The Adversary

2002
6.8| 2h9m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 28 August 2002 Released
Producted By: CNC
Country: Switzerland
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère, it is inspired by the real-life story of Jean-Claude Romand. L'Adversaire's protagonist Jean-Marc Faure (Auteuil) pursues an imaginary career as a doctor of medicine in a plot more closely based on Romand's life and Carrère's book than was Laurent Cantet's 2001 film L'Emploi du Temps. The film was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Genre

Drama, Crime, Mystery

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Director

Nicole Garcia

Production Companies

CNC

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The Adversary Audience Reviews

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
PodBill Just what I expected
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Jouni Heinonen Emmanuel Carrere's novels are chilling, desperate and very well told. This adaptation to screen by Nicole Garcia works pretty well. If it wasn't based on a true story, you'd think that it's silly and a bit too much. The movie certainly doesn't leave a happy feeling with you, it's hopeless and sad, in everyone's point of view. So the story is told in the beginning of the movie, in the matter of fact before to movie starts, but the point isn't that at all. Film is about what's going on inside Jean Claude Romand's (played by great Daniel Auteuil) head and life during the times before he murders everyone he knows. The music in L'Adversaire is by Angelo Badalamenti, one of my favorite composers (escpecially Twin Peaks -soundtrack), and it fits perfectly. Latest adaptation of Carrere's work is La Moustache and it's directed by himself
Philip Van der Veken SPOILER: Once in a while you come across a movie about which you know from the first moment on what has happened and still you aren't able to turn it off or to switch to another channel. You keep watching, because you want to know everything about it. Why that is, I don't know, but I find it very intriguing and I guess it only proves the quality of these movies."L'Adversaire" or "The Adversary" is such a movie. From the first moment on you know that Daniel Auteuil's character Jean-Marc Faure has done something terrible to his family. You know he has murdered his wife and children, but you don't know why. Only when you keep watching until the end you'll see that the man has been living a lie for the past twenty years and that he wasn't able anymore to continue like that. He had made everybody believe that he was a successful doctor, working for a prestigious medical institution. Next to his 'dayjob' he also invested money for his friends and relatives, which in reality he used to live on, buying his family more expensive homes and cars, and sustaining a young mistress for himself. But eventually people wanted to see some returns on their investments or wanted to withdraw large sums that he couldn't possibly give them. So he kept stalling and putting them off until he ran totally out of options and his whole world came crashing down ... resulting in his final, chilling act of desperation.What perhaps is even the most chilling thing about this movie is that it has been based on true events. Yes, if you turn on the news, you regularly get to hear news about a father who has murdered his entire family because they were in big financial problems, but it is never shown in so much detail as it is in this movie. In this movie you get to see, thanks to a complex series of flashbacks, the investigation after the murder, showing how he starts getting into trouble until he has only one option left. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people had to swallow a couple of times when seeing it all and I admit that I was one of them.Next to the chilling story, the acting is something else that deserves noticing. I'm not very familiar with these actors, but they all did a nice job. Especially Daniel Auteuil (the only actor that I have heard of before), who is absolutely terrific. He has managed to help you understand why the man did it, without saying that what the man did was right or wrong. I'm not saying that you'll like the man, but you'll understand him and that's something very special for a movie like this one. All in all this is some very powerful cinema like you don't get to see it very often. Even if you aren't too familiar with the director or with the actors, even when you aren't used to watch foreign movies, you still should give this one a try. It certainly deserves it. I reward this movie with an 8/10.
fallara This movie which is based on a true story is very incredible to believe it really happened in real life....this could have been an excellent Stephen King plot...but no...it's even scarier to know that someone could be able to do such a terrible thing. A word of wisdom, don't read the story before watching it...that's what I did and I was terribly surprised !
fiozinho The magnificent Daniel Auteuil is ... well ... magnificent once again in this study of a common man whose world turns unaccountably pear-shaped, and who is powerless to get out of the increasingly large hole he's dug for himself. The sequencing of the film is very neatly done - we know from the word 'go' that Faure has done something horrendous, we're pretty sure what it is, and we are led to find out why through a complex series of flashbacks. The art of Auteuil is in his ability to make Faure a sympathetic character, despite his many flaws and the gruesome crime he commits. The painstakingly constructed portrait of a man in torment may get painted on a little too thickly at times, but Auteuil's descent from mixed-up family-man to lethal psychopath is gripping stuff.