Monsieur Hire (1989)
AKA: –
Directed by: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Michel Blanc (Hire), Sandrine Bonnaire (Alice), Luc Thuillier (Emile)
Country: France
Language: French (English Subtitles)
Runtime: 01:19:17
Genres: Mystery, Voyeur
Plot – Spoilers:
A lonely tailor Monsieur Hire goes to work everyday through a hail of barbs and dirty looks from his neighbors. Even the children, except for one little girl, bully him for no particular reason other than that he looks creepy. Despite this daily life, Hire maintains an exterior of impeccable elegance and demeanor and breaks down only while he’s alone or at a brothel. He earns money on the side showing off his skills at a bowling alley but is also resigned to the reality that the applause and cheers he receives from the young people there will not translate into any real-life relationship.
But Hire is not all tragic story. A woman has been found murdered near where he lives and the detective is convinced that Hire matches eyewitness descriptions of the suspected killer. Hire also has a voyeuristic fascination for a young woman who lives in the apartment block across, and watches her from his darkened room every night, while playing the same sad record as a background score to his elusive desires.
Massive – Spoilers:
By the end of the film, the question remains – is Hire the victimized one as he’d like us to believe? Probably not. He could well have been poisoning pigeons like the old lady in his story narrated to a prostitute. Also the manner in which he disposed of his collection of mice by the railway tracks…
Brilliant! Best movie I’ve seen in months
Sandrine Bonnaire is one of the most beautiful actresses ever, I felt more than a little sorry for Monsieur Hire he was definitely set up by Alice
can u imagine a british or an american director trying to capture the feel of this film – only the french can do a film like this
What was going on with the tattoo scene nothing came of it?
Brilliant acting, brilliant story and a very good twist in the end. However, I wonder what the tattoo scene was supposed to mean..
Admin, If you read this, it would be greatly appreciated (by many visitors of this website I suppose) if we could donate a little money for your great work in providing us these movies!
this was a great film. How is that French Cinema captures raw emotion and viewer feels so much sensuality and sexuality? American cinema never even comes close to the feeling I get when watching French cinema. As someone already pointed out that most french films tend to never really go anywhere as far as plot is concerned but this film did. I can name some French films like Desire, Blue is the Warmest Color, Sex and Lucia, Love, Secret Things, Bilitis to name a few that made me feel some type of way you dont get from other countries. Thanks EUM
What a wonderful film!! An absolute sleeper! Let me say it again… and so not to trigger the NPC who failed to detect the sarcasm last time I made this comment… I am being sarcastic here…. but it’s nice to see there is intelligent life outside the good ol’ U.S. of muther-fuckin’ A.
See, most of the Hollywood creatures here in the states are insufferable, egotistical nobodies who have forgotten a long time ago that they only exist for our amusement. They are modern day court jesters… nothing more… and they need to be reminded of it. I don’t have a bit of use for most of them… and I’m certainly not going to support them. I “cut the cord” years ago, so I don’t watch TV. I don’t go to the movies. I do, however, stream all kinds of free shit on the interwebz.
See, it pleases me a great deal to see a film of this caliber coming out of a country these Hollywood mega-brats disregard as insignificant…. and Yet they’re about to release the 24th version of Spiderman – who is now a gay black transexual.
Viva la France!!
And cheers to you, admin. Please… accept this wonderful sweetbreads recipe as a small token of my appreciation.
Wow such a beautiful and subtle (very subtle) film. Loved the ending. Thanks Effedup for being not only about the buts and guts. You’re the best… interesting, option 1 kept stopping midway thru no matter what I did. never had any problem before. thank God you have an alternative, it would have killed me to not see the ending…
I can’t understand the high praise this movie gets. 2 out of 5. Weak script, weak acting, way boring and way too long. It was like a movie version of a corny Harlequin romance novel. If you want to see a really bizarre movie about a tailor, watch 1999’s “Kill by Inches.” I wasn’t crazy about this one but I still love you madly EUM.
I was enjoying it, but then about three-quarters of the way through the movie, it stopped playing and said the goddamned file was corrupted. I don’t know if it was a problem with my Mac settings, my ISP, or what the hell.
Enfin, j’ai terminé de regarder ce film !!
Bien qu’il était long, ce n’était pas un mauvais film. Il n’y a pas tellement (voir pas du tout) de gore ou de violence, mais je trouve que le jeu des acteurs et l’ambience générale sont de bon substitut. :^7
Je me sens tellement mal et désolée pour Mr. Hire ! Pauvre homme !
Bon film, sinon ! (+bonus parce qu’ il y a André Wilms lol)