JCVD

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Movie
German title JCVD
Original title JCVD
Country of production Belgium , France , Luxembourg
original language French , English
Publishing year 2008
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Mabrouk El Mechri
script Frédéric Bénudis
Mabrouk El Mechri
Christophe Turpin
production Sidonie Dumas Fiszman
Marc Patrick Quinet
Jani Thiltges
Arlette Zylberberg
music Guest Waltzing
camera Pierre-Yves bastard
cut Kako Kelber
occupation

JCVD (alternative title: JCVD - now even more ) is a tragic comedy by the French-Tunisian director Mabrouk El Mechri from 2008 , in which Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself. The film was shown on June 4, 2008 in Belgium and France, at the Toronto International Film Festival 2008 (Midnight Madness) and at the Adelaide Film Festival on February 20, 2009. The film grossed approximately $ 2.3 million.

action

Jean-Claude Van Damme is 47 years old and his career as an action star has long past its peak. He plays in low-budget productions and his agent no longer gets him any reasonable offers. Tired and sad, he returns from America to his home in Brussels-Schaarbeek . There he still enjoys the sympathy of the Belgians. In the United States , he has just lost the custody battle for his daughter because the opposing lawyer portrayed him as unworthy of raising a child. When he goes to a post office to get a transfer, he is suddenly in the middle of a bank robbery. He is being taken hostage. The situation worsens for him as the police believe he is the criminal as he is being forced to negotiate with the police.

The hostage-takers are quarreling among themselves and Van Damme succeeds several times in saving the hostages from murder or injury. In doing so, he also risks his own life. In one scene, Van Damme breaks through the “ fourth wall ” and addresses the audience directly. He speaks openly about his career, his drug addiction, the futility of his life and the hope of surviving the hostage-taking.

When one of the hostage-takers shoots the other, the police storm the post office and shoot another hostage-taker. Van Damme himself is taken hostage by the last hostage-taker and imagines what it would be like to spectacularly knock the hostage-taker down. In reality, he then manages to free himself and strike the gangster down with a karate blow. He is then overwhelmed by the police and taken away. He has been sentenced to three years 'imprisonment for extortion for demanding that US $ 465,000 be transferred to his American attorneys' account during the hostage situation. From this he has to serve a year in a Brussels prison, where he occasionally gives karate lessons to his fellow inmates.

In the final scene he is visited by his mother and daughter, which touches him deeply.

criticism

Richard Corliss of Time keeps Van Damme acting performance, together with that of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight for the best of 2008.

“Jean-Claude Van Damme in his most convincing role […] No 'ironic' self-dismantling, but an honest summary. The rest is a fine B-film homage to Sidney Lumet's " Dog Days ". [...] Conclusion: bitter showbiz paws with a strong actor. "

- TV movie

“With a lot of courage to self-irony, the film shows a man from the street who has gotten into a streak of bad luck and is now making a reasonably good face for a bad game. Cleverly constructed, shaped by a main actor who finally reveals himself as an actor. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for JCVD . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2009 (PDF; test number: 117 459 DVD).
  2. ↑ JCVD (2008) . In: Box Office Mojo . IMDb.com. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
  3. ↑ https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1855948_1864351_1864363,00.html
  4. ↑ JCVD , tvspielfilm.de
  5. ↑ JCVD. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used