The Intruder (2004 film)

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The Intruder
The Intruder FilmPoster.jpeg
French L'intrus
Directed by Claire Denis
Written by
Based onL'intrus
by Jean-Luc Nancy
Produced by Humbert Balsan
Starring
Cinematography Agnès Godard
Edited byNelly Quettier
Music by Stuart A. Staples
Release dates
  • 9 September 2004 (2004-09-09)(Venice)
  • 4 May 2005 (2005-05-04)(France)
Running time
130 minutes
CountryFrance
Languages
  • French
  • English
  • Korean
  • Russian
  • Polynesian
Box office$40,853 [1]

The Intruder (French : L'intrus) is a 2004 French drama film directed by Claire Denis. The film had its world premiere in the Competition section at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2004. It was released in France on 4 May 2005.

Contents

Plot

Louis Trebor, an ex-mercenary living in the Jura Mountains, is suffering increasingly from a heart condition. He abandons his home, beloved dogs, and estranged son in pursuit of a black market heart transplant in Korea before traveling to Tahiti, where he spent time in his youth, in the hope of connecting with a son he has never met.

Cast

Production

The film is inspired by a brief essay of the same name by Jean-Luc Nancy. [2] Claire Denis also takes inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson's writing and Paul Gauguin's South Seas paintings. [3] Footage from Paul Gégauff's film Le Reflux is used in the film. [4]

Release

The film had its world premiere in the Competition section at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2004. [5] [6] It was released in France on 4 May 2005. [7]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 29 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The impressionistic narrative may confound the viewer, but Denis crafts wonderfully poetic, dreamlike imagery." [8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [9]

Amy Taubin of Film Comment commented that "Denis is one of cinema's greatest narrative poets, and The Intruder, the story of an adventurer, is her most adventurous cinematic poem." [10] Jay Weissberg of Variety wrote, "More opaque than her past works and unlikely to garner her new fans, Denis gives near equal weight to reality, dreams, nightmares and premonitions, resisting a traditional narrative in order to question the possibilities of escape within the modern world." [11]

Slant Magazine placed the film at number 77 on the "100 Best Films of the Aughts" list. [12]

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References

  1. "The Intruder". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  2. Sweeney, R. Emmet (July 2005). "The Hither Side of Solutions: Bodies and Landscape in L'intrus". Senses of Cinema . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  3. Dooley, Kath (June 2012). "The Intruder". Senses of Cinema . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  4. Smith, Damon (April 2005). "L'Intrus: An Interview with Claire Denis". Senses of Cinema . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  5. "Venezia 61 - In Competition". Venice Biennale . Archived from the original on 11 October 2004. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  6. "Thursday, September 9, 2004". Venice Biennale . Archived from the original on 11 September 2004. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  7. "L'intrus". AlloCiné . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  8. "The Intruder (L'Intrus)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  9. "The Intruder". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  10. Taubin, Amy (May 2005). "Distributor Wanted: The Intruder". Film Comment . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  11. Weissberg, Jay (17 September 2004). "The Intruder". Variety . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  12. "The 100 Best Films of the Aughts". Slant Magazine . 7 February 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2022.

Further reading