Traitement de choc (1973)

Director:

Alain Jessua

Writers:

Alain Jessua (scenario) and
Roger Curel (co-adaptation)

Release Date:

November 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Doctors at a rejuvenation clinic discover a formula that will prevent aging. However, it involves harvesting the blood and body parts of young men, a process that the doctors aren't particularly averse to. |

Plot Keywords:

Rejuvenation | Frenchman | Shock Treatment | Paris France | Nudity

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Alain Delon	...	Devilers
Annie Girardot	...	Hélène
Robert Hirsch	...	Gérôme
Michel Duchaussoy	...	Bernard
Gabriel Cattand
Jeanne Colletin
Robert Party
Jean Roquel
Roger Muni
Lucienne Legrand
Anne-Marie Deschott		(as Anne-Marie Deschodt)
Salvino Di Pietra
Gabriella Cotta Ramusino
Nicole Gueden
François Landolf		(as François Landolt)

Also Known As:

Doctor in the Nude (UK)
Island of the Damned (International: English title) (informal alternative title)
L'uomo che uccideva a sangue freddo (Italy)
Shock
Shock Treatment (USA)

Runtime:

France:91 min | USA:90 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French | Portuguese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Belle-Île-en-Mer, Morbihan, France

Company:

A.J. Films

Alain Jessua :an accursed director?

Alain Jessua has made some of the most disturbing movies of a generally tame French cinema (mainly in the seventies and early eighties unless some "avant-garde" drivel like "themroc" counts). Barely ten movies in almost forty years.His best works are to be found between 1972 and 1982,his most fruitful decade which begins with "traitement de choc" and encompasses forgotten works such as "les chiens " "Armaguedon" and "paradis pour tous" . "Traitement de choc" is his towering achievement though:and not only because Delon and Girardot are completely naked for one sequence by the sea .There's much more substance to find here.The core of movie is the fear of dying ,and when you see so many people worship their body today,you cannot deny this flick was ahead of its time.

In a strange clinic , doctors Delon and Duchaussoy make people look younger ,thanks to animal cells.That's what's they say.Their patients set up a small community of happy few .Girardot who has been ditched by her partner and who comes to think she begins to get old enters the place.Little by little,strange things happen:a lot of the staff (migrant workers) are sent back home because they've got the homesick blues.That's what's they say.One of her friend commits suicide because he was broke and could not afford this luxury anymore.That's what they say.The tension increases and in the last fifteen minutes ,"traitement de choc" becomes a true horror film.(One should note it was made the same year as "Solyent Green").

"Traitement de choc" is the selfishness of the bourgeoisie ,the power of money,the eternal dream of perpetual youth which haunts all of us ,man's exploitation of his fellow man (in every sense of the term)."Shock therapy" indeed.