Themroc

I too watched this movie over 20 years ago - it was shown at the student film night at college in England. I loved it at the time and would like a chance to see it again.

I viewed it as an absurdist black comedy, but I'm sure the director had some serious socio-political axe to grind. I liked the fence painting scene and found the spit roasting of a cop (pig - geddit?) wonderfully tasteless

This film is hilarious. It is inspiring. It captures the absurdity of everyday life in a repressive social order, and portrays the infectious poetic revolt of one man who "goes mad" against authority in every form.

It's interesting that the strategy of liberation in the film revolves around a very personal and playful attack on the architecture most immediate to our lives. This destruction and transformation of space is accompanied by a kind of sexual revolution, disrupting bourgeois family dynamics in a contagious way. Readers may recognize the resonance of these themes with the theory and agitation of the Situationist International, the revolutionary / avant-garde organization credited with sparking the revolt of May 1968 in France. Five years previous to Themroc's release, millions of people actually did occupy public spaces including universities and factories, creating "passionally superior ambiances" in many cases, armed to a significant extent with Situationist ideas, graffiti slogans from which plastered Paris.

Not that seeing Themroc is any substitute for actively engaging the rigorous revolutionary theory of the S.I. (see www.bopsecrets.org). But the film is in a way a dream-like rendition of the Situationist vision of changing life. And in fact, there is a passing reference to Themroc in "Can Dialectics Break Bricks?", a film by Situationist René Vienet: when the hero of that film is confronting the "bureaucrats", some onlookers comment something to the effect that "wow, that guy must have seen Themroc."

a film which is so different in one of the best ways ever... a breath of fresh air, made just after riots in Paris in the 70's the film uses sexual tensions to portray the suppressed feeling of most parisians at the time. themroc himself, is a man who lives a repetitive life, constantly dealing with the everyday struggles of work and no play, breaks from his neash to turn in to a free man/monster who breaks down all barriers(quite literally) and brings a feeling of liberty to his community despite the police trying their best to stop and ever kill him. his path brings sex, demolition, canabolism, adultery, incest and murder to name a few... all with only about 20words said throughout the who thing a film for every film lover to watch. seriously recommended

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.

I love watching weird/bizarre movies lately, so when i read this movie's synopsis, i thought i was going to like it as well. After all, any movie with Michel Piccoli is, at least, watchable. THEMROC is indeed watchable but unfortunately, it's not a success. Main reason for this is its running time. This should have been at least 20-25 minutes in order to be recommendable. There are many boring scenes here.

Yet, it has its merits. Piccoli is expectedly great. It gets more interesting during the second part, even exciting at some point. I laughed a lot, it was hilarious at times and one thing's for sure, one cannot predict where it goes.

So, if you really love anarcho-surrealistic films, this is surely something like this. For every other viewer, i think it's more a waste of time.