Themes: Crimes Against Humanity, On the Run, Hired Killers
Main Cast: Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Northam, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, John Neville, William Hutt
Release Year: 2003
Country: US/FR/UK/CA
Run Time: 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A man who has been able to avoid the consequences of his actions for nearly 50 years suddenly finds he must answer pursuers on both sides of the law in this drama, based on the novel by Brian Moore and inspired by a true story. After France fell to German occupation during World War II, the Nazi-controlled Vichy government established a law-enforcement group known as the Milice, who were under the direct control of Nazi authorities. In 1944, Pierre Brossard (George Williams) is one of a handful of Milice officers who round up and execute seven Jewish resistance members in the village of Dombey. After the liberation of France, Brossard is tried and convicted for his crimes, but he manages to escape capture, and years later is pardoned. In 1992, Brossard (now played by Michael Caine) is an elderly man living a quiet life in Provence and modestly supported by fellow veterans of the Vichy regime when he's ambushed and nearly killed by a man whom he learns was a hired killer. Brossard discovers this is hardly his only problem; new legislation will allow Vichy-era war criminals who escaped punishment to be charged and tried again, and Anne Marie Livi (Tilda Swinton), a bright and aggressive French prosecutor, has joined forces with Col. Roux (Jeremy Northam) to bring Brossard, among others, to justice. While Brossard is still being clandestinely assisted by church officials and Vichy sympathizers, he must go on the run to avoid capture, and finds himself hiding from the French police as well as a cadre of underground assassins, whose alliances and purposes are frustratingly unclear. The Statement also stars Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, and Frank Finlay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Julia Rosenberg - Associate Producer, Nina Gold - Casting, Yannick Bernard - Co-producer, Sandra Cunningham - Co-producer, Robyn Slovo - Co-producer, Carine Sarfati - Costume Designer, George Every - First Assistant Director, Norman Jewison - Director, Anthony Gaudioz - Second Unit Director, Stephen E. Rivkin - Editor, Andrew S. Eisen - Editor, David M. Thompson - Executive Producer, Michael Cowan - Executive Producer, Jason Piette - Executive Producer, Mark Musselman - Executive Producer, Peter James - Executive Producer, Normand Corbeil - Composer (Music Score), Jean Rabasse - Production Designer, Kevin Jewison - Cinematographer, Norman Jewison - Producer, Robert Lantos - Producer, Francoise Benoit-Fresco - Set Designer, Bruce Carwardine - Sound/Sound Designer, Todd Beckett - Sound/Sound Designer, Don White - Sound/Sound Designer, Andy Malcolm - Sound Editor, Goro Koyama - Sound Editor, Jill Purdy - Sound Editor, Mark Gingras - Sound Editor, Paul Intson - Sound Editor, John Smith - Sound Editor, Ronald Harwood - Screenwriter, Michael O'Farrell - Supervising Sound Editor, John Laing - Supervising Sound Editor, Brian Moore - Book Author
The plot was inspired by the true story of Paul Touvier, a Vichy French police official, who was indicted after World War II for war crimes. In 1944, Touvier ordered the execution of seven Jews in retaliation for the Resistance's assassination of Government Minister Philippe Henriot. For decades after the war he escaped trial thanks to an intricate web of protection, which allegedly included senior members of the Roman Catholicpriesthood. He was arrested in 1989 inside a Traditionalist CatholicPriory in Nice and was convicted in 1994. He died in prison in 1996.
Plot
Pierre Brossard (Michael Caine), a French Nazi collaborator, orders seven Jewsexecuted during World War II. Later in his life, he is pursued by David Manenbaum (Matt Craven), a hitman who is ordered to kill Brossard and leave a statement on his body proclaiming the assassination was vengeance for the Jews executed in 1944. Brossard recognizes Manenbaum at a local bar and begins to run from him. Brossard kills Manenbaum, then realizes he must now run from the law to save his life.
