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A
Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
The standard
issue prison drama gets a much-needed infusion of nervous energy in Jacques
Audiard’s accomplished, absorbing
A Prophet.
A multi-year chronicle that charts the detention of Malik (Tahar Rahim), a
19-year old Arab man imprisoned for assaulting a police officer, the movie
achieves an epic feel even though most of its action takes place within the same
few halls. Throughout A Prophet,
Audiard uses a wealth of procedural detail to take viewers inside the criminal
world that exists behind prison walls. The message of the movie is that life
while incarcerated is a kill-or-be-killed proposition. Prisons are presented as
asylums, where the quarantining of criminals inevitably begets more crime. This
dubious setup, which eschews the question of moral decision making almost
entirely, is decidedly problematic, but it is a testament to Audiard’s skill as
a storyteller that A Prophet still
emerges as must-see cinema despite it.
Audiard is a
fine director, and every minute of A
Prophet offers something exciting to look at. He tends toward images that
are very tightly framed and often alternates between disoriented point of view
shots and close-ups of his naturalistic actors. Early on, a bobbing camera is
employed to offer us perspectives that are partially obscured by bars or
shadows. The limited views of the outside world, glimpsed partially through
frames of windows, recall Bresson’s A Man
Escaped. At every moment, the withholding of visual information reminds us
that the film is set behind bars.
A Prophet,
lacking a strong moral message or many surprising character developments, ends
up being more effective in its details than its overall scope, but that is
enough to make it memorable. One early scene, in which Malik is tasked with his
first murder, really stresses the fact that Audiard may be the heir apparent to
Hitchcock. The scenario, which encourages audience sympathy with a killer and
features a telltale trickle of blood running out of the corner of Malik’s mouth
is worthy of the master of suspense, but the level of perversion here (Malik is
an effective killer because he’s attractive to sex-starved inmates) is Audiard’s
own. Other small epiphanies – the first flakes of a snowfall, Malik’s first time
aboard a plane, or the sand left in his shoe after he returns from a furlough –
show that this moody film’s best moments are fleeting.
A Prophet
is
always engrossing in the moment, even as its pattern of manipulations and
murders begins to grow a tad repetitive. Anxiety and excitement are ever-present
here, which is surely a distortion of prison life, but the emphasis on
sensationalism makes for good viewing. While
A Prophet might lack the ambiguity
and the moral complexity to make it a classic of its genre (try as Audiard might
to tack redemptive and transcendent moments onto Malik’s story), it is an
excellent work by most standards.
67 Jeremy Heilman 07.07.10
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