L'IVRESSE
DU POUVOIR
COMEDY OF POWER |
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Director:
Claude Chabrol
Screenplay:
Odile Barski, Claude Chabrol
Cast:
Jeanne: Isabelle Huppert
Michel: François Berléand
Jacques: Patrick Bruel
Erika: Marilyne Canto
Philippe: Robin Renucci
Félix: Thomas Chabrol
Running time: 110’
Production: France, 2006
Rating : Not Rated
Gauge: 35mm & DVD (color)
Genre: Drama
Distributor:
Koch Lorber Films
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"But
public malfeasance is less the subject of the movie than
its premise. It is not really a courtroom drama, or the
stirring tale of a crusader against wrong, so much as
it is the psychological portrait of an ambitious professional
woman in a society still very much dominated by male prerogatives."
A.O. Scott, The New York Times |
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Jeanne, a
magistrate, must sort out and prepare for trial a complex
case of misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds
implicating the president of an important industrial firm.
As her investigation progresses, she realizes that her power
is great: the more she delves into secrets, the more her means
of applying pressure increase. Politicians and businessmen
are scheming together, and Jeanne thinks it's high time somebody
stepped in to clean up this mess. All the high level associates
of the company are summoned into her office and all are scandalized
by her accusations and her lack of respect for their social
positions. As she unravels the truth, Jeanne’s private
life is jeopardized, both physically and psychologically.
Her growing power and an increasingly public life put stress
on her relationship with her husband who is a doctor. Jeanne
soon asks herself two questions: until what point can she
continue to become more powerful without clashing with a power
greater than her own? Until what point can human nature resist
the intoxication of power? The Elf Aquitaine scandal that
rocked France in the 1990s inspired Comedy of Power.
At the time, the scandal exposed extensive corruption in France's
giant state-owned gas company.
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