Themroc

Themroc has been dumped on the market in the North West of England. The Warner Brothers VHS tape has appeared in dozens of copies in bargain outlets. So have Buñuel's Tristana and Visconti's Senso, come to that, but their transformative power may be less potent.

We still await reports that pound-store customers are roasting cops and sniffing tear-gas for kicks. As for humping their sisters, we never suspected anything less of them.

Warners promise English subtitles, which would have been de trop. Collectors of unusual aspect-ratios may care to note it is cited as 1.53:1

It's a romantic tale, though. The modern Themroc would be a short, stopped by a high- powered bullet about half an hour in.

I saw this movie while I was living in Germany in 1975 and absolutely LOVED it - but of course, that was 25 years ago. I've searched in vain for it since, I don't think it's ever been shown in the States.

Note to the distributor: there's an opportunity for it in the art houses on this side of the Atlantic - granted Americans are generally much more prudish than Europeans, but I think we're sufficiently post-PC (politically correct) that it would have a chance at a good reception.

This is mainly noted for having no intelligible dialogue throughout: given its considerable length (105 minutes) and essential plotlessness, though, the series of grunts, growls, groans and other gibberish uttered by all the characters involved does become wearying after a while. Nevertheless, it's a good example of the risks that film-makers were willing to take (and generally manage to pull off) during this most creative era in World Cinema; curiously enough, for being virtually a Silent film with barely established characters, this has one of the longest cast lists I've ever seen! THEMROC revolves around a laborer (Michel Piccoli) who goes berserk after getting the sack from work: he sleeps with his sister and destroys his apartment and, after the initial astonishment, his neighbors get the same anarchic bug. This streak of non-conformism also extends to sex (with plenty of non-graphic nudity on display), as Piccoli contrives to elicit uninhibited behavior from many of the females (be they nubile or frustrated) around him – including the secretary, Marilu' Tolo, he had been caught unwittingly peeping on and subsequently seduced. Despite the occasional brutality, police intervention in the matter largely proves ineffectual. Though the point of it all is obscure – unless it's that one needs to revert to some form of primeval state in order to survive the exigencies of the modern world – a handful of situations which crop up are definitely amusing: Piccoli and policeman Patrick Dewaere engaging in a tit-for-tat routine while the latter is rebuilding the façade of his apartment; feeling liberated, a victimized wife tries to assert herself and finally escapes her husband's tyranny through the window when he's not looking; a man spends practically the entire film lovingly washing his car but, then, at the very end he joins in the chaos by nonchalantly taking a sledge-hammer to it. Still, when all is said and done, the best thing about the film is its extraordinary fragmented editing.

A factory worker who, one morning, fed up with the routine of his work, decides to abandon the conventions of civilization and live primitively in the city kind of human caveman, expressing himself through grunts. He expresses dehumanization through routine and anarchism signifying the return of the human being, who rejects modern society from its root, to its primitive nature is explained by the 'representation' of wolves, hunts, and ultimately howling wolves.

Directed by truck-driver-turned-filmmaker Claude Faraldo, a French film composed entirely of nonsensical dialogue which is completely bizarre, but weirdly intriguing. The film works as absurd comedy and social criticism at the same time. Pure anarchism and demolition of the values of the modern world through a wild surreal mockery, sounding like a Grindcore album in it's runtime.

Among the roles of Michel Piccoli's impressive career in theatre and cinema, my all-time favourite remains the "THEMROC" (1973) who constantly cries out, growls, screams and repeats incomprehensible acts and vandalism as if he wanted to explode the hypocritical harmony of modern society. RIP Michel Piccoli.

It is obvious that words, wonderful photography, direction and profound lessons are not needed in a film in order for it to pass its messages across to its viewers. Themroc is a movie with no dialogue so that it can be seen by any human around the world and still understand how authority has separated us and divided us in order to use us. Themroc is an ode to symbolism, a prime example of how you can do political commentary and show to people that freedom is easy to attain and that half measures is the mean authority uses to control us. More than that, Themroc examines human sexuality, sexism, exploitation and the limitations modern society has set for us thus limiting our life experience and happiness.

I absolutely recommend watching it if you manage to fin this film. 10/10