayah	....	assistant music supervisor

Divers
Virginie Audouard	....	production assistant
Pascaline Buthon	....	production assistant
Barbara Constantine	....	script supervisor
Maxime Delauney	....	set production assistant
Laure Flammarion	....	production assistant
Jean-Baptiste Jay	....	remote head technician
Lilas Saadat	....	assistant location manager: Renfort
Harmel Sbraire	....	coach: children
Vincent Vesco	....	location manager

Production Companies

• Europa Corp.
• TF1 Films Production
• MP Productions (executive production)
• Sofica Europacorp

Distributors

• EuropaCorp. Distribution (2007) (France) (theatrical)

Technicien des effets spéciaux

• Duboicolor

Durée:

France:124 min

Pays:

France

Langue:

Français

Couleur:

Couleur

Classification:

Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Portugal:M/12

Company:

Europa Corp.

Forget the politics, enjoy the human relations and comic situations

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

As regards this film I am in a bit of a quandary as to whether it will be successful beyond the frontiers of France. I have just seen it today, having previously seen appetizing trailers from it during preceding visits to the cinema. When all is said and done, the film more than does justice to these trailers. I do not agree with the politics of the film but do admit that on a human level and in many other domains the film sports an impressive battery of strong points. Foreign spectators need to be advised that some knowledge of French history during the 1960's is necessary to fully appreciate and comprehend what is going on and why certain things happen. Basically, Algeria was a colony of France from about 1830 onwards. During the late 1950's and beginning of the 1960's there were uprisings of a vociferous minority of the indigenous population seeking independence from France and rule by the Arabs ( who themselves had colonized the same country some six hundred years previously and taken it from the Berbers and Kabyles who were in fact the original inhabitants ). These uprisings culminated in what is known in plain English as the War of Algeria but in euphemistic French as "Les Evenements d'Algérie". Because of this situation, algerians residing in metropolitan France ( Algeria was at that time a department of France like any other ) were the butt of jokes and insults on the part of metropolitan French whereas the "Français d'Algerie" were also the butt of hatred, jokes and attacks buy the local algerians. Once the war was under way there was torture and attacks both by the Arabs and by the French Army. Add to this that the main revolt movement, the FLN or Front de Libération Nationale was being aided and abetted by leftist and socialist movements in metropolitan France. De Gaulle was called to defuse the situation, and promised everything to everybody, but finally agreed to Independence for the country, without taking into consideration the million and a half people of European extraction living there, this led to a mass exodus in the early sixties with all these people rejoining metropolitan France, and having to put up with insults and attacks from the indigenous French. Because of this, there was the impression that de Gaulle had betrayed his people and a movement called O.A.S. (Organisation de l'Armée Secrète) was born. These people hated de Gaulle and hated the Arabs at the same time. Some of these people, or their sympathizers at least are to be seen in the film, and this explains some of the violent scenes and exchanges. The independence of Algeria was signed on March 19th 1962 ( 45 years ago today itself ! ) So much so for the politics. It is not interesting but necessary to know a little about it to understand the film. In 1960, an algerian immigrant living near to Paris, in a suburb called Aubervilliers, deposits his sons with the local social services so as to be able to return to his country for family reasons. The child is proposed to a family from the centre of France ( Berry Region - around Chateauroux and Bourges ) to take the child into their care. For reasons which I explained earlier, the child's arab origins are disguised and his hair is painted blond. He has to go to catholic church, and change his Christian name from Messaoud to Michel. His family name is changed from it original arab one to "Daubert" ( A play on words from D'Auber(villiers) = Michel from Aubervilliers. Although the foster mother is aware of his origins, the foster father is not, though he gradually realises this intuitively by the end of the film. So Michel lives with his foster parents on a farm on a village in the Berry region and goes to school there. The foster parents also have a Mongol boy who gives them a helping hand with the animals etc etc. The strong points of the film are the perfect reconstitution of 1960's France, the music, the excellent picture quality and the lively scenario. The foster Parents are Nathalie Baye and Gérard Depardieu who are of course excellent actors and Depardieu's performance is one of his best. Depardieu is in his element here because in real life he was born and brought up as a boy in Châteauroux in this same region of France. There are some unpleasant scenes of violence in the film and also some adultery, both of these shocked me but the humour and lively scenario more than make up for this. The boy actor is excellent and the spectator sympathises immediately with his plight and follows with excitement the unfolding events in his new life. The film appears to me to be loaded politically in favour of the Algerians and I find this reprehensible, as I think that the politics of the time could have been dispensed with - the Algerians were no less guilty than the French of violent acts and torture. There are also references to the Algerian custom of slitting a sheep's throat which is something very disgusting for the French but we then see Depardieu slitting a live pigs belly and all its entrails falling out and this shocks the little boy ............. So whilst I do not condone the political manipulation of this film ( and something common to all films of Thomas Gilou ), the story itself is highly entertaining and though the screening time is close to two hours, there is not a minute's boredom. Noteworthy as well is the inclusion of a number of songs from the 1960's sung by the great comedian Bourvil. This is one film that I shall definitely be watching out for on DVD and I do hope that is has some international success if only because of the SPLENDID performance of every one of its actors !