That Day (film)
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''That Day'' (french: Ce jour-là) is a 2003 Swiss-French
black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
film directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. It was entered into the
2003 Cannes Film Festival The 56th Cannes Film Festival started on 14 May and ran until 25 May 2003. French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer Patrice Chéreau was the President of the Jury. The Palme d'Or went to the American film ''Elephant'' by G ...
.


Plot

Livia, a young but mentally unaware woman, lives on an expansive state with a significant wealth. It is revealed through her somewhat childish behavior that she suffers from delusional visions, ones that she writes in her notebooks and shares with strangers. Her father and surrounding family members, seeing an opportunity to accumulate her inheritance, seek out a solution to have her die in order for others to receive the wealth she holds. They find a mental patient named Pointpoirot, whose sociopathic demeanor and violent tendencies lead to Harald choosing him for the job. Pointpoirot is released from the institution, given instructions to kill Livia. At Livia's estate, she encounters Pointpoirot as he wanders outside, finding herself oddly curious with his behavior (such as his mirrorless switchblade shaving). She allows him in, charmed by his politeness and seemingly innocent behavior, until he snaps and attempts to attack her. In retaliation, Livia knocks out Pointpoirot with a hammer, then accidentally killing one of her unsuspecting relatives with the same weapon. Following this, Livia finds herself wandering around the estate, seemingly oblivious to the crime she had committed. Pointpoirot, once awakened, finds himself intrigued by Livia's behavior, begins to aid her, murdering family members one by one as they appear at the estate. Forming an affectionate bond, Pointpoirot and Livia share time together, singing and playing piano as well as conversing. Meanwhile, the inspector and police officer assigned to the case appear to do nothing, instead allowing the conspiracy to unfold as it will. As family members progressively continue to die, it becomes clear that Livia is unaware of the fact that they are actually dead, going so far as to set up her relatives' bodies for supper. Livia and Pointpoirot continue to fall in love, whilst Harald continues to investigate the disappearances of the family. Upon realizing what is coming, Pointpoirot escapes, declaring his love for Livia as he makes his getaway. Harald arrives at her home, horrified by the carnage that had ensued. An investigator looking into the murderers discovers the motivations of the family to inherit the fortune. Harald, although tempted to end the madness by killing Livia, finds himself trapped, and with few options, commits suicide. As the film ends, we see schoolchildren walking in a line to class as military trucks drive by in a caravan. Over a disembodied radio, we hear a voice describing the massacre at the estate.


Cast

*
Bernard Giraudeau Bernard René Giraudeau (18 June 1947 – 17 July 2010) was a French actor, film director, scriptwriter, producer and writer. Early life He was born on 18 June 1947 in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime. In 1963 he enlisted in the French navy as a tra ...
– Pointpoirot *
Elsa Zylberstein Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968) is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Be ...
– Livia *
Jean-Luc Bideau Jean-Luc Bideau (born 1 October 1940) is a Swiss film actor. Personal life Jean-Luc Bideau is married to Marcela Salivarova, a director of Czechoslovak origin. Together, they have two children: Nicolas, head of Presence Switzerland Presence ...
– Raufer *
Jean-François Balmer Jean-François Balmer (born April 18, 1946 in Valangin) is a Swiss actor. He has worked extensively in French cinema, television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and s ...
– Treffle *
Christian Vadim Christian Vadim (born 18 June 1963) is a French actor. He is the son of actress Catherine Deneuve and film director Roger Vadim. Career He made his film debut in 1983, working with his father in the film ''Surprise Party (film), Surprise Part ...
– Ritter *
Laurent Malet Laurent Marie Guespin-Malet (born 3 September 1955, in Bayonne) is a French actor, and the twin brother of actor Pierre Malet. Life Malet's stage debut came in ''La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu'' as Troilus alongside Claude Jade in 1975. In 1 ...
– Roland *
Rufus Rufus is a masculine given name, a surname, an Ancient Roman cognomen and a nickname (from Latin ''rufus'', "red"). Notable people with the name include: Given name Politicians * Rufus Ada George (born 1940), Nigerian politician * Rufus Al ...
– Hubus *
Féodor Atkine Féodor Atkine is a French actor of Russian-Polish origin, born on 27 February 1948 in Paris. A screen performer, he has participated in numerous plays, films and television series in France and abroad. Life and career Féodor Atkine was born ...
– Warff * Jacques Denis – Patron café *
Édith Scob Édith Scob (21 October 1937 – 26 June 2019) was a French film and theatre actress, best known for her role as the daughter with a disfigured face in '' Eyes Without a Face'' (1960). Early life and family Scob was born Édith Helena Vladimirov ...
– Leone * Hélène Surgère – Bernadette * Laurence Février – Edmonde * Jean-Michel Portal – Vogel *
Jean-Baptiste Puech Jean-Baptiste Puech is a French actor. He graduated from the Maison des Conservatoires in 1998 and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000. Filmography * 2014 Les Gazelles ''Gazelles'' (french: Les gazelles) is a 2014 French comed ...
– Luc * Matthias Urban – Dorival *
Michel Piccoli Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
– Harald


Reception

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 ...
gave ''That Day'' an approval rating of 63%, based on eight reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. In a positive review, Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews states, "It never gets beyond the playful farce stage as the tale is filled with droll humor and absurd situations, but it remains entertaining as one of Ruiz's more accessible but minor works." Filipe Furtado of ''Rouge'' adds further in a positive review: "Part of the fun in Ruiz's cinema is that he is a filmmaker who simultaneously feels a huge desire to exert control – to guarantee the
auteur An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
's signature, one could say – but at the same time he experiences an anarchic pleasure in letting the film escape from his hands. The joy of ''That Day'' comes from those moments of escape." However, in a negative review, Jeffrey M. Anderson of ''Combustible Celluloid'' states, 'From France comes the latest by the prolific Raoul Ruiz, ''That Day'', which follows the bizarre relationship between a loony bird-like young woman (Elsa Zylberstein) and a serial killer (Bernard Giraudeau). Set in Switzerland "in the near future", it's either too unhinged or not unhinged enough, I haven't decided yet.'"


Further reading

''That Day'' is further explored in Michael Goddard's book, ''The Cinema of Raúl Ruiz: Impossible Cartographies'' (2013, pp138–141).


References


External links

* * * {{Raúl Ruiz 2003 films 2003 comedy films 2003 black comedy films French black comedy films Films directed by Raúl Ruiz Films produced by Paulo Branco 2000s French films 2000s French-language films