Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Raymond Danon
Alfred Draper (novel)
Written by
Jacques Dreux
Michel Serrault
Starring
Carole Laure
Music by
Alain Chamfort
Cinematography Edmond Richard
Edited by
Catherine Renault
Production
R.T.Z. Production
company
Distributed by Planfilm
February 22, 1984 (France)
Release date(s)
[1]
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links
Plot
In the run-up to an important football match police mount an operation to
prevent trouble breaking out between rival fans. The operation is led by
inspector Granowski and a young trainee, Philippon. The supporters of
one of the teams, the violent and racist jaunes et noirs (yellow and
blacks), arrive at the stadium, led by their leader Rico. During the game,
the referee, Maurice Bruno (whose journalist girlfriend, Martine, is
watching from the stands, next to Rico and his gang), awards a penalty,
resulting in the jaunes et noirs losing the match, and leading to fighting
between the two sets of supporters.
With the defeated and angry fans waiting for Maurice after the game, the
team physio manages to quietly slip he and Martine out of the stadium in
a van. The couple go to the local studios of FR3 (a depiction of a real
television channel: France 3) where Maurice takes part in a football
discussion programme. Rico and his gang go to a pizza restaurant, where
they see Maurice on the television. Hearing what Maurice is saying, they
becoming increasingly agitated, shouting insults at his image on the
television. Angrily, they set off to the TV studio to find him.
Maurice and his girlfriend manage to flee to a shopping centre. The gang
follow them into the centre then spread out to search, using an alarm
signal to keep in touch. During the search Rico accidentally kills Bru, a
fellow gang member. The other gang members don't witness this so Rico
blames it on Maurice. Determined to avenge their friend, Rico and the
gang comb the stadium entrance for any trace of the referee. This leads
them to Martine's home address.
When they arrive at Martine's home, she and Maurice are inside. The
gang cut the power and set about trying to gain entrance using any means
possible, with Rico attacking the door with a blowtorch. After Martine
has alerted the neighbours, and managed to injure Rico's hand, and after
Maurice has managed to stop two of the gang members from gaining
entry, the couple escape by climbing up the outside of the building.
The assault continues. Martine's sister is attacked, but rescued by
Maurice. One of the supporters dies from a fall. Some of the apartments
are ransacked. Neighbours are assaulted. The pursuit continues into a
supermarket, where a security guard is beaten up by the gang, then into a
factory, where the referee despatches two of the supporters.
Rico catches up with the couple, in the factory, and threatens them with
an axe, but Granowski arrives with other police personnel before he can
carry out his threat. One of the supporters, Mayor, is armed with a gun.
He shoots at Maurice, then refuses to give himself up and is killed by
Granowski. Maurice and Martine flee in a car, with Rico hot on their
heels in his gang's bus. After a pursuit around a large, underground,
industrial excavation site (or perhaps a mining operation) Rico knocks the
couple's car off a ledge with the bus. The car falls a few metres to the
ground, apparently killing its two occupants. Granowski arrives at the
scene moments later in his car.
With mission accomplished, Rico walks away from camera, gleefully
ranting, raving, gesturing, and proffering insults to the excavation
workers around him. A police car is seen catching up with him just as the
film ends.
Cast
Reception
mort l'arbitre wasn't as successful as hoped for in French cinemas (box
office figures of 359,972[2] - 103,804 of those in Paris[3]) though it did
receive largely favourable reviews, with Jacques Morice in Tlrama
describing Michel Serrault as impeccable and chilling in his role as a
belligerent proletarian.[4]
Not until it was seen on French television by 17 million viewers in 1989,
as part of a series called Dossiers de l'cran (literally "screen files": each
episode consisted of the broadcast of a film dealing with a chosen theme
followed by discussions with studio guests on the same theme) and after
the Hillsborough and Heysel disasters, did mort l'arbitre become a
success[5] and begin to establish itself as a cult film and one of director
Jean-Pierre Mocky's classics.
In 2006 French newspaper Libration described the film as a disturbing,
and still relevant, satire on the fanaticism of football supporters, and the
director Jean-Pierre Mocky as one of the rare French film makers capable
of making such a high-calibre, risk-taking social drama.[4]
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_mort_l%27arbitre
mort l'arbitre
mort l'arbitre
Donnes cls
Ralisation
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Jacques Dreux
Scnario
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Alfred Draper (roman)
Michel Serrault
Eddy Mitchell
Carole Laure
Acteurs principaux
Laurent Malet
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Claude Brosset
Lira-Elphant
Socits de production R.T.Z. Production
TF1 Films Production
Pays dorigine
France
Genre
Drame
Sortie
1984
Dure
82 minutes
Pour plus de dtails, voir Fiche technique et Distribution
Synopsis
Pour avoir siffl un penalty entranant la dfaite de l'quipe locale, un
arbitre est poursuivi par une bande de supporters de l'quipe perdante.
Rsum
Fiche technique
Distribution
Production
Analyse
Jean-Pierre Mocky signe ici une uvre culte en brossant un portrait sans
complaisance du monde du football. Il nous montre des supporters, qui
pour un simple penalty siffl par l'arbitre, peuvent basculer dans une folie,
surtout le meneur de la bande, incarn par Michel Serrault, qui commettra
l'irrparable envers l'arbitre (Eddy Mitchell) et sa compagne (Carole
Laure).
De plus, Mocky nous montre la btise humaine, la veulerie et la peur de
l'autre, incarnes par le personnage de Rico, un tre ignoble et rpugnant.
Cependant, l'effroi qui s'installe peu peu la vision de ce film vient
autant de la veulerie des supporters que la caricaturale inefficacit des
forces de police, qui semblent laisser le carnage se produire, et de
l'insouciance du couple poursuivi. Par ailleurs, le propos du film semble
prmonitoire car un an aprs sa sortie survient le drame du Heysel.
Distribution
Jean-Pierre Mocky s'est donn le rle de l'inspecteur Granowski. Ce n'est
pas la premire fois qu'il se donne un rle dans l'une de ses ralisations
(entre autres avec Solo, Un linceul n'a pas de poches, puis en 1982 avec
Litan). Il signe une nouvelle collaboration entre Jean-Pierre Mocky et
Michel Serrault aprs Le Roi des bricoleurs en 1977.
Michel Serrault et Eddy Mitchell se retrouveront en 1991 dans Ville
vendre (ralis par Mocky) et en 1995 dans Le bonheur est dans le pr.
Le club des supporters du F.C Rouen a fourni l'essentiel de la figuration3.
Tournage
Le film a t tourn sur le stade Robert-Diochon Rouen en SeineMaritime et les scnes de l'immeuble blockhaus de Martine dans le
quartier du Mont d'Est de Noisy-le-Grand3.
Les scnes du centre commercial ont t tournes Crteil dans le Val-deMarne3. Plusieurs scnes du film sont situes Neuilly-sur-Marne dans
l'usine de traitement d'eau potable du SEDIF, en particulier la scne de
noyade d'un supporter dans un bassin de filtration. cette occasion, des
salaris de l'usine y font de la figuration. Le site choisi pour le studio de
FR3 est, quant lui, le btiment de traitement de l'eau par l'ozone de cette
mme usine (architecte Alexis Josic), qui peut ventuellement servir de
lieu de rception.
Dans la scne o l'arbitre et sa compagne sont dans l'appartement de cette
dernire et que des voisins entendent les cris d'affolement de Martine
Bande originale
La bande son du film est compose par Alain Chamfort. Le titre
Backdoor Man est interprt par Viktor Lazlo.
Accueil
Lors de sa sortie en salles, mort l'arbitre n'a pas rencontr le succs
public espr (359 972 entres en France, dont 103 804 entres Paris4),
mais a reu dans l'ensemble des critiques favorables, notamment au sujet
de la prestation de Michel Serrault, que Jacques Morice, dans Tlrama,
trouve impeccable en beauf teigneux, fait froid dans le dos4 .
Il fallut attendre un succs tardif la tlvision, notamment grce une
diffusion dans le cadre des Dossiers de l'cran en 1989, vue par 17
millions de spectateurs5, pour qu' mort l'arbitre devienne petit petit un
film culte du cinma et un des classiques de Mocky.
Plus de vingt ans aprs sa sortie en salles, Libration qualifie le film de
Satire vraiment flippante et toujours dactualit du fanatisme des
supporteurs qui confirme que, quand on en lui donne les moyens, Mocky
est lun des rares ralisateurs franais capable dexceller dans le registre
casse-cou du fantastique social. 4
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_mort_l%27arbitre