After his liberation, a small-time thief is given shelter by a loyal friend. The said friend too lives on the margins of society : together with his wife, he struggles in order to provide his small daughter with the education she deserves. When the wife develops a severe hip problem which keeps her from doing her job as a cleaning lady, financial ruin looms. The images on the little black-and-white television, which show the public outpouring of grief after the death of Charlie Chaplin, kindle a particularly unlovely inspiration...
"La rançon de la gloire" is based on the real-life theft of Chaplin's body, which had been buried in a small Swiss graveyard. (Be sure to admire the stunning locations - Switserland has rarely looked so lovely.) The movie liberally mixes fact and fiction : for instance, the names and nationalities of the two perpetrators have been changed. Their various motives too seem to have been modified.
The movie is a mix of thriller and tragicomedy, with an emphasis on the tragicomedy. It is most notable for the quality of its performances : both Zem and Poelvoorde are excellent, and the other actors and actresses involved make a decent fist of it, too. However, the movie is not helped by its constant insistence that the two grave-robbers were poor, silly, clumsy amateurs and, as a result, more to be pitied than condemned. This rather makes light of the fact that it is perfectly possible for a person to be both poor, silly, clumsy etc. AND foul at the same time. (In real life both criminals seem to have been immigrants or refugees. In my opinion this adds an extra layer to their villainy : if one flees to a foreign nation and accepts the mercy and protection of that nation, the least one can do is obey the law and respect the inhabitants, dead or alive.) But doubtlessly other viewers and reviewers will form their own opinion about the movie's ethics - or, as the case may be, lack of ethics.
Anyway, "La rançon" could easily lose a quarter of an hour or even half an hour. The music on the other hand is remarkable, although it may be too grand, and too noble, for an essentially sordid tale about the profanation of a grave and the intimidation of a grieving family.
"La rançon de la gloire" is based on the real-life theft of Chaplin's body, which had been buried in a small Swiss graveyard. (Be sure to admire the stunning locations - Switserland has rarely looked so lovely.) The movie liberally mixes fact and fiction : for instance, the names and nationalities of the two perpetrators have been changed. Their various motives too seem to have been modified.
The movie is a mix of thriller and tragicomedy, with an emphasis on the tragicomedy. It is most notable for the quality of its performances : both Zem and Poelvoorde are excellent, and the other actors and actresses involved make a decent fist of it, too. However, the movie is not helped by its constant insistence that the two grave-robbers were poor, silly, clumsy amateurs and, as a result, more to be pitied than condemned. This rather makes light of the fact that it is perfectly possible for a person to be both poor, silly, clumsy etc. AND foul at the same time. (In real life both criminals seem to have been immigrants or refugees. In my opinion this adds an extra layer to their villainy : if one flees to a foreign nation and accepts the mercy and protection of that nation, the least one can do is obey the law and respect the inhabitants, dead or alive.) But doubtlessly other viewers and reviewers will form their own opinion about the movie's ethics - or, as the case may be, lack of ethics.
Anyway, "La rançon" could easily lose a quarter of an hour or even half an hour. The music on the other hand is remarkable, although it may be too grand, and too noble, for an essentially sordid tale about the profanation of a grave and the intimidation of a grieving family.
