Bastards (2013 film)

Bastards

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Claire Denis
Produced by Brahim Chioua
Laurence Clerc
Olivier Thery-Lapiney
Screenplay by Jean-Pol Fargeau
Claire Denis
Starring Vincent Lindon
Chiara Mastroianni
Music by Stuart A. Staples
Cinematography Agnès Godard
Edited by Annette Dutertre
Production
company
Alcatraz Film
Wild Bunch
Distributed by Wild Bunch
Release dates
  • 21 May 2013 (Cannes)
  • 7 August 2013 (France)
Running time
 120 minutes
Country France
Language French

Bastards (French: Les Salauds) is a 2013 French drama film directed by Claire Denis. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

Plot

Marco (Vincent Lindon), a sailor who has cut off ties with most of his family, returns home after the suicide of his brother-in-law. At the urging of his sister Sandra (Julie Bataille), who believes that her husband’s death was caused by one of their creditors, Marco tries to avenge his family. He moves in to an apartment above that occupied by the creditor, Edouard Laporte, and begins an affair with his wife, Raphaëlle (Chiara Mastroianni). Marco discovers that his sister is deep in debt and that his niece, Justine (Lola Créton), has been hospitalized and might need reconstructive surgery as her vagina has been badly damaged. After some investigation he believes that Laporte was the one who injured his niece by penetrating her with a corn cob.

Justine eventually runs away from the hospital she was staying at and friends of hers offer Marco access to images of her going to a sex club with Laporte and her father. After viewing the images Marco realizes that both his sister and his brother-in-law allowed Laporte to use their daughter for sexual favours in return for money to keep their failing shoe factory afloat. Justine and her friends leave together but she deliberately crashes the car they are driving, killing them all.

Meanwhile Laporte, discovering that Raphaëlle and Marco are sleeping together, leaves her taking their young son with him. When he returns to collect a few of his son’s things and to tell Raphaëlle that he is moving to Geneva with the boy, Marco tries to stop him. In the ensuing fight Marco is shot and killed by Raphaëlle.

Sandra receives a video in the mail which she watches with Justine’s doctor. It is a sex tape involving Justine, her father, Laporte and another woman. The tape shows Justine’s father holding a corn cob.

Cast

Production

Claire Denis wrote the film specifically for Vincent Lindon after she expressed interest in working with him again and he told her he would appear in whatever she wrote. The film was heavily inspired by Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well whose French title Les salauds dorment en paix translates literally to Bastards Sleep in Peace.

The film also marks Denis's eighth film with Alex Descas and her seventh with Grégoire Colin.

Reception

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 64% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10,[2] while Metacritic gives a weighted average rating of 69 based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[3]

References

  1. ↑ "2013 Official Selection". Cannes. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Bastards". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Bastards". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved 2 January 2014.

External links