L'ivresse du pouvoir (2006)

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Writers:

Odile Barski (writer)
Claude Chabrol (writer)

Release Date:

22 February 2006 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A magistrate investigates a corporate executive.

Plot Keywords:

Investigation | Car Crash | Gloves | Cell Phone | Nephew

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Isabelle Huppert	...	Jeanne Charmant-Killman
François Berléand	...	Michel Humeau
Patrick Bruel	...	Jacques Sibaud
Marilyne Canto	...	Erika
Robin Renucci	...	Philippe Charmant-Killman
Thomas Chabrol	...	Félix
Jean-François Balmer	...	Boldi
Pierre Vernier	...	Président Martino
Jacques Boudet	...	Descarts
Philippe Duclos	...	Jean-Baptiste Holéo
Roger Dumas	...	René Lange
John Arnold	...	Homme jaguar #1
Jean-Christophe Bouvet	...	Me Parlebas
Jacques Bouanich	...	Le gardien de la prison
Benoît Charpentier	...	Journaliste économique

Also Known As:

A Comedy of Power (Canada: English title)
Comedy of Power (Singapore: English title)
Geheime Staatsaffären (Germany)
La comédie du pouvoir (France) (working title)
The Comedy of Power (USA) (literal English title)

Runtime:

USA:110 min | France:110 min | Argentina:110 min

Country:

France | Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | France:U | Argentina:Atp | Singapore:PG | Germany:o.Al. | Sweden:Btl | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Hôpital, Le Vésinet, Yvelines, France

Company:

Alicéléo

Trivia:

Four Chabrols worked on the film: Director and co-writer Claude Chabrol, his screenplay-supervisor wife Aurore Chabrol, and his two sons: composer Matthieu Chabrol and actor Thomas Chabrol.

Soundtrack:

Peer Gynt

Based on "Elf affair"

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".