Cannes. "A Prophet"

By David Hudson on 05/16/2009

[Updated through 5/20]

"If James Toback's petty-criminal tale 'Fingers' inspired Jacques Audiard's previous 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped,'" writes Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE, "it's Martin Scorsese's 'Goodfellas' that looms over his latest 'A Prophet.' Successfully balancing art-film portraiture with a gangster picture's plot, the film may be one of the more conventional movies in this year's Cannes competition, but judging from the sustained applause after its Cannes premiere on Saturday morning, it's also been one of the more satisfying."

"When it comes to hard-bitten crime cinema, Jacques Audiard has few equals in Europe, and his violent, gripping prison drama 'A Prophet' shows him extending his range with unimpeachable command," writes Jonathan Romney in Screen. "The story of a gauche young inmate who rises through the criminal ranks to become a formidable player, 'A Prophet' works both as hard-edged, painstaking detailed social realism and as a compelling genre entertainment."

This is "a tough, absorbingly intricate account of a young French-Arab thug's improbable education behind bars," writes Justin Chang in Variety. "Applying his jangly aesthetic to a broader canvas than usual, Audiard navigates his protagonist through a grotty, at times overcrowded labyrinth of racially divided gang factions and roughly sketched-in crooks and cons.... Clocking in at an imposing 2½ hours, 'A Prophet' is Audiard's fifth and longest feature to date. This has less to do with the intrinsic interest of the central character - 19-year-old petty criminal Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), who's been sentenced to six years in prison - than with the thick network of warring tribes he finds himself mired in and ultimately forced to master. It's one of the understated ironies of Audiard's script (co-written with Thomas Bidegain) that for Malik, crime doesn't begin to pay until after he lands in the clink."

"What's most immediately remarkable about the film is the raw intensity of its hyper-realistic encounters, hugely enhanced by the superb acting of newcomer Rahim," writes Peter Brunette in the Hollywood Reporter. "This naturalism is nicely counterpointed with a few unabashedly stylized, very lyrical sequences in which Audiard demonstrates his signature mastery of offbeat visual and sound effects.... But what finally cuts much deeper than the surface realism (a quality not exactly lacking in recent prison films like 'Hunger') is Audiard's minute deconstruction of the various ways power is manifested in prison and, by extension, in human life at its most basic."

"Its running time should be shaved by thirty minutes, though not at the expense of its horrible but very well-handled violence," suggests the Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu.

FirstShowing's Alex Billington rates it a 9 out of 10.

Cannes has video and audio from the press conference.

Updates, 5/17: "As the first weekend of the Cannes Film Festival winds down, it looks as though there's a clear, early leader for the Palme d'Or." Charles Ealy in the Austin Movie Blog.

"Unseen as a lead actor on the big screen until yesterday, twentysomething French actor Tahar Rahim just may own the breakthrough acting performance of The Cannes Film Festival." A profile from Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE.

"The film looks fabulous and, for about 45 minutes, is fabulous," 09_day_4.html">Wesley Morris. "Those minutes include one of the more grimly realistic murders I've seen in a movie, and, later, there's the exciting appearance of the festival's second Nas song. But there are two hours left, and it becomes clear fast that the moral quandaries about obeying one's criminal DNA that made Audiard's other movie so good won't be of use to him here. He's still a stylist and quite a storyteller, but the movie is looking to make troublesome post-colonial amends."

"From the moment we're introduced to Malik El Djebena (played with an impressive mix of vulnerability and flint by newcomer Tahar Rahim), it's obvious that his six-year stretch will see him gradually metamorphose from terrified new fish to intimidating kingpin - the only real question is what percentage of his soul he'll surrender along the way," writes Mike D'Angelo at the AV Club. "That Malik is an Arab allied with Corsicans (who treat him as a pet at their most welcoming) gives 'A Prophet' some superficial socio-political currency, but Audiard clearly favors a more primitive and personal species of empowerment. After a while, it's just dominoes falling."

Dispatching to Time Out New York, Stephen Garrett sees "a keen analysis of ascendant Franco-Arab identity during the Sarkozy era while staying firmly rooted as an absorbing character study of survival by any means necessary. It's a shiv to the senses that confirms director Audiard as a gangland humanist without peer.... Both lurid and profound, 'A Prophet' is transformative stuff, adding up to a stirring portrait of personal invention amid dead-end options and temptations toward self-destruction. As a summation of Audiard's previous themes, it's surely his crowning work."

Fabien Lemercier talks with Audiard for Cineuropa.

Updates, 5/18: "Sweeping and precisely observed - in one scene a gunman stares transfixed at a pair of expensive shoes in a shop window before committing a multiple hit - the film tells the story of one person that eventually becomes a story of an entire world ordered by violence." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times: "Using an occasional surrealistic flourish - a ghost makes regular appearances, at one point engulfed in flames - Mr Audiard tracks Malik's descent into this underworld with transparent compassion but none of the sentimentalizing that softens and cheapens too many mob stories."

"The film shows Audiard to be the biggest beast in new French cinema," writes Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian.

"It seems almost inconceivable that another picture with the ambition, scope and compelling dramatic impetus of Jacques Audiard's 'A Prophet' will emerge in this year's competitive line up," writes Wendy Ide in the London Times. "And if the jury fail to award at least one of the main prizes to Audiard's opus, there will be riots on the Croisette."

"If some of the script verges on the generic as the plot becomes more and more wild, Audiard's direction and unflagging concern for his central character ensure that 'A Prophet' is never less than believable, thoughtful and, although very uncomfortable at points, incredibly entertaining," writes Dave Calhoun in Time Out London.

Updates, 5/19: "As ['The Beat That My Heart Skipped'] provided a breakout vehicle for Romain Duris, so the new one sears the presence of Tahar Rahim into memory. But where Duris's charisma was essential to setting up the dichotomy between his thugish day-to-day and his romantic, cultured secret life, Rahim's lure is that he keeps Malik almost completely enigmatic." Then the SpoutBlog's Karina Longworth writes that "'A Prophet' both glorifies crime and humanizes Islam, and the perfect Venn diagram overlap of the two would seem virtually guaranteed to spark a rise out of a certain brand of American conservative blowhard, were a studio to release it under the auspices of their indie arm."

"'A Prophet' doesn't need a film critic," writes David Phelps in The Auteurs' Notebook, "but a critic who's been to jail and the mob and back, to say how good it is. At the least, it's a handbook to the way a world could operate and people talk and take stock of their opportunities, as much a termite piece as 'The Wire.'"

Update, 5/20: "The filmmaking is sensational," writes Patrick Z McGavin for Stop Smiling. "Audiard is working on a vast canvas, but he uses the full command of the medium - including freeze frames that identify the significant players, freeze frames and text (like 'Eyes and Ears') - to denote the young man's awakening. Audiard seizes on a single, fixed shot of an airplane wing floating through the air that marks his reversal of fortune - the image is potent, lyrical and tough without sentimentalizing the protagonist."

Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 2009.

[Photo: "A Prophet," Chic Films, 2009]

Tags: A Prophet, Cannes 2009, French Cinema, Jacques Audiard, Tahar Rahim