I like Icarus

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Movie
German title I like Icarus
Original title I ... comme Icare
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1979
length 121 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Henri Verneuil
script Henri Verneuil,
Didier Decoin
production Henri Verneuil
music Ennio Morricone
camera Jean-Louis Picavet
cut Henri Lanoë
occupation

I like Ikarus (original title: I… comme Icare ; reference title: Der Spürhund ) is a feature film by the French director Henri Verneuil from 1979 . The plot of the film is based on the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy as well as investigations by a public prosecutor who doubts the results of the commission of inquiry and uncovered a secret service conspiracy.

action

The film begins with the quote: “This story is completely true because I made it up from beginning to end” from the novel The Foam of the Days by the French artist Boris Vian .

May 22, 1977: The recently re-elected President Marc Jary is shot dead by an unknown sniper as he drives through the city in an open limousine, cheered by thousands of his supporters. A short time later, in an office building near the crime scene, a stranger shoots the alleged assassin Karl Eric Daslow (an anagram of Oswald , the alleged assassin of US President John F. Kennedy ). This murder is said to have appeared as if Daslow directed himself after killing the politician.

The investigation commission entrusted with the investigation of the assassination comes to the conclusion that President Jary was murdered by the lone perpetrator Daslow in its lengthy, almost one year long investigation. Prosecutor General Volney, who is also on the commission, refuses, unlike his colleagues, to sign the commission's conclusions that Daslow is a paranoid loner who took his own life after the crime. A regulation provides that if a member of the commission should have doubts about the result, he can start the investigation from the beginning. Volney publicly asks the chairman if he received a request from the state government at the start of the investigation to see that the lone perpetrator theory was confirmed. Volney has no evidence whatsoever, but he is correct: The chairman of the commission admits, embarrassed, that such a request was made to him, but that he did not willingly comply.

Volney and his team resume the investigation. Volney and his staff quickly encounter inconsistencies. In connection with the investigation, evidence was falsified, witnesses not heard, an important autopsy was not performed, false testimony was given and eyewitnesses were murdered. Volney realizes in an amateur film that there was a second sniper besides Daslow. Parallel to the plot about Volney, we learn that this second shooter has been murdered by his clients in the meantime. Volney speaks to a psychologist about Daslow who was participating in an experiment similar to the Milgram Experiment , which tests whether ordinary people are willing to use torture if a scientific or government authority tells them to do so and accepts responsibility for it.

Volney realizes that professional killers and characters from organized crime are involved in the murder plot, who in turn received support from their own secret service. The assassin and saboteur de Palma, who was also behind the murder of unwanted foreign opposition members, must have played an important role. He also learns about the operations “Minos” and “I for Icarus”. Volney discovers that the secret service or an organization within the secret service of his country is involved in state terrorist activities. President Jary announced that he would limit the power of the secret services.

When researching what the operation "I for Icarus" could mean, the tireless investigator calls his partner early in the morning from the office. She gives him an interpretation of Icarus : "If the sun is taken as a symbol of truth, then Icarus has lost his wings because he has come too close to the absolute truth". - At that moment, Volney, standing by the window, is shot by a sniper.

Reviews

The film service celebrated Verneuil's film in its contemporary criticism as a “political crime film that uses tried and tested tension patterns to convey its accusation against belief in authority and moral indifference of the individual as popularly as possible”. I like Ikarus is "excellently staged, very captivating and thought-provoking entertainment."

background

The film is set in a fictional modern western state. The official language is French, the currency is dollars, and the state flag is similar to the flag of the United States .

The plot is apparently based on the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy and the related investigations of US Attorney Jim Garrison , which he started after the unbalanced final report of the Warren Commission . In the film, the fictional prosecutor Henri Volney comes to the same conclusions as the real US prosecutor Garrison: The president was murdered by the secret service of his country in consultation with the mafia, which acted as mediator. Verneuil also uses some details and famous elements of the Kennedy case, such as the man known as "Umbrella man" with the umbrella, the fake photo of the alleged assassin with a rifle, the successive disappearance of certain witnesses and an amateur film as the only source of images for the attack .

Another central aspect of the film is the representation of the obedience of the individual to representatives of institutions and organizations that are perceived as authoritarian. Verneuil incorporates the famous Milgram experiment into his film for a better understanding of this topic and opens up new perspectives for his main character and the viewer to question their own awareness of authority.

Locations

Important scenes from the film were shot in the Paris suburb of Cergy . The following buildings emerge: The Center commercial des Quatre Temps , the Tour EDF de Cergy-Pontoise high-rise , the administration building of the Préfecture du Val-d'Oise (formerly the Préfecture of Cergy-Pontoise ).

Awards

In 1979 Henri Verneuil's thriller was awarded the Grand prix du cinéma français for best French film. In 1980 I, like Ikarus , was nominated for the French César Film Prize in the categories of best film , leading actor ( Yves Montand ), screenplay , film music and production design, but could not prevail against the competition at the time.

literature

  • Reinhard Barrabas: Core areas of psychology. An introduction to film examples. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8252-3850-6 , pp. 84–90.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lexicon of International Films 2000/2001 (CD-ROM)
  2. ↑ Olivier Père: I… comme Icare de Henri Verneuil , ARTE, January 13, 2017
  3. ↑ French article on the film I like Icarus