Nail-biting thriller about a brutally kidnapped rich industrialist – a powerful role by Yvan Attal. While he physically and mentally degenerates in imprisonment, the kidnappers, police and the board of the company of which he is director negotiate about the ransom of €50 million.
Stanislaff Graff, a rich industrialist with a wife and a lover, is kidnapped brutally from his limousine on the eve of his visit to China as part of the entourage of the French president. The kidnappers demand a fifty million euro ransom. In order to prove they are serious, they cut off one of his fingers. What follows is a terrifying sparring match between kidnappers, police and the board of the company of which Graff is the director. The main question for the board: is a human life worth more than fifty million euros? Will they be able to get that amount of money together in time anyway? Graff – a powerful role by Yvan Attal – degenerates physically and mentally in imprisonment. In the meantime, the press dredges up the businessman’s past with revelations that are especially painful for his wife.
Rapt is a tight ‘polar’, the French variation on the nail-biting thriller. —Rotterdam Film Festival
Lucas Belvaux (born 14 November 1961 in Namur, Belgium) is a Belgian actor and film director. His directing credits include the Trilogie, consisting of three films with interlocking stories and characters, each of which was filmed in a different genre. The three films are Cavale, a thriller; Un couple épatant, a comedy; and Après la vie, a melodrama. His film La Raison du plus faible was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. He also appeared as an actor in the film Merry Christmas (2005). He is the brother of Rémy Belvaux and Bruno Belvaux. —Wikipedia
Loosely based on the kidnapping of the French industrialist Baron Empain in 1978, RAPT was a nominee in the 2009 César awards' best film category. I was slightly disappointed by Lucas Belvaux's last movie but I was maybe expecting too much after Trilogy, Belvaux's indisputable masterpiece. Recommended though because of its cold as ice mood.
"After the documentary world's boldface names of the 1920s and 30s — Robert Flaherty, Joris Ivens, Pare Lorentz — the typical college-survey
D’un ton sec, sans grands effets, Belvaux s’inspire de l’histoire du Baron Empain pour tirer un film sur le cynisme des riches, autour de la solitude d’un homme, sa mise à l’écart, son déclassement…… read review
