You meet the murderer at the buffet
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | You meet the murderer at the buffet |
| Original title | Buffet froid |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1979 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bertrand Blier |
| script | Bertrand Blier |
| production | Alain Sarde |
| music | Philippe Sarde |
| camera | Jean Penzer |
| cut | Claudine Merlin |
| occupation | |
| |
Meet the murderer at the buffet is a French comedy film by Bertrand Blier from 1979.
action
The unemployed Alphonse Tram meets an accountant at a metro station with whom he tries to talk to him against his will. He tells him about his dreams in which he is wanted by the police as a murderer, but is never caught; he shows him a knife that he always carries with him and with which he can commit murder at any time. Since he is uncomfortable with Alphonse, the accountant continues on the Métro alone. Shortly afterwards, Alphonse finds him dying in a metro station with his knife in his stomach. The man can still persuade him to take the knife back. At home, his wife Alphonse reports that a second tenant has moved into the skyscraper; Mr Morvandieu turns out to be a widowed detective inspector. Alphonse tells him about the death of the accountant and his knife, which was apparently the instrument of murder. Morvandieu is annoyed because he would rather eat in peace, and throws Alphonse out. Shortly afterwards, he missed his wife, who was found dead on a deserted property after a phone call with his office; Her face appears to those present as if all worries have been removed. Shortly afterwards, a man rings the doorbell at Alphonse's apartment door, impersonating his wife's murderer and looking around her room. She hardly had any personal effects and the killer is delighted when Alphonse gives him a photo of the woman. Morvandieu visits Alphonse, shows interest when he introduces the other man as his wife's murderer, and all three eat and drink together. A stranger appears who introduces himself to the trio as Eugène Léonard. He claims to have seen Alphonse in his perfect murder of the accountant and asks him to kill a man for him. Alphonse agrees and is the next day with the murderer of his wife and Morvandieu in the specified parking garage. The agreed victim turns out to be Eugène himself. The trio refuses to kill him. However, while trying to calm him down and hide him from other parking garage users, he eventually dies. The trio goes to his apartment where the widow, Geneviève, is waiting for the men to join them.
Back in Alphonse's apartment, Morvandieu says goodbye; the woman murderer asks him to sleep with him. Morvandieu agrees. When Alphonse and Geneviève are just getting closer, Morvandieu dumps the restless woman murderer in Alphonse's apartment because he cannot fall asleep in his presence. Alphonse accompanies the fearful murderer to his home, but the houses always turn out to be the wrong ones. The killer is only looking for houses where single women live.
The next morning Geneviève is sick. The emergency doctor who is called takes the opportunity and sleeps with her; then he wants to be paid by Alphonse to come. The suddenly appearing Geneviève shoots the doctor. Morvandieu is called on a case of a collapsed heart patient and Alphonse joins him. It turns out that Morvandieu is said to have developed a heart condition himself; the lady of the house tries to torture the music hater to death with a string quintet performed by Schubert . Alphonse leaves Morvandieu in the lurch and Morvandieu shoots all the musicians. He has no more bullets left for Alphonse and he in turn is unable to stab Morvandieu with his knife. Back at Alphonse, the lonely woman murderer struck again and killed Geneviève. The men are unsettled for another reason; the actually defective elevator suddenly drives and there is a smell of tobacco in the elevator cabin. During a search of the building arranged by Morvandieu, they come across another new tenant, a violinist, who moved in that day. Morvandieu directs him of the building; this is only intended for the sick and there is a ban on musicians. He himself once killed his wife because she made too much music. His colleagues advise Morvandieu to take a break from his work and go into the countryside.
Morvandieu, Alphonse and the woman murderer are on vacation in a little house in the woods; but it's winter, cold and wet. The trio wants to leave the place when suddenly all the birds fall silent. Since the engine of your car will not start, you face the danger directly. A strange man appears who is looking for Alphonse because he is supposed to kill him. Alphonse and Morvandieu pretend that the woman killer is the wanted one and the hit man shoots him. Morvandieu arrests the man and the three of them are taken into the wilderness by an unknown woman. The car stops on a bridge with an empty tank; the hit man jumps from the bridge into the river and tries to swim away. Alphonse, Morvandieu and the woman take on the chase by rowboat and Alphonse finally manages to hit the killer with his knife. When Alphonse learns that Morvandieu cannot swim, he pushes him overboard and lets him drown. Now he confesses his love to the unknown woman. But she tells him that she is the accountant's daughter and that she was looking for his murderer. Although Alphonse protests his innocence, she shoots him and rows away alone.
Production notes
The film was mainly shot in the Paris suburb of Créteil , near Place Salvador Allende . The metro station at the beginning of the film is La Défense in Paris . The final scene was shot on the Pont de Brion - about 20 km south of Grenoble. Michèle Cerf created the costumes, Théobald Meurisse designed the film . The film was released in French cinemas on December 19, 1979, where it was seen by 777,127 people. It was first shown in Germany on November 13, 1992 on ZDF .
In its October 2012 issue, the French cinema magazine Studio Ciné Live listed the film in its “List of 100 must-see films”.
It was the third and last film in which Bertrand Blier worked as a director with his father Bernard.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Alphonse Tram | Gérard Depardieu | Manfred Lehmann |
| Morvandieu | Bernard Blier | Manfred Lichtenfeld |
| Women murderer | Jean Carmet | Wolfgang Thal |
| Geneviève Léonard | Geneviève Page | Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif |
| Eugène Léonard | Jean Rougerie | Jürgen Kluckert |
| Accountant | Michel Serrault | Peter Schiff |
| Contract killer | Jean Benguigui | Klaus Jepsen |
| Landlady | Denise Gence | Evelyn Gressmann |
| Man in undershirt | Marco Perrin | Hans-Werner Bussinger |
criticism
The film-dienst found that "behind the black humor of the film [...] there is a fundamental pessimism in view of the loneliness and impersonality of big city life". "Bertrand Blier's jet-black comedy [...] shines with beautiful ideas," wrote Der Spiegel in 1997.
For Cinema , the film was a "'terribly' absurd parable about the loss of moral and human feelings."
Awards
Bertrand Blier was awarded a César in 1980 in the Best Screenplay category. Théobald Meurisse received a César nomination in the category Best Production Design , Jean Penzer and Claudine Merlin were nominated in the categories Best Cinematography and Best Editing .
Web links
- Buffet Froid in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ See allocine.fr
- ↑ You meet the murderer at the buffet. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ You meet the murderer at the buffet. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Tuesday, September 23rd: You meet the murderer at the buffet . In: Der Spiegel , No. 39, 1997. p. 274.
- ↑ See cinema.de