 STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED |
 Classic
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 Tragic
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
18 | | Cast
Tahar Rahim
Niels Arestrup
Adel Bencherif. | | Directors
Jacques Audiard. | | Screenwriters
Jacques Audiard
Thomas Bidegain. | | Running Time
149 minutes |
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A Prophet (18) Plot
Sent down for six years for an unspecified crime, illiterate French-Arab teen Malik El Djebena (Rahim) is initiated into the prison’s criminal underworld. A fast learner, he soon starts to plot his rapid ascendancy through the violent and brutal hierarchy of his fellow inmates to become a formidable player.Review
Jacques Audiard is in love with the promise and potential of the crime thriller genre. Both 2001’s Read My Lips — a psycho-sexual film noir with respectful nods to Hitchcock and Sirk — and 2005’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped — a nervily realist reworking of James Toback’s 1978 crime ’n’ classical music melodrama, Fingers — brought a Gallic naturalism to the hoary crime flick. With A Prophet he’s pushed that model further, creating a gritty, expansive prison drama that constantly strains against the bars of the genre.
As small-time teen crim Malik, Rahim shifts from wary tough-nut to keen student to aloof enigma in the furrow of a brow. It’s a masterful performance but it has to be, as Audiard’s roving camera never leaves him. Regarded as a dirty Arab by the Corsican cons and a greasy Corsican by the Arab inmates, Malik is our guide through the nightmare labyrinth of the French penal system and its network of warring tribes.
Central to Malik’s rise is his relationship with imprisoned Corsican crime boss Cesar, played with wearily majestic portent by Niels Arestrup. It’s on Cesar’s orders that — on pain of death — Malik murders fellow Arab inmate Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), resulting in two of the film’s most viscerally affecting scenes: the murder itself, and Malik’s painful studies in how to hide a razorblade in the mouth. Once the deed is done, Malik has two protectors: Cesar and the ghost of Reyeb. But whereas Cesar’s role is central to the narrative arc, Reyeb, who initiates occasional moments of compelling surrealism, seems like an idea sacrificed to the cutting room floor.
Against the cosy genre conventions of that other recent grandiose French crime flick, Mesrine, A Prophet’s ambition and sense of thrilling invention is commendable. Yet unlike say, Gomorrah or Il Divo, where labyrinthine structures illustrated the complexities of the criminal systems on trial, here it just seems Audiard has got in over his head. Characters introduced with chapterised freeze-frames and cool intertitles are passed over or forgotten about (most unforgivably, Reyeb himself), while bigger ideas like Malik’s ability to see into the future (the prophecies of the title) and his status as a hero within the narrative just seem confused.
Verdict
A modern French crime epic where the smudges and crossings out do not diminish the passages of great dreamlike power.
Reviewer: Andrew Male
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Average user rating for A Prophet
| A Prophet | | | Really enjoyed this, though as the review says some of the more interesting ideas seem to have been largely left on the cutting room floor, there's still plenty in there to justify the five stars. Top notch performance from Tahar Rahim. ... Read More
| | | Spacegoat About me | | 10:18, 17 August 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | | | I was disappointed by this movie, after hearing all the hype and the DVD cover claiming it was The Godfather meets Scarface I was expecting this to be amazing but what I thought afterwards was that it was just another prison movie and sure there were some parts that were good such as when he kills that dude with the razor and how the class system in the prison changes over the years but I thought that it was slightly pretentious especially the whole scene where he spots the deer sign before the... Read More
| | | MI Cruise About me | | 23:51, 10 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | | | Fantastic and original ,just as good as Mesrine and shows again how ace French Cinema is at the moment ... Read More
| | | filmburner30 About me | | 12:04, 09 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | |
L: ElephantBoy
Why are you all talking about other films in this thread?
ozz said that A Prophet was derivative of many other films, which led to a comparison between A Prophet and a bunch of other flicks. Its a fairly standard way of critiquing a film, so I don't see the problem here. A few jokes were cracked at the expense of Bozz's recent spate of viewings too, but it was all in good fun. ... Read More
| | | adambatman82 About me | | 19:53, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | | Why are you all talking about other films in this thread? ... Read More
| | | ElephantBoy About me | | 19:31, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | | The way the soundtrack went a bit omnious and he kept walking with the girl and kid I thought he was just staying with them so the blokes wouldn't attack. Ta for clearing that up! ... Read More
| | | The REAL Bozz About me | | 10:48, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | |
L: The REAL Bozz
It's ok! Lol, although yeah I see what you mean. I'm off to see Predators later on in the week, so that combined with a Segall marathon may go some way to throw the balance back in favour of my maleness!!
Actually since your on here you could clear somthing up for me. In the final scenes of A Prophet who were the guys waiting outside the jail? Were they his crew who he had running things outside or are they supposed to be guys gonna jump him or what? I had to rewi... Read More
| | | adambatman82 About me | | 10:45, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | | It's ok! Lol, although yeah I see what you mean. I'm off to see Predators later on in the week, so that combined with a Segall marathon may go some way to throw the balance back in favour of my maleness!!
Actually since your on here you could clear somthing up for me. In the final scenes of A Prophet who were the guys waiting outside the jail? Were they his crew who he had running things outside or are they supposed to be guys gonna jump him or what? I had to rewind that part, I couldn't m... Read More
| | | The REAL Bozz About me | | 10:20, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | |
L: The REAL Bozz
If I am...there's somthing very wrong....(I'm notuote]
Sorry man, I added 2 + 2 to get five (SATC + Eclipse) ... Read More
| | | adambatman82 About me | | 10:15, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | RE: Five Stars | | If I am...there's somthing very wrong....(I'm not ... Read More
| | | The REAL Bozz About me | | 10:13, 05 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
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