The Repentant | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
French | La Repentie |
Directed by | Laetitia Masson |
Screenplay by | Laetitia Masson |
Based on | La Repentie by Didier Daeninckx |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Dominique Faysse |
Music by | Jocelyn Pook |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | ARP Sélection |
Release date |
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Running time | 125 minutes [1] |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Budget | $8.5 million [2] |
Box office | $655,465 [3] |
The Repentant (French : La Repentie) is a 2002 French romantic thriller film written and directed by Laetitia Masson, and loosely based on the 1999 novella La Repentie by Didier Daeninckx. [4] It stars Isabelle Adjani and marked her return to the screen after four years. [2] With supporting roles by Sami Frey and Samy Naceri, Adjani portrays a woman who tries to escape her criminal past. [4] It was released by ARP Sélection on 17 April 2002. [5]
A young woman retrieves a suitcase from the station depot, enters a bathroom, and emerges wearing an elegant dress and black sunglasses. She purchases a ticket for the first train heading to the sea (Nice). A young man named Karim follows her and inquires about the train's direction from the conductor. The story then poses the question: Can a woman truly start a new life with another man, Paul Viard, when her past continues to haunt her?
Laetitia Masson was approached by producers looking for a vehicle to mark Isabelle Adjani's return to the screen. Adjani had established herself as a leading star of French cinema in the 1980s. [4] However, her last appearance was a minor role in Paparazzi (1998), in which she played herself. [2] Her last leading role was starring opposite Sharon Stone in Diabolique (1996), a remake of Les Diaboliques . [4] In The Repentant, Masson uses Adjani as her femme fatale and incorporates themes of mystery and impulsiveness to illustrate the feeling of starting anew. [7]
Principal photography began on 21 May 2001, with filming taking place in Paris, the Île-de-France region, Nice and Morocco. It lasted 10 weeks. [8]
The film was a modest box-office success in France, selling 85,238 admissions from 138 screens in its first week. [7] At the end of its theatrical run, it sold a total of 137,127 admissions. [9]
The Repentant received an average rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 21 reviews. [10]
Olivier De Bruyn, writing for Première , assessed it as a "hybrid film: absolutely fascinating but a bit frustrating". [10] Gérard Lefort of Libération deemed it a film of "imperceptibility" whose best scenes were those of insignificance. [11] Michel Guilloux of L'Humanité wrote that the film accumulated clichés and the plot quickly revealed itself empty, to the point of boring the audience. [10] Les Echos 's Annie Coppermann concurred, saying it rendered the audience vaguely bored but admiring the landscapes and faces of Adjani and Frey, and ultimately hoping for a proper return to film for Adjani. [12] François Gorin of Télérama similarly called it a mess filled with emptiness, but also "impossible to hate". [10]
Screen International 's Patrick Frater criticized the lack of a deeper examination into the film's themes of "starting over and inventing a past". Frater, however, praised both the "sumptuous" cinematography and Jocelyn Pook's score for lifting the film "above the mean". [7]