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Ivresse du pouvoir, L' (2006)

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17 comments in total

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22 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Based on "Elf affair", 1 marzo 2006

Author: jfseignol de Paris, France

This new movie by Claude Chabrol is directly inspired by a true story. The "Affaire Elf", named by the french oil-company, was a large financial and political scandal where several top-level french politicians where involved, such as Roland Dumas (ex foreign-affairs minister) or Charles Pasqua (ex minister of interior). As in the true story, a judge is investigating about some corruption in business between a french major company and some African states. Most of the characters in the movie are very similar to real persons involved in the "Affaire Elf".

The movie focuses on two subjects: the first one is how the judge (Isabelle Huppert) becomes more and more addicted to the power she uses by sending powerful businessmen to jail; the second one is the wide-scale cynicalness of people involved in the scandal, used to play with public money and take advantage of this without seeing anything immoral.

A good movie, very funny because, as stated at the beginning "any similarity with real person or event would be, as it is said, fortuitousness".

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21 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Unforgettable., 19 febrero 2006

Author: tarone586 de Germany

Claude Chabrol return to his form with this masterpiece. I saw it at the Berlinale and the battle for tickets was worth it. Chabrol directs his actors in a very subtle way; it is not the main plot points that arouse your emotion, but small moments in the game between Charmant Killman and her opponents. Although all opponents are deeply bad people, Chabrol succeeds in giving them "things" that make them human beings and recognizable characters. Including all supporting and even one-line-characters. Watch Killmans Bodyguards, for example. Watch how Chabrol begins and ends scenes - very unusual. Watch the juxtaposition of Killmans life as a judge and her private life. I won't say much about the film itself, as it is good to know nothing about it before. It's a wise film, "La Piovra" in a cinema version (and much shorter), dealing with a topic that is most important in our western industrial countries - silent corruption. Most times the corruption theme in films bores, but Chabrol and Huppert make it a joy.

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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Chabrol back on form and back in Paris, 28 agosto 2006

Author: Ralph Theijs (ralph.theijs@novib.nl) de The Hague, Holland

You don't HAVE to know the ELF-scandal to appreciate this, but it helps. Not long ago I asked my french prof at the Alliance Francaise to explain these funny french scandals (ELF through Clearstream 2) and he had to abstain: too complicated, even for a native Frenchman.

The company is called FMG in the film: just as Kubrick went down a letter in the alphabet to go from IBM to HAL, Chabrol goes up a letter in the alphabet to go from ELF to FMG. Nice touch! On the other hand, the cigar in the cognac was a tad overdone, to my tastes.

Huppert confirms once again she is in a class all of her own. Rest of the cast, Berléand, Canto, Vernier, Duclos (!); all solid.

For the very hardest core of french movie buffs only: did anyone else recognize the two guards – one bald, the other dark-haired – as Chabrol's homage to Zardi et Attal who did numerous duo's like this for him and other directors? Best Chabrol in years, but my judgment may be a bit colored: after 30 Chabrols, this was the first I saw in a theater instead of on my couch.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Not comedy as in Ha-ha., 18 febrero 2007

Author: Paul Creeden de Boston,MA,USA

I confess right from the beginning to being a fan of Isabelle Huppert. I am also a student of Claude Chabrol films. I say 'student', because his films are intellectual and challenging in nature. This film is a film of our times. And its themes are also timeless. The flawed protagonist, Huppert, lives shamelessly in front of the camera. She is very human, as well as idealistic. And her idealism is personal and competitive, as well as moralistic. Chabrol has captured grand corruption in a simple narrative about people alone and in conversation. Never slick, always homely and familiar. Isabelle Huppert's performance is tempered and unusually restrained. Her aptitude for endowing her characters with mannerism and eccentricity by using simple gestures and facial expressions is in full play here. This is a film that requires effort to appreciate, but it leaves you feeling quite full.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Elf Hazard, 19 octubre 2006

Author: writers_reign de London, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

There's a lovely tongue-in-cheek disclaimer at the beginning of this film to the effect that neither the events nor the characters depicted are based on real people or events, especially, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, the Elf scandal which rocked France lo, these few moons ago. No film of course should presuppose a previous knowledge on the part of the audience; the average film-goer outside France will have little or no knowledge of Elf and the French Government Ministers involved in corruption just as the average film-goer will know of Marie Antoinette only that she once said 'let them eat cake' and by coincidence Sophia Coppola's take on Marie Antoinette opens here, in London, tomorrow, whilst L'Ivresse du pouvoir is showing as part of the London Film Festival so it's a case of how do you like your corruption, in the 20th century heart of France or 17th century suburban Paris, that's about Versailles of it. What matters in either case is the quality of the film-making; is it good, bad or indifferent. I've yet to see the Coppola but the Chabrol is out of the right bottle. Not a lot happens dramatically despite a nobbled car and a leap from a window, it's basically cat and mouse between Huppert's incorruptible judge and the highly corruptible ministers/big business she's attempting to nail - if she IS incorruptible Huppert is not above getting high on her power to imprison some of the fattest cats with their whiskers in the cream (yet again a title has been badly translated; the literal meaning of the French title is the drunkenness of power or, more colloquially, drunk on power) which makes the French title more clear. Anybody who expects Huppert to turn in even a mediocre performance is seriously stupid and here she is right on top of her game well supported by Francois Berleand, who only a couple of years ago played her husband in Les Soeurs fachees, and here proves, as they used to say in Zenda, an opponent worthy of her steel. Go see, trust me.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Good, but ..., 22 abril 2007

Author: kosmasp

... could've been better. At least that's what I think. This movie does start with a phenomenal pace and you get sucked into the story, but then after a little while it drags and you're wondering where the passion of the first few minutes has gone. I wondered that and you might too.

Let's take a look at the actors though, because they are doing a fabulous job here. And the movie will stand of fall for you (the viewer), with your perception of Jeanne Charmant-Killman (played by Isabelle Huppert). If you don't like her, than you will hate this movie.

Despite all that, this is still an engaging film, that has a few surprises up it's sleeves, so it's up to you, if this genre is something worth watching.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Seattle International Film Festival - David Jeffers for SIFFblog.com, 19 junio 2006

Author: rdjeffers de Seattle

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Saturday June 17, 9:30pm The Neptune

An invitation to the home of a great chef requires no knowledge of the menu beforehand; it will surely be a culinary delight. The latest offering from the great French filmmaker Claude Chabrol, A Comedy of Power (L'lvresse du pouvior) is just such a feast. A powerful French magistrate is on the prowl against corporate corruption to the occasional dismay of her less than honest superiors. Issabelle Huppert stars as Jeanne Charmant-Killman, driven by her work at the cost of her personal life and ultimately her safety. Chabrol allows his powerful and richly composed camera-work to obsess on this exquisite actress throughout the film, who remains as remarkably beautiful now as she was in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. As she blithely moves from office to home an air of tense anticipation builds with the constant looming threat of retaliation from the men of power she is morally charged with pursuing.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
flawed but worthwhile, 9 junio 2007

Author: Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) de United States

In November 2003, after a sensational trial that rocked the Republic of France for four scandal-soaked months, three key executives of that country's ELF oil company were found guilty of massive corporate malfeasance on a scale not seen in Europe since the turbulent days of World War II. The graft, money laundering, and granting of political favors for which these men were convicted extended into the upper reaches of the government as well, so the scandal served a concomitant salutary purpose of finally laying bare that nation's long-established practice of state-sponsored corruption.

"Comedy of Power" is famed director Claude Chabrol's very fictionalized take on the ELF scandal. Yet, while most of the names and many of the details have been changed or even fabricated for the movie, the themes and concerns are obviously very much in keeping with the spirit of the actual event. The always mesmerizing Isabelle Huppert plays a no-nonsense judge who is unrelenting in her pursuit of corporate corruption, obsessed with bringing the culprits - no matter their position or standing in the community - to justice. Refusing to buckle under to pressure from (equally corrupt) higher-ups who believe she is going too far in her investigations, Judge Jeanne Charmant-Killman zeroes in on her "victims," refusing to let go until she gets what she wants. Chabrol and Huppert together create a woman of conviction and strength who, nevertheless, knows her limitations and can even acknowledge what a strain her single-minded determination is placing on her personal life and marriage (whether or not she chooses to do anything about it is another matter).

It's true that "Comedy of Power" feels a little underdeveloped at times, and the somewhat inconclusive and lackadaisical ending may well leave some in the audience feeling dissatisfied and cheated. For while there is a certain bravery in not succumbing to the need for a pat resolution, the movie leaves us wanting to know more about how everything turns out in the end. Yet, despite this drawback, this is an interesting, and, at times, even gripping little drama that gives us a chance to watch a beautiful, dynamic actress in action. It is Huppert's multi-layered portrayal of a moral crusader who is also very much a flawed and vulnerable human being that rivets our attention and helps us wade through all the arcane trivia of the corporate-world plotting. Chabrol keeps the film moving at an expeditious pace, with a tasty mixture of both humor and suspense thrown in for good measure. But it is in the confrontation scenes between Huppert and her various high profile targets that the film truly engages our attention.

In addition to Huppert, Chabrol has elicited uniformly sharp performances from Francois Berleand, Patrick Bruel, Marilyne Canto, Robin Renucci and Thomas Chabrol (the son of Chabrol and the late great actress Stephane Audran). As an ensemble, these gifted performers bring the larger issues into focus while keeping us thoroughly engrossed and entertained at the same time.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Part Thriller, Part Picture of a Marriage, 24 febrero 2007

Author: harborrat28 de United States

Jan 7, 2007

In Comedy of Power, Isabelle Huppert plays Jeanne Charmant-Killman, a driven French investigating judge who is committed to rooting out systemic corporate corruption and bribery. As a judge and a woman, she finds herself lined up against entrenched old-boy attitudes and an acceptance of corporate corruption shared by most of the powerful older male characters including those in a position to influence her career.

Comedy of Power asks whether a woman in a position of power and influence can be effective and also have a life. Huppert is superb as the skinny workaholic Charmant-Killman (is this last name an intentional pun, I wonder). She has no time to eat or sleep, little or no empathy or tendresse and no time for her husband. It is difficult to decide where Chabrol comes out on the question of whether she is admirable for her determination and courage or despicable for her ambition and callousness. Perhaps, in just posing the question in such stark terms, Chabrol ultimately displays his own prejudice.

At the same time that Comedy of Power examines these somewhat cerebral questions, it also manages to keep us on the edge of our seat (not on a Hitchcockian level, but enough to make us flinch when the doorbell rings).

All in all, this was a very good movie.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
American filmmakers, please take note..., 23 septiembre 2007

Author: poe426 de USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In this Idiot Nation of ours, corruption (on a global scale) is taken for granted. The GOBs (Good Old Boys, formerly known as the Grand Old Party) have raped and pillaged this country for three decades, now- and yet, not one single filmmaker (aside from a couple of documentary movie makers) has has the guts to step up and say anything about it. (John Carpenter and George Romero have given us Reaganvilles and theocracies- in THEY LIVE and ESCAPE FROM L.A.- and war between the Haves and the Have-nots- LAND OF THE DEAD- but where are the others? If there's anyone else doing anything even remotely in tune with Our Times, they're flying well under the radar.) "Morphine doesn't help," Claude Chabrol says in one interview: "It just stops the pain." It's eight o'clock in the morning, folks- time to wake up.

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