Watch Persecution For Free

I wanted to but couldn't!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Persécution is a hard movie to describe accurately. It's the story of Daniel (Romain Duris), a loft renovator in Paris. Daniel is inordinately important to the people in his life, whom he mostly treats with what seems like hostility.He has an unstable relationship with his very independent girlfriend Sonia (Charlotte Gainsbourg). A stranger (Jean-Hugues Anglade) begins to stalk him, although in extraordinarily creative ways and without any threat or malicious intent. But the details of the plot really don't matter much. It's not really a story; it's an experience.This (like every earlier Patrice Chéreau movie I've seen - which are only L'homme blessé (which starred Jean-Hugues Anglade in his luminous youth), Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, and Son frère, but they're three of the most memorable movies I've ever seen) deeply challenges its audience in ways other directors' movies never do.It's impossible to watch a Chéreau movie without a completely open mind, free of every normal expectation: that you will understand it, that you will be able to empathize with ANY of the characters, that you will even know whether you like it or not.Chéreau, either intentionally or unintentionally, ALWAYS made movies that force the viewer to surrender control, to step outside everything familiar, to go wherever he leads without questioning where or why. Watching a Chéreau movie is more life-changing, more consciousness-expanding, more iconoclastic than entertaining.I LOVE that kind of challenge, I LOVE that kind of movie, and only Chéreau ever demanded so much from an audience. If you don't WANT to be challenged like that, if you don't WANT your mind and your world shaken to their foundations and rebuilt by someone else, then don't bother watching this amazing movie. You'll hate it.

I was personally struck by this movie because I left the theaters wondering about the similarities between this movie and my life. Then I discovered that this movie must be about someone with paranoid schizophrenia. I had a brain injury and have developed some interesting delusions. The clues are all there: as those with e-r-o-t-o-mania imagine, there is somebody that stalks him and a "celebrity" that doesn't have time to interact much (i.e., nonexistent. The plot is about a man coming to terms with his personal conflicts and what they mean to him. There is a deeper meaning to the scenes of silent observation.

"Persecution: active, systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group or individual."After watching "Persecution", you might just wonder who is really persecuted: Daniel, the short-tempered main character, stalked by a stranger who claims he's in love with him, Sonia, Daniel's girlfriend with whom he argues frequently and can hardly connect, or simply the spectator. Watching a film like this is anything but a treat: unlikeable characters, stark settings, ugly photography, it is French "psychological" cinema at its worst. I don't have a problem with Chéreau, I understand he makes films for an adult and educated audience. Some of his daring choices (as in "Intimacy" for instance) are challenging but interesting, at the very least enough thought provoking to get something out of them. Unfortunately, "Persecution" is a pretentious and overblown piece of work, as if Chéreau gradually became more and more full of himself over the years to eventually forget one essential thing: the audience. "Gabrielle", released in 2005, was already a "stiff" and dry film, well played and well directed, yet haughty and cold. As Chéreau's works get more and more personal, spectators are more and more kept at a distance by the filmmaker. The problem is that films are made for an audience (even if it's not a broad one), not just for the pleasure of wasting money. When artists create works that not only have no appeal for most of the people, but also have seemingly no clear purpose, I believe they lose the sense of reality. I assume that is what happened to Patrice Chéreau, who has proved with other films that he is more than an able director. I don't mind watching a film where the main character is complex, obsessive and quite unlikeable (remember "Naked" directed by Mike Leigh). I don't mind watching wordy films (I've had my share of Woody Allen's and Eric Rohmer's flicks). But I resent films where I am left out, where the story has nothing to catch my attention. Romain Duris (who plays Daniel) is as convincing as a home renovator as Gérard Depardieu as a nun but is very good at getting on everyone's nerves, including the spectators', Charlotte Gainsbourg as the aloof girlfriend is remarkably dull, Jean-Hugues Anglade's intriguing character is sacrificed, secondary characters are not fleshed out as they should have been (poor Hiam Abbass has only a few lines to say). Even what would have been interesting leads were given up by Chéreau (for instance, we never know whether the stalker's character is a figment of Daniel's imagination or not, and that could have added an uncanny touch to "Persecution"). At its worst, the film is extremely repetitive when things begin quickly to stall. In spite of a good opening scene, I couldn't care less about what was going to happen to any of the characters. In other words, I never felt that "Persecution" was a movie really worth my time.

This a puzzling piece of film making by a respected french film/theatre director. Patrice Chereau occasionally strikes a perfect balance in between story telling and cinematic language : Queen Margot, those who love me can take the train and l'homme blesse. Yet here, there is a conflict of interest that makes uncomfortable viewing. In my opinion, this is the kind of film that only actors can appreciate. Patrice Chereau tackles what I think is his recurring theme in this : damaged rejection and it's not done very well. Despite top class acting by the 3 main leads, we are expected to care for the character played by Romain Duris who is right down detestable and isn't able to decide how he loves Charlotte Gainsbourg. (her voice and vulnerability is really something here) The 2 actors are clearly comfortable being filmed arguing and or making love in a very crude manner. The lighting of the sex scenes (and in fact the whole film) made me feel like I was peeping on them. Then, appears with very little explanation, the character played by Jean Hugue Anglade. His character is referred to as "le barjo -french slang for nutter-". He is in love with Romain Duris and will go to any length to make his feelings known.Great idea for a synopsis and what really made me want to watch this film, but not well executed. Now i am not suggesting by any means that the treatment would have been more convincing if given the Hollywood make over IE cheap effective thriller a la "fatal attraction" but I felt cheated as I was never given a chance to appreciate a great idea. Why is J Hugue Anglade in love with Romain Duris is well, anyone's guess. He is suppose represent the persecution and a threat but I really liked him in fact, he can come and wait naked for me here anytime! I think Patrice Cherau was trying to trick the viewer and at the end, the persecution comes from Romain Duris's character himself. It didn't work, even the scenes during which Romainn Duris redeems his unhappiness by caring for elderly people in a hospital are boring. the film feels disjointed and I had the impression that Patrice Chereau had a few well worded one liners about human relationships in mind and desperately tried to put them in some scenes, especially when Romain Duris and Charlotte Gainsbourg argue, which they do a lot. I could not stop thinking of the 3 actors and Patrice Chereau having a conversation on set about trust, real acting and how great is it for the 4 of them to tackle such risky film-making. Yet I felt strangely left out, uninvolved... Shame as I so wanted to see this...i was just kept out.