User Reviews

People who characterize this film as a comedy obviously haven't got it. The comic element is just a thin surface. This is a tragic story and a very strong political statement. Obviously Bruno's decisions and actions are absurd, but his circumstances are not. The movie offers an incisive look at the dark reality of chronic unemployment. Corporate greed leads to story after story after story of desperation. Westlake and Gavras know that in order to pass the message you have to lighten up the atmosphere (a la Truman Show), or else the viewer won't sit the whole movie. In order to appreciate the film you have to marginalize the main plot element (the murder story) and concentrate on all the subplots.

Maybe the best 'noir' movie I've seen in the last years, and definitively the best Donald Westlake adaptation so far, "Arcadia" is the story of a man obsessed with a job, who thinks that the only way to get it is killing every candidate who can be better than him, and must cope with his many mistakes and family problems. It sounds like a tragedy, or a drama, but it is the best piece of black (or not so black) humor combined with noir I remember, which is surprising: I didn't know that Costa-Gavras had so much sense of humor. There are many symbols, allegories, but above it all, it mentions every controversial and denounce topic in existence for just one, two or three minutes, just to mention it. The result is, incredibly and amazingly, funny, intellectually engaging, extremely suspenseful (the results of every situation and, at last, the end of the movie are unpredictable) and a master class of narrative progression, at least until the last 20 minutes, where the movie drags. But until then it is a flawless masterpiece, and it deserves to be watched over and over again. José García is another surprise, a very good comedian.

Bruno DAVERT (Jose Garcia) is locked-out for economic reasons. To find a new job, his method is simple : kill the other candidates. His behaviour changes, and his wife Marlène(Karin Viard) feels Bruno moving away from the family, from herself and from the true life.

Costa-Gavras shows as the unemployment can make a man crazy.

A perfect look on the stupidity of our society when a man is only the money he can earn. Costa-Gavras show us the vacuum we are running to, destroying everything to obtain what ?

Probably the best political movie of the ten last years. Garcia is excellent, probably because he does not know he his good. K. Viard change her usual energy in distress, her performance is excellent. Everybody is good.

Run to this movie. It shows you your future

I completely disagree with the reviewer who called this a'TV movie'. it's anything but... (did he see it on a TV screen?). It's a thriller that actually deserves to be called by that over-used adjective 'Hitchcockian' as we gradually identify more and more what the lead character who starts off as what, a hit-man, a serial-killer? As we get into his motives and hit and miss way of carrying them out together with unrelated encounters with the cops we are willing, despite ourselves, that he will succeed. Why does this not have a US distributor yet? I saw it with an appreciative crowd in Paris earlier this year. Jose Garcia who I last saw overdoing it in a so-so comedy called APRES VOUS is very good as the ordinary guy pushed to the limit and Karen Viard also always watchable as his blandly oblivious wife, who also becomes involved via a different set of crimes involving their family.

Many years ago there was a film starring Alec Guinness called "Kind Hearts and Coronets", which took the case that a member of a wealthy family murders off his relatives to inherit the estate. "Le Couperet" offers a similar plot, although this time a disgruntled unemployed engineer becomes an inept assassin to remove his competitors for a top job with often-hilarious consequences.

In this very dark comedy Jose Garcia does well as the bumbling killer, at times reminiscent of a young Jack Lemmon, and there are many surprises along the way. The film does highlight more sincerely than you may expect the plight of middle-aged professionals that are retrenched, and find it difficult to obtain positions in the current climate. Many watching the movie might well relate to its characters and their plight.

Excellent sequences include the job interview, which has more than a ring of truth, the discussions about unemployment and its social consequences by the discouraged out-of-work executives, and the scenes with the marriage counselor. Despite its black humour, there is a very human side to this film. Costa-Gavras is an exceptional filmmaker, with experience that shows in the smooth integration of the hilarious with an undertow of real pathos. The story ends on a suitably enigmatic note.

Le Couperet (or The Ax for the English title) isn't really a comedy, or maybe I didn't get the humor, that's also possible. It's a crime/drama, one that you have to take lightly as the crimes he commits would get him in custody in an eye wink as they're done very lousy and unprepared. That said the story is more about the desperation of an unemployed family man. It's certainly watchable, but not great like some other reviewers wrote. As for the relatively unknown cast they did a good job. Le Couperet is good enough to keep you entertained but I don't need to watch it a second time in the future.

Loved it! Loved it! A terrific satire of the modern corporate downsizing which destroys a man's pride and then everything else. Better yet, this social satire is packaged as an absurd black comedy - serial killer story. A picture of the world we're living in. Don't take the killings too seriously. Obviously, they are a metaphor for the desperation of the man. It's a little bit like "Shock to the System" but I liked this one better. Whether you laugh at this movie today or not, tomorrow this will be the reality for most all of us when only endless service jobs will have remained. Or, flipping burgers. I highly recommend this socially conscious movie, as I applaud its director for the courage to make it. Bravo!

As a fan of previous Costa-Gavras films, I was disappointed in this most recent effort. I was doubly dismayed that nearly everyone who reviewed it here seems to have missed the point entirely.

Here's a sample from another IMDb user: "In USA (as far as I know), for instance, some unemployed people live on the streets or under the bridges." That's brilliant; thanks for the speculative remark about the USA of your imagination. "The Ax" asks us to feel sympathy for an upper-middle-class employee who's been fired from his job. He drives a nice car, has a nice family, and lives in a nice big house in the suburbs of Strasbourg.

(He also doesn't have a cell phone and rarely checks e-mail, apparently, even though this film was made in 2005.) Others in his situation -- those whom he decides to kill -- are similarly privileged, likely supplemented by a generous severance package. One of our main character's victims refers to his maid and drives a Mercedes. So you're unemployed, looking for work, and generally despondent about life. Which is it: Are you going to actively seek a new job or will you whine about it while fooling yourself that maintaining your old, excessive way of life is still possible? The "critique" of this film -- that "Anglo-Saxon liberalism" is destroying people's livelihoods and creating an ever-more-consumeristic, violent, and oversexualized society, is precisely wrong. Yes, unemployment is a major problem in France, but you needn't look to the posh neighborhoods of Alsace-Lorraine to explore it. How about les banlieues surrounding Paris, where steep unemployment rates help to drive despair and actual violence among the immigrant youth? Yet the remedy to this very real problem -- loosening some of the restrictions of France's extremely rigid labor market -- is precisely what Costa-Gavras argues against, in the name of social justice. The bizarre and manufactured "class solidarity" among the upper-middle-class former paper employees in the film is a weird perversion of "Fight Club"'s blue-collar ethos, a mentality we're encouraged to agree with at the unspoken expense of the actual poor and downtrodden of French society.

Give me a break. Costa-Gavras should stick to political intrigue, not economics. There are very few situations in which there is literally one job position that everyone is fighting for; are we honestly supposed to believe that the skills and experience gained from a high-level paper job are not applicable to other industries? And really, after several different versions of TV's "The Office," can we truly believe the cloying, earnest attitude of the main character, who apparently believes that his job in the paper industry is helping society? The film negates its own premise, unwittingly, by pointing out the horrible downsides to France's calcified labor market and blaming the results on capitalism instead of the very restrictions whose abolishment would solve many of the problems it raises. A further sin is the film's acknowledgment that underlying many of these (very real) French anxieties is a fear that Eastern Europeans stand poised to take their jobs. That's the price of both the free market and EU membership, and a symptom of general xenophobia.

Beyond this philosophical disagreement, the film itself lazily relies on unnecessary first-person narration and a complete lack of subtlety. (Oh look, the TV's on! Guess the tube is just full of cussing Americans and their guns, slowly infiltrating our pristine society!) And finally, the film either takes place in a bizarre alternate reality in which cell phones and e-mail are not common, or the filmmaker actively chose to set the story 5-10 years in the past (why? because of the book?). If anything, the story would be more relevant in the present, when the choice between Sarkozy and Royal presents the stark choice embodied in "The Ax"'s narrative.

The thirty-nine years old executive Bruno Davert (José Garcia) has been working for fifteen years in a paper company. After a merging operation with a Romania's company, he is fired in a downsizing. While unemployed for two years, Bruno loses his self-esteem and sanity and his family loses the middle-class lifestyle without cable television, Internet and regular consumption. He concludes that there is too much competition in his sector for a few job positions and decides to literally eliminate his competitors, killing those more qualified than him.

"Le Couperet" is a sarcastic view of the greed of the companies and the effects of downsizing in the self-esteem and sanity of a man. The awareness of the economical situation in France (but could be in most of the nations) and black-humor of Costas-Gravas gives a fantastic satire to the greed of the corporations, aiming exclusively profits without any care for the human beings. The sub-employment, as means of survival; the exacerbated use of merchandising to force the consumption; the situation of the family, being emotionally shattered with the stressful situation of the husband and father; all of these elements are ironically presented in this tough and realistic social satire through a French middle-class family. José Garcia is stunning in the role of a bitter man fighting to find job position and serial killer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Corte" ("The Cut")

Costa -Gavras 's body of work does not lack in unity.

Except for his two fist movies,which were thrillers , a romantic tale ("Clair de Femme" ) and a comedy that does not count ("Conseil de Famille' ) all that he has made display social and political concerns.

From his early French classics ("Z "(He is alive) "L'Aveu" ,"Etat de Siège") to his American period ("Missing" "Betrayed" "Music Box" ) to his French comeback ("Amen" ) there is a cohesion which even André Cayatte ,his closest contender in the field,did not reach.

And then "Le Couperet" .Don't be mistaken.It's not that much different from CG's previous efforts.Based on a Donald Westlake novel-a writer whose black humour was fierce- ,it contains lines Henri Jeanson or Michel Audiard would not have disowned.Comedy walks a fine line ,but it walks hand in hand with tragedy .You must watch it seriously to realize what heavy things CG is saying.While making his film verge on parody,he is also putting the French society in a less exalted light than we have been used to seeing it in.Suddenly our world seems frightening (the gas station man who hides a gun in his cash register,the icily impersonal female headhunter -I wish I had had my gun!-)It is really the society of the leave-you-behind and perhaps -I hope not - an omen of things to come in the future.I do not speak of the murders obviously.There are other ways of destroying a human being."When I saw them enter the restaurant ,the German ex-engineer says,I knew that I didn't stand the slightest chance ".

The last picture has (and will be) widely talked about.Actually it reminds me of the ending of Mankiewicz's "All about Eve " when Phoebe tries Eve's crown .When you get to the top,there is nowhere to go but down.

A film noir,a farce,a psychological drama ,a social satire and a movie where CG talks politics.One of his most accessible and one of his strongest works.At seventy plus,CG is as young as the reporter who bothered the fascists in "Z".He is abetted by Jose Garcia on top of his game.

Like this?Try these.....

"Extension du domaine de la lutte" Philippe Harel 1998

"L'adversaire" Nicole Garcia 2002

"Working girl" Mike Nichols 1988

I'm a big fan of Costa-Gavras' political films, they really are the best in their genre. I was taken by surprise by this film, because I had no idea Gavras can make funny films too, since he normally is so political/critical.

This movie is a delicious dark comedy! It's intelligent and thematizes a current and therefore important subject. All actors are very good, but José Garcia really is something special! I don't remember having seen him before and am happy to see a "new" funny face. He is not only funny, but also very natural, believable. I like that he looks Spanish/Portuguese, being it a French movie.

A man that can make political movies, but also such good comedies, like Gavras does, really is a gifted man! I'll watch this movie again.

A French gem that needs to be seen. I was watching it on TV when it came out back in the day, but fell asleep amidst the film. It stayed in my mind, intriguingly, as I wasn't quite sure what I had really seen when dozing off in front of the TV, on the couch. The same thing happened whilst watching "Benny's Video" - some 15 years prior to "Le couperet".

The movie stayed in my mind and I just now watched it in full, after some 15 years - and it was great. A really unique and funny film. Dark humour, black comedy - whatever you want to call it - a bit macabre, but extremely entertaining and enjoyable film that will make you laugh too.

Recommended further watching from Michael Haneke that I referred to earlier: "The Seventh Continent"/"Der siebente Kontinent" (1989), "Benny's Video" (1992), "71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls" (1994), "Funny Games" (1997).

Marian Dora: "Cannibal" (2006), "Melancholie der Engel" (2009), "Reise nach Agatis" (2010), "Debris Documentar" (2012).

Lars von Trier: "Riget" (TV mini-series 1994-1997), "Dogville" (2003), "The House That Jack Built" (2018).

Faithfully adapted from a Donald Westlake's novel, maybe among his best novels ever, far from his comedy crime Dortmunder's adventures, this film is itself among the best stories ever told concerning the unemployed managers and executives, the authentic jungle of the inner big companies policies and rules, the jungle of mandatory smiles, kingdom of hypocrisy or how to survive in such a fierce and ruthless world. Mllions of people could recognize themselves in Jose Garcia's character, as the reader of Westlake's book also could become the main lead. This is a terrific tale about a terrible situation concerning an awful world where the enemies are the problem but unfortunately not the solution. Only poor innocents fellows are. Awesome and awful.

I saw this Costa-Gavras movie in a theater. During 2 hours, you follow a man who went crazy because, after his lay off he is not able to find another place as a chemist in the paper industry. Since he cannot think of doing another job, since every interview for a job ends with a meaningful "we'll call you", he decides that the only way to get back his job is "simply" to kill his competitors.

My first impression was that the movie is too long and many scenes are in fact boring, and the story is not interesting enough or complex enough to make a movie by itself.

The idea that, in our modern society, many people define themselves by their job (and not by what they achieve in other fields, their family life for instance), is probably an interesting theme. In his movie however, I cannot tell if the director Costa-Gavras opted for a comedy or a drama about a serial killer. Some scenes are somewhat funny, but they are too scarce. You mainly see the main character trying to get rid of potential rivals in various ways, and the whole is neither credible enough, nor burlesque enough, nor breathtaking enough. Maybe we'll get a better movie if you keep it short, concise and cut all the boring scenes.

If you want a good drama which is also a good social satire from France, pick any of the Chabrol's. If you're for a good comedy with a corporate background, I would suggest "The Closet" ("Le placard") by Francis Weber.

One good thing about "Le couperet" however, the acting is very good and allows the movie not to fall apart. (But I prefer José Garcia when he is directed in a more funny way).

Costa Gavras is a master of the political film. Political films in general are not my cup of tea. They try to convey some kind of message to the public, and they do it by portraying the persons in a stylized way, losing in depth in the process. People are portrayed realistically but their conflicts are simplified because the political film intends to portray society and its problems - unemployment, hunger, class exploitation and so on - in other words, they talk about the big (lack of bread, for instance) and forget the small (emotions like loneliness and sadness, for instance).

Many political films concerned about their objectivity are quite emotionless, or else their emotions are one-sided - bad and ugly live here, beauty and love live there, or the other way around.

FEW POLITICAL FILMS are able to bridge this gap: to talk about society and at the same time not forget the individual man and his/her very complex universe and contradictions. SOME OF THESE FILMS ARE the masterpieces of neorealism: "Ladri di Bicicletta" and "Umberto D" by Vittorio de Sica, "Los Olvidados" by Buñuel and many others.

Costa Gavras doesn't reach this goal. His films are efficient and convey their message to the public, but they lack warmth.

"Le Couperet" is nonetheless an interesting film - a man that works as a chemist loses his job and after 2 years of unemployment decides to kill whoever stands in his way to get another job - so he places an ad of an imaginary enterprise in the newspaper offering a chemist job (his professional area) and rents a post box to read the answers he gets. He reads all the résumés and proceeds to kill all the people that are equal or more qualified than him - so that in the end he'll get the job because he will be the only remaining choice. All the while he will go on living normally with his family. He will suffer emotional crises, his marriage will become strained but no one will suspect anything at all of his alternative activities.

The film, after all, is very entertaining and gives a sad picture of France (and Western Europe I would say), suffering economic crisis and rising doubts. Is it possible with the globalization to maintain a very expensive Social Welfare and have to face a growing economic erosion? In USA (as far as I know), for instance, some unemployed people live on the streets or under the bridges. In France and Western Europe, unemployed people are still taken care of. Till when? Many enterprises are closing or cutting expenses (that means firing people).

Costas Gavras films are good because they make questions about the world in which we live, they make us think, but his films don't really touch me - I would say they provide food for thought but not food for the heart.

There is no doubt that Costa Gavras is a major film director with tremendous global appeal. One would find it impossible to find a serious cinéphile who does not remember not having seen classics shot by him namely 'Z', 'L'Aveu', 'Etat De Siège' etc. He has made films both for Hollywood and European film industries. However, despite all these remarkable distinctions, Le Couperet is a major disappoint for Costa Gavras. It is for this reason that it should be considered a minor work in his filmography. Le Couperet has two major flaws which have led to its downfall. Firstly, from a 'philosophical' point of view, "Le Couperet" is 'ethically' wrong as in no terms can killing be justified even if it is carried out by somebody who follows a utilitarian perspective. This is one good reason why irrational killings by the film's unemployed protagonist Bruno Davert-a role played by José Garcia, do not have an air of justness as if such reckless killing methods are adopted then there are ample chances that every second unemployed person would like to kill the ones who have jobs. Le Couperet is also weak from a cinematographic perspective as it grossly lacks a strong script which can retain viewers' attention at all times. There are too many 'easy to guess' clues in the film's script for which Costa Gavras collaborated with Jean Claude Grumberg. This is one reason why it is easy for a viewer to state with confidence what is going to take place in the next scene. A good thing about "Le Couperet" is that lead actor Jose Garcia's presence is the film's sole saving grace.For an actor of his stature who has left an impressive mark on numerous comedy films, it is surprising to know that he has convincingly conveyed the gruesomeness of a mad murderer who bumps off innocent people with remarkable ease.

I've seen "Le Couperet" and it impressed me.

There is a lot of suspense.

And influence from Alfred Hitchcock movies.

Costa-Gavras himself came to my country (Brazil) to give a lecture and answered questions about cinema and his movies in March 29, 2005.

He talked about how he started making movies and the French movies.

In his opinion, France is a good place to make movies because the government helps filmmakers and there is at least 150 movies made every year.

In March 31, an avant-premiere of "Le Couperet" took place in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

It was great to see this movie having Costa-Gavras present.

Amazing.

... nothing else than that. Indeed, the history does not really explore the leitmotif of the film, in any moment. Probably, the two encounters with two of the victims (the waiter and the salesman) can brig more evidences about the real situation portrayed by the main character than the rest of the action, a TV movie with two much superfluous elements, badly oriented and excessively based on a fake tension. What's a pity for a film that it could be a good drill work of our "consumible" society.

I can suggest a Spanish film "Los Lunes Al Sol" as an example of a clean approach to the world of people who after losing their jobs progressively become ... nothing.

I haven't read the novel by Donald E. Westlake on which this movie is based but I have read several of his works and til now I never had him pegged as a plagiarist but here he's at it twice over; firstly he lifts a title, Ax, already used by Ed McBain in one of his 87th Precinct novels and then the plot itself is pure Richard The Third, or - and new readers start here - the one about the guy who kills everybody standing between him and the throne. In this case the throne is just a middle management job at Arcadia, a paper manufacturer and it was a job that Jose Garcia HAD til he was laid off. Like a lot of people in similar circumstances - he is after all a chemist as opposed to a common or garden administrator - he figures it's only a matter of time til he lucks into another job but after three years of no money, a wife, Karin Viard, and two kids to support and a house to keep up he figures the only way through the wood is, to paraphrase Richard Crookback, 'hack my way out with a bloody axe. This is where Costa-Gavros lost me; it may be he was aiming at comedy and/or satire but if he was he missed by a mile. I mean this guy kills his rivals in broad daylight; he uses his own car which SOMEBODY must have seen, his own gun, time after time even on one occasion accidentally killing a neighbour who had already seen him on a previous abortive attempt on the guy in question and now accosted him. Don't they watch CSI Miami in France? I mean have they ever heard of forensic evidence? This guy just kills and kills and walks, or rather drives away. There's even a weird sequence when he breaks into the home of the head honcho of Arcadia (Olivier Gourmet) who braces him. Gourmet is slightly drunk however and winds up entertaining Garcia before passing out. Garcia's idea of fun is to turn on the gas and leave the comatose Gourmet to inhale it; as luck would have it Gourmet comes to, fails to notice the gas and lights a cigarette, end of one head honcho. Garcia I can take or leave and his performance does nothing to change my mind but I am partial to Karin Viard who is wasted here yet does what she can to salvage a bad joke. 3 stars.