The Clockmaker

Starring:Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jacques Denis, Yves Afonso, Julien Bertheau, Jacques Hilling, Clotilde Joano, AndrÃ©e Tainsy, William Sabatier, CÃ©cile Vassort, Sylvain Rougerie, Christine Pascal, Liza Braconnier, HervÃ© Morel, Sacha Bauer, Bernard Frangin, Georges Baconnier, RenÃ© Morard, Henri Vart, Johnny Wessler
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

This was the film debut of critic-turned-director Bertrand Tavernier, an outstanding 1973 thriller based on the Georges Simenon novel. The Clockmaker stars Philippe Noiret, Tavernier's onscreen alter ego, as a quiet watchmaker forced to retreat from his self-imposed solitude and face the messy and painful world when his son is arrested for murder. Tavernier is superb at combining politics and philosophy in trying to solve soul-searching dilemmas, and his choice of actors is always effective for physical and emotional ballast. Here he pairs Noiret with Jean Rochefort, a sympathetic police commissioner. Both have restrained natures and are slow to burn, as they confront the parallels to their existences. --Bill Desowitz

Customer Reviews:

"He didn't talk to me.".......2007-03-21

Middle-aged Michel Descombes (Philippe Noiret) is a clockmaker who owns a small shop in Lyon. He's a quiet, modest man, whose life is composed of his work and spending a few evenings with friends. At one time he was married, but his wife left him and later died--so he's unsure whether to describe himself as a bachelor or a widower. There's no woman in his life now, and he shares his home (at the back of his shop) with his only son Bernard (Sylvain Rougerie). Michel is not a particularly political person, and he gives the impression that his emotions aren't so much controlled as deeply submerged and almost forgotten.

Although Michel's primary relationship is with his son, he begins to discover just how little he knows him when Bernard is accused of murdering a brutal right-wing factory employee. According to Inspector Guilbond (Jean Rochefort) Bernard and his girlfriend Liliane committed the murder, made no attempt to hide their crime, and in fact left clumsy clues that revealed their identities. Bernard and Liliane are now on the run, and the police turn to Michel for help capturing Bernard.

The murder occurs in politically tumultuous times , and both the media and the police try to make the murder a politically motivated crime. The victim--an Algerian war veteran--exploited his position at the factory, and according to other female employees he may have tried to coerce Liliane into exchanging sexual favours in return for keeping quiet about fabricated charges of theft. The idea that the murder is politically motivated gathers momentum while the finer details of the crime are buried. Motivation is often the most difficult element to pinpoint, and indeed the political motive of this otherwise puzzling crime seems to satisfy all parties involved. Michel is outraged, however, as this objectifies his son and removes the possible motive to another level. He feels particularly betrayed by the Left's response and their abandonment of Bernard who they label as a "terrorist."

"The Clockmaker", based on a novel by Simenon is not a film about solving an apparently motiveless murder--it's a character study that examines the relationship between Michel and Bernard, and a quasi-relationship that forms between Michel and Guilbond. Michel gradually accepts that there are some things about his son that he will never understand. As for Michel's relationship with Guilbond...well it's difficult and temporal. At first Guilbond's approach to Michel is bureaucratic and suspicious. Over time, Guilbond sees Michel as a father wounded by doubt--a man who always tried his best in his relationship with his son--but often failed. Guilbond's initial depersonalized approach to Michel can be extrapolated to the larger issue of the state's depersonalized, political approach toward Bernard. The judicial system and the media find it far easier to categorize and label Bernard than to investigate why two young people committed a clumsy, senseless, and seemingly motiveless crime. Both Michel and Bernard lose their individuality in the state's need to politicize a crime that was inherently personal.

"The Clockmaker" is arguably one of director Bernard Tavernier's best films. In French with English subtitles--displacedhuman

A clever film that goes far beyond the policial aspect !.......2005-03-05

Since his son is arrested due a political murder, his father-a watchmaker who lives in Lyon is mortified to learn this awful new.

He will employ all the tools ofhis office to analyze, scrutinize and inspect all the related issues of this political murder. This was the first feature film of this famous French director.

Overwhelming acting of Noiret,as always. A slow paced film which will reward you!

another french political film.......2005-03-04

i saw this film as a simple, if somewhat homoerotic love story between a lonely father and a sympathetic police officer. reading the two other reviews up here i realize that perhaps i was wrong. the film features good acting by phillipe noiret as the father, although a cynic would argue that his sad-eyes did all the work. the moral of the film is that that acts of violence against deserving bad guys can repair strained father-son relationships. hey bertrand, we already saw indiana jones and the last crusades. NEXT!

Critics CAN make good movies........2002-12-30

Former film critic Bertrand Tavernier's debut film from 1973, *The Clockmaker*, still stands as one of the best French films of the Seventies -- a decade that saw some pretty damn good French films. (The two intervening decades between then and now cannot make that claim.) Based on a novel by Simenon, the screenplay was written by Tavernier along with New Wave veterans Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost -- hence the occasional New Wavey jump-cuts and mannerisms, especially early in the film. But Tavernier -- a writer, after all -- soon calms down and does what all good writers do, which is to focus on character. He's helped considerably with this by two tremendous performances from Philippe Noiret as the titular clockmaker and Jean Rochefort as Lyons' chief police detective. Transplanted from the New York setting of Simenon's book to Lyons during "the last days of De Gaulle" (to quote the review below mine), the story is about the befuddlement of the town's widowed clock repairman whose grown son has apparently murdered a man. The son is on the lam with his girlfriend, leaving the father with no comprehension of why they did it. We soon learn that he has no comprehension of his son, period, despite the fact that the son still lives at home and that they are on relatively good terms. But "good terms" are not the same thing as involvement, knowledge, or caring. (Deftly, Tavernier makes a political parallel to the main plot with an interweaving theme about France's government during this period: French citizens are, according to the radio, "89% happy", but at the same time there are leftist insurgents and terrorists burning cars and striking factories.) The most interesting conflict in this character study is between Noiret and Rochefort's compassionate detective on the case: Rochefort, having an adult son of his own that he hardly knows, latches onto Noiret, perhaps hoping that the clockmaker's experiences in this awful situation might provide some insights for his relationship with his own kid. The main suspense in this "thriller" is whether or not Noiret will allow himself to be taken under the cop's wing. His son may get a lighter prison sentence as a result, but the compromises entailed in not standing by the kid will only widen the distance between them. So . . . an action-adventure about lovers on the lam? Hardly. Tavernier is interested in the deeper stuff. *The Clockmaker* is a difficult, thoughtful, emotional film that deserves wider recognition on this side of the pond. This DVD release from Kino will hopefully get that process started.

Tender Story of Parental Love and Liberation.......2000-05-30

Noiret is superb in the role of a (single) father who quietly works towards reconciliation with his son, after adolescence and differences in their characters have put distance between them, when the son is charged with murder of a factory worker. Rochefort's (the cop) performance complements Noiret's. The main theme, exquisitely developed, is the challenge of authenticity in the love between parents and children; political alienation of the French working class people in the last days of DeGaulle is the (perhaps allegoric) secondary theme.

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