''Lemming'' is a 2005 French
psychological thriller
Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting.
In terms of context and co ...
film directed by
Dominik Moll
Dominik Moll (born 7 May 1962) is a Germany, German-born France, French film director and screenwriter. He was born in Bühl (Baden), Bühl, West Germany.
In 2001, he won the César Award for Best Director for ''Harry, He's Here to Help''. Both ...
and starring
André Dussollier
André Dussollier (born 17 February 1946) is a French 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 media such as fi ...
,
Charlotte Rampling
Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model.
She was cast in the role ...
,
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon I ...
and
Laurent Lucas
Laurent Lucas (born 20 July 1965) is a French actor.
Life and career
A student of the Charles Dullin school, Lucas soon became one of the most admired young performers in the Strasbourg National Theatre. He first emerged on the scene with his r ...
. It was entered into the
2005 Cannes Film Festival
The 58th Cannes Film Festival started on 11 May and ran until 22 May 2005. Twenty movies from 13 countries were selected to compete. The awards were announced on 21 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Belgium, Belgian film ''L'Enfant (film), L'Enfant ...
.
Plot
Alain Getty is a Home Automation Engineer who accepts a job in the south of France to work on a small
camera drone in a technology company owned by Richard Pollock, and moves to a suburb of
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
with his wife Bénédicte.
After three months, Richard invites himself and his wife Alice to dinner at Alain's house. They arrive late and create a scene with their marital problems; Alice is very rude to Bénédicte. Alain discovers a rodent lodged in the S-bend of the kitchen sink, which recovers after Alain retrieves it. A veterinarian identifies it as a
lemming
A lemming is a small rodent, usually found in or near the Arctic in tundra biomes. Lemmings form the subfamily Arvicolinae (also known as Microtinae) together with voles and muskrats, which form part of the superfamily Muroidea, which also include ...
, a Scandinavian animal that does not live in France in the wild.
The next evening Alice visits Alain, working late at his office. She says that Richard once tried to kill her and that the only reason she is still with him is to see him die. She attempts to seduce Alain, who resists her advances, but doesn't tell Bénédicte about the incident. Alice visits Bénédicte alone, and alludes to having had sex with Alain, before saying she feels tired. Bénédicte shows her the guest bedroom, where she creates a mess and eventually shoots herself. Bénédicte feels an urge to spend the night in the guestroom where Alice committed suicide.
Despite Alice's death, Richard and Alain go on a business trip to
Biarritz
Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...
the next day. During the drive, Alain asks Richard if he had really tried to kill Alice. In response, Richard asks Alain if he and Alice had sex, which Alain denies. That evening, Alain calls Bénédicte, who initially doesn't answer, then abuses him. Concerned, Alain decides to drive home immediately, although it is late and he is tired. He finds Bénédicte sleeping and is unable to wake her. He hears noises coming from the kitchen, discovers it is full of lemmings and faints. Alain wakes up in a hospital; he crashed after falling asleep at the wheel, and the previous night's events were apparently a dream.
Upon Alain's release from the hospital, he and Bénédicte visit Richard's lakeside holiday chalet. Bénédicte continues to behave coldly. She asks why Alain hadn't told her about Alice's attempt to seduce him, using the exact words Alice used that night and asks Alain to call her "Alice". They have sex and Alain falls asleep. When he wakes, Bénédicte and their car are gone. Alain hitches a ride home and discovers that Bénédicte started an affair with Richard while he was in hospital and is about to move into his house. Alain uses his drone to observe Richard's house, and finds Bénédicte as expected. As Richard and Bénédicte are about to have sex, the camera fails. It appears that Alice has taken control of Bénédicte and resumed her life with Richard inside Bénédicte's body. Meanwhile, the vet returns the lemming to Alain's house. The lemming bites Alain and disappears in the house.
The next day, Richard confronts Alain at work with pieces of the drone he found in the garden. That evening, "Alice-Bénédicte" visits Alain to offer him a deal: If he kills Richard, he would get Bénédicte back. She gives Alain the key to Richard's house and leaves. That night Alain goes to Richard's house. He finds Richard and "Alice-Bénédicte" asleep in the bedroom, and smothers Richard with a pillow while "Alice-Bénédicte" watches. Alain carries Richard's body to the kitchen, where he operates the coffee-machine and the gas stove. "Alice-Bénédicte" follows him to the car in a trance-like state. Back at their house, "Alice-Bénédicte" goes straight to bed. When she wakes up, she is Bénédicte again—she says she dreamt of Alice, but doesn't remember any of the recent events.
The next day, the couple are in their garden when they receive news of Richard's apparent suicide by causing a gas explosion in his house. Bénédicte innocently asks Alain if he believes Richard committed suicide because of Alice's death. She then discovers the dead lemming and throws it away. The mystery of its origin is resolved by Alain in a voice over: Their neighbours' son had brought the animal from a family holiday to Finland; his upset father then flushed it down the toilet. Finally, Alain mentions that Bénédicte is pregnant.
Cast
*
Laurent Lucas
Laurent Lucas (born 20 July 1965) is a French actor.
Life and career
A student of the Charles Dullin school, Lucas soon became one of the most admired young performers in the Strasbourg National Theatre. He first emerged on the scene with his r ...
as Alain Getty
*
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon I ...
as Bénédicte Getty
*
Charlotte Rampling
Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model.
She was cast in the role ...
as Alice Pollock
*
André Dussollier
André Dussollier (born 17 February 1946) is a French 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 media such as fi ...
as Richard Pollock
*
Jacques Bonnaffé
Jacques Bonnaffé (born 22 June 1958) is a French actor and stage director. He has appeared in more than ninety films since 1980.
Debut
Jacques Bonnaffé was formed at the Lille Conservatory after his high school years in Douai (North) where he ...
as Nicolas Chevalier
*
Véronique Affholder as Francine
*
Michel Cassagne
Michel may refer to:
* Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name)
* Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers)
* Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...
as Le vétérinaire
*
Florence Desille as L'infirmière
*
Emmanuel Gayet as Le médecin de garde
*
Félix Gonzales as Félix, le fils du voisin
*
Nicolas Jouhet as L'employé des eaux
*
Fabrice Robert as Bruno
Reception
The film is generally well received by critics. Review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives it a 73% approval rating, based on 48 reviews, with an average score of 6.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "A creepy psychological thriller, with superb performances and natural tension flowing from every frame, ''Lemming'' is a worthy successor to Dominik Moll's ''With A Friend Like Harry''". At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 65, based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Accolades
References
External links
*
Cannes Film Festival page
{{Dominik Moll
2005 films
2000s French-language films
Films directed by Dominik Moll
2000s thriller drama films
French thriller drama films
Films set in France
2000s French films