I don't want to give away anything about the story or the characters, I just feel I have to write this because I cannot stand reading ignorant user comments about this great movie. This film was the first in a long time that I reacted to emotionally. It is so realistic and powerful it's sometimes painful to watch.
It is one of the few movies where the violent actions of the characters fit perfectly to the inner process every character finds himself in. The exchange between the slower sequences and the short and abrupt acts of violence is done so wonderfully I can't praise it enough. When you tell the story of this movie to a friend he is probably going to say that it doesn't sound that realistic but if you just look at each action for itself you realize that it really could happen (and has happened) like this.
"Sauf le respect que je vous dois" is a complex movie, I'm sure you will find more things each time you watch it. It is well written, I loved the cinematography and the flow of the scenes and the actors are unbelievably good. Hard to believe that this is the first feature of the director who added some interesting thoughts in the Q&A session after the screening I had the pleasure to attend (in Berlin). I hope this film gets a lot more attention because it really is a movie about our modern times and a precise observation of the situation many employees find themselves in. It is NOT a thriller just because someone is running away from the police. And though you may consider it "very french" because of the few dialogue that is used in some scenes, this french style never fitted so well to a story like it does here.
