Themroc (1973)

Themroc is a French film comedy first released in 1973, directed by Claude Faraldo.  The film stars Michel Piccoli, Béatrice Romand, Marilù Tolo, Francesca Romana Coluzzi and Jeanne Herviale.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Themroc is a typical blue-collar worker working for a typical medium-sized factory.  When he is caught spying on his boss he is reprimanded, and he instantly rebels.  He throws off the yoke of civilisation and immediately reverts to stone age behaviour.  When he returns home, he ravishes his sister and starts to create an urban cave out of his apartment.  Then the police arrive…

In this alternately disturbing and humorous film, controversial director Claude Faraldo paints a bleak picture suggesting that a reversion to the stone age may be preferable to living the stale sanitised existence which modern society offers.  It is clearly a product of its time – the late 1960s and early 1970s was a period of great societal and cultural upheaval in France.  This sense of rebellion and the embracing of anarchistic notions made its presence felt in many French films of this period, and Themroc is probably the most famous example of this.

With no intelligible dialogue (all characters speak in either a non-recognisable corruption of French or neanderthal grunts), the film relies entirely on its visuals for impact.  Although there is a lot of tedious repetition, there are also some very memorable scenes, such as Themroc’s frustrated attempts to catch a train and the graphic barbecue of a policeman.  Also notable is the scene where Themroc knocks a hole in his apartment wall and starts throwing all of his mod cons out into the street.

Michel Piccoli’s virtuosity as an actor is well known, but here he surpasses himself as the would-be caveman Themroc.  He does not utter a single comprehensible word but you feel that you understand what makes him tick and why he behaves as he does.   (Piccoli is also reputed to have poured a substantial amount of his own money into making the film.)

Nowadays the film is regarded more as a curiosity piece than anything else, a faded postcard from the time when garish tank-tops and simulated anarchy ruled O.K.  However, the film’s imagery is so powerful that it should have a resonance with a modern audience.

© James Travers 2000

Write a review for this film...


Claude Faraldo’s Themroc and Bof! are certainly unlike any films you are likely to see and it is an oversight, to say the least (but not surprising perhaps), that two of the greatest anti-establishment films ever made should be so neglected. To those who have not seen these films – imagine a film equivalent to the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In the UK (or, to be more accurate with its era, Hendrix or the Stones) – embodying all the spirit of that revolution that threatened to topple the old order back in the late ’60s when there were riots in the streets of Paris.  Both films suggest radical alternatives to society and are anarchist films at their best, wildest and funniest – and, perhaps quintessentially French.

Lindsay Anderson, director of another (British) film of this era If... has written to say how much he admired these two films and Claude Faraldo as a director.
Both Themroc and Bof! are films for all those out there who are true rebels. The films are intelligent, challenging, radical, and polemical, but are also shot through with an engaging humour and charm. They are out there on their own creatively.  It is amazing that with so much supposedly alternative activity that these classics are not better known.  More than highly recommended - ESSENTIAL.

Travis (England)

What do you think of this film?

More French Comedy
Recent DVD releases