Three young friends steal some music equipment for their struggling post-punk band and, in a panic, kill the shop’s owner. The film examines, with characteristic restraint and acuity, the psychological fallout as the band unravels—and each of its members grapple with their own feelings of guilt, paranoia, and despair.
Direction
Assayas's debut already knows silence is louder than screaming.
Acting
Stanczak's dead eyes—he's checked out before the crime.
Sound
The band's actual music: appropriately terrible, painfully earnest.
Director
Olivier Assayas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Assayas wrote this at 25, fresh from dropping out and working odd jobs—he's autopsying his own peer group.
This is basically what would happen if the kids from La Haine started a band instead of rioting—same rage, worse coping mechanisms.
FR
