Film Review
You don't have to own a masters degree in human psychology to see why a
security guard who absconded with 11 million euros in 2009 should
become a popular hero in France. It was the two fingered salute
that most of the country's population had been wanting to give to the
banking fraternity since the beginning of the financial crisis in
2008. After all, it is hard to see much of a moral separation
between one man who runs off with a vanload of loot and an industry
which makes a habit of fleecing its investors through that
institutionalised smash-and-grab raid 'the annual bonus', which is now,
in these straitened times, a taxpayer-subsidised event.
Three years after he was arrested, it is unclear just what Toni
Musulin's motives were when he pulled off the most publicised French
heist of the decade, but, thanks largely to the internet, he has become
something of modern folk hero, a Robin Hood striking a blow for the
common man against a corrupt financial elite that seems to operate
outside the rule of law. Musulin's arrest and imprisonment (he is
currently serving a five year stretch - three years for the robbery plus
two years for car insurance fraud) have only helped to shore up his
mythic status, whilst public resentment against the coterie of wide boys
and fat cats who still infest the banking system (and who
appear to be immune from prosecution) continues to fester. You
can almost hear the tumbrils clattering over the cobblestones of old
Paris...
But who exactly is Toni Musulin and what was it that changed him from a
dutiful security guard, the withdrawn son of a Yugoslav immigrant, into
a mix of Ronnie Biggs and Zorro? These are the questions that
director Philippe Godeau sets out to answer in his well-timed biopic of
Musulin, liberally adapted from Alice Géraud-Arfi's 2011 book
Toni 11.6 - Histoire du convoyeur.
Whilst Godeau's film has all the trappings of the classic French heist
movie, it is primarily a character study which attempts to unravel the
mystery of the man who remains doggedly reticent about himself and the
stunt that has made him a cultural icon. Not surprisingly, the
film raises far more questions than it answers. In addition to
being a slick crime drama, it provides a sobering reflection on the
kind of society we have become, one that is totally obsessed with the
rapid acquisition of wealth, to the exclusion of all those things that
give life its meaning and poetry.
It is hard to imagine anyone better suited to portray Toni Musulin than
François Cluzet, the lead actor in Godeau's previous film drama,
Le Dernier pour la route
(2009). As in that earlier film, Cluzet has very little dialogue
but manages to convey so much about his character's fraught inner life
through the subtlest of gestures and expressions, inviting us to draw
our own conclusions about a man that defies understanding. Far
from being the heroic figure he has been portrayed (most vociferously
by the banker-bashing bloggers), Musulin comes across in the film as an
altogether more pathetic figure, a disturbed and highly unsympathetic
individual who clearly aspires to a better life and who seethes with
resentment at the lowly status Fate has allotted him. Morally, he
is no better (and perhaps no worse) than the banking executives whom he
openly despises and is determined to get even with. He acquires a
fast car (a Ferrari no less), but carries on cycling into work each
day. Not content with his modest circumstance, he clearly hankers
after the millionaire life style. Is Musulin's crime politically
motivated or simply an expression of excessive human greed? Such
is the complexity of his warped psychology, emphasised throughout by
Cluzet's ambiguous portrayal of him, that we can never be sure which it
is.
An interesting variant on the modern film noir,
11.6 provides a study in the
psychology of a criminal which is intelligent, convincing and
thoroughly engrossing. The narrative may be a little uneven in
parts, the mise-en-scène occasionally heavy handed, but these
shortcomings are amply compensated for by the unstintingly authentic
performances from Cluzet and his co-stars, Bouli Lanners and Corinne
Masiero. The more the film tells us about Musulin, the more
opaque and mysterious he appears, and whilst he is hardly the most
sympathetic of heroes, it is hard not to side with him as he ram-raids
an industry that is still regarded with the utmost contempt by most
ordinary folk.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
For ten years, Toni Musulin has worked as a security guard, delivering
money without incident and without arousing the slightest suspicion. But one November
morning in 2009, he drives off in his armoured car, aware that he is sitting
on 11.6 million euros, which he has no intention of delivering...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.