Thieves (1996 film)
| Thieves (Les Voleurs) |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | André Téchiné |
| Produced by | Alain Sarde |
| Written by |
André Téchiné Gilles Taurand Michel Alexandre |
| Starring |
Daniel Auteuil Catherine Deneuve Laurence Côte |
| Music by | Philippe Sarde |
| Cinematography | Jeanne Lapoirie |
| Edited by | Martine Giordano |
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Release date
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Running time
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117 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | 8.400.000 € |
| Box office | $17,145,357 |
Thieves (French: Les Voleurs) is a 1996 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring Daniel Auteuil, Catherine Deneuve and Laurence Côte. The plot follows a cynical police officer, who comes from a family of thieves, and a lonely philosophy professor, both romantically involved with a self-destructive petty criminal. With a puzzling structure, the story is told through a series of flashbacks presented from four different perspectives.
Justin, a ten-year-old boy living in a small town in the Rhône-Alpes region, is awaken in the middle of the night. His mother, Mireille is crying and his widower grandfather, Victor, tells the boy that his father, Ivan, is dead. The next day, Alex, Justin’s uncle and Ivan’s younger brother, arrives for the funeral accompanied by a young woman, Juliette. Justin notice the tension between the adults. He takes his father's gun and hides it. The story flashes backward and forward to explain what led up to Ivan’s death.
Alex, who has rebelled against his family by becoming a cop, works in the deprived La Duchere district of Lyon. He begins with his encounter, a year before Ivan’s death, when he first meets Juliette, who is brought to his office when she was arrested for shoplifting. He lets her off. He sees her again one day when he visits the sleazy nightclub run by his older brother, Ivan. Ivan is a crime boss and runs a popular club with a drag revue, funding his business through a stolen-auto ring headed up by Jimmy, who is Juliette's brother. The encounter between the siblings on opposite sides of the law is tense, they barely get along. Ivan is happy to show Alex that he is doing much better than him on the wrong side of the law. After their second encounter Alex and Juliette start a tortured affair beginning to meet regularly for sex. He is not in love with her, and their relationship is complicated by the young woman's emotional and sexual involvement with Marie, a professor of philosophy. Alex spies on Marie. Ivan hears about Juliette’s relationship with Alex and threatens her. Ivan and his gang, including Juliette, plan the theft of cars in a railway deposit.
The heist at the railway marshaling yard goes disastrously wrong when Ivan is shot dead. Juliette, who had been coerced into participating, against Jimmy’s wishes, is distraught by Ivan’s death. Emotional imbalance and self-destructive, Juliette tries to commit suicide twice, first while staying with her brother and later while visiting Marie, after Ivan’s death. Marie has her interned in a psychiatric hospital to recuperate. Alex asks Marie for the address of Juliette’s clinic, but she has disappeared. In search of Juliette, Marie visits her housing estate apartment. After Ivan’s cremation, Alex makes an effort to connect with his nephew without much success. On a local fair, Justin threatens Alex with a gun. Justin learns the truth about his father’s death from his grandfather Victor.
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