The ’70s: Themroc
A raw and absurdist film about a worker (Michel Piccoli) who breaks with work, rules, and authority. Themroc was screened during the very first film night in 1976.
Themroc (Michel Piccoli) leads a colourless existence as a worker: getting up, working, eating, sleeping, and doing it all over again the next day. When he is humiliated by his boss at work, something snaps. He locks himself inside his apartment, tears down a wall, and turns his home into a cave. Soon, his neighbours follow his example. The orderly social structure gives way to a primitive, anarchic existence, in which the police and other representatives of authority also have to face the music. Remarkably, the characters do not speak an intelligible language, but communicate through grunts, cries, and gestures.
Director Claude Faraldo turned Themroc into a radical satire of bourgeois society, labour, and obedience. The film begins almost like a documentary, portraying the stifling routine of everyday life, before gradually descending into absurdity. In this respect, it closely reflects the spirit of the early 1970s: distrust of authority, rejection of consumerism, and the search for alternative ways of living. Themroc is anything but a traditional political film; it is an anarchist fantasy in which revolution above all means refusing to take part.
Inleiding door David Deprez
David Deprez, former artistic director of Lumière, will introduce the film (language: Dutch) by placing Themroc within the cultural and social context in which Dutch arthouse cinemas emerged, including Lumière in 1976.
