''Dossier 51'' (french: Le Dossier 51) is a 1978 French
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
film directed by
Michel Deville
Michel Deville (born 13 April 1931) is a French film director and screenwriter.
Deville started his filmmaking career in the late 1950s, paralleling the emergence of the French New Wave directors. He never achieved the level of critical and int ...
and based on a novel by
Gilles Perrault
Gilles Perrault (born Jacques Peyroles; 9 March 1931) is a French writer and journalist.
Biography
Born in Paris, Perrault attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris and then studied at the Institut d'études politiques, eventually becoming a l ...
. Deville and Perrault won a
César Award for Best Writing The César Award for Best Writing (french: César du meilleur scénario, dialogues ou adaptation (1976-1982); ''César du meilleur scénario original ou adaptation'' (1986-2005) is a discontinued award given by the Académie des Arts et Techniques ...
for their adaptation. The film was screened in the
Un Certain Regard
(, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films w ...
section at the
1978 Cannes Film Festival
The 31st Cannes Film Festival was held from 16 to 30 May 1978. The Palme d'Or went to the L'albero degli zoccoli by Ermanno Olmi. This festival saw the introduction of a new non-competitive section, 'Un Certain Regard', which replaces 'Les Yeux ...
.
Plot and style
An unnamed French agency, presumably an intelligence service (though this is never made clear), attempts to coerce a French diplomat into working for them. Their relationship forms the main plot of the film.
A book resembling a dossier (file) contains notes, memos, wiretap transcripts, expense reports and interoffice correspondence (including administrative details, even some bickering) written in various personal styles. Every department in the organization is identified by a Greek or Roman god:
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
,
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
,
Esculape,
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
, etc. The targets of their investigations have their names replaced by numbers: 51 for the target, 52 for his wife, and so on, further dehumanizing the proceedings.
Cast
*
Françoise Béliard - Sylvie Mouriat
*
Patrick Chesnais
Patrick Chesnais (born 18 March 1947) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter.
Life and career
Patrick Chesnais was born in La Garenne-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine. He was educated at the '' Lycée Pierre Corneille'' in Rouen.
In 198 ...
- Hadès
*
Jenny Clève - Agent 747
*
Jean Dautremay - Esculape 3
*
Gérard Dessalles - Brauchite
*
Jean-Michel Dupuis
Jean-Michel Dupuis (born in 1955) is a French theatre, TV and film actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern m ...
- Agent Hécate 8446
*
Sabine Glaser
The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Aniene, Anio before the founding of Ro ...
- Paméla
*
Nathalie Juvet - Marguerite Marie
*
Françoise Lugagne
Françoise Lugagne (1914–1991) was a French stage, film and television actress. She was married to the Belgian actor Raymond Rouleau and appeared alongside him in the 1945 fashion house
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetic ...
- Madame Auphal
*
Christophe Malavoy
Christophe Malavoy (born 21 March 1952 in Reutlingen, West Germany), is a French actor.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
1952 births
Living people
20th-century French male actors
French male film actors
Most Promising ...
- Agent 8956
*
Claude Marcault Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
- Liliane Auphal / 52
*
François Marthouret
François Marthouret (born 12 September 1943) is a French actor.
Selected filmography
Theater
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marthouret, Francois
1943 births
Living people
Male actors from Paris
French male film actors ...
- Dominique Auphal / 51
*
- Vénus
*
Claire Nadeau
Claire Nadeau (born 1 June 1945) is a French actress.
Theater
Filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadeau, Claire
French film actresses
20th-century French actresses
21st-century French actresses
Actresses from P ...
- The 9000 Friend
*
Michel Aumont
Michel Henri Aumont (15 October 1936 – 28 August 2019) was a French theatre, film, and television actor. Throughout his career, he gained four Molière Awards and nominations for three César Awards. In 2015, he was made Grand Officer of the Na ...
- Mars's voice
References
External links
*
1978 films
1970s French-language films
1978 crime drama films
Films directed by Michel Deville
Gaumont Film Company films
French crime drama films
1970s French films
{{1970s-crime-film-stub