Icarus Films will be
teaming with France’s Distrib Films for the Apr. 24 DVD debut of
writer/director Thierry de Peretti’s gritty crime — and cultural — drama, A
Violent Life.
We see a different side
of France in de Peretti’s latest film, which, as a native-born Corsican, is
drawn from his own experiences and the troubled island’s recent past
history. Often neglected, or simply
ignored by continental France, beginning roughly in the mid-1970s a Corsican
nationalist movement began to take shape, which in over a generation devolved
into both regional crime and political factions.
It is with this
background in mind that we are introduced to Stéphane (Jean Michelangeli), a
seemingly care-free student living in France in 2001. Looks can be deceptive and when he receives
a phone call that his childhood friend has been murdered the past — his
Corsican past — comes crashing back in on him.
He has a gangland death
sentence awaiting him, but honor dictates that he return to his native island to
attend the funeral of his friend … there is no alternative.
Through Stéphane’s
journey home, coupled with a series of flashbacks, we learn the backstory of
both him and his murdered friend, Christophe (Henri-Noël Tabary). He’s no choirboy, rather something a
radical, who long ago set things in motion that would take him down this path.
Filmmaker Thierry de
Peretti’s A Violent Life presents an often bewildering view of Corsica —
the stepchild of France and birthplace of Napoleon — that features a volatile
mix of machismo, honor, crime and politics.
Violence and murder are a de facto way of life … wrong place, wrong time
and wrong connections and a bullet in the head at the side of the road could be
your fate.
A Violent Life is presented in French with English subtitles.
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