Fred

Director Pierre Jolivet has succeeded combining the social drama genre with a traditional film noir thriller. Noted for his other works including En Plein Coeur and Ma Petite Entreprise, Jolivet offers a warm and sympathetic film with a small budget and a great script.

Located in the grim urban landscape of the French Industrial suburbs, this suspenseful thriller is distinguished by its hard-edge realism and well drawn characters. Fred is brought to life by Vincent Lindon who offers the classic noir hero as a former crane driver, the victim of the closure of the factory. Along with his girlfriend (Clotilde Courau) and her little boy, he leads a difficult life where the burden of unemployment weighs heavy.

The plot thickens when Fred accepts a proposal from a friend to drive a truck to a warehouse. A suspicious request that envelops him in a murder case, leaving Fred determined to prove his innocence. The police conducting the investigation are represented by François Berléand who appears to be another dark character relying on heavy drinking to make his lacklustre life bearable.

Jolivet paints a gloomy world in which potentially good people are mired in despair. The characterization is anything but conventional and Fred becomes a unique film in the French thriller genre.