Themroc

Piccoli is mesmerising as the factory labourer suffering a meltdown and regressing to a neanderthal.

  • Director

    Claude Faraldo

  • With

    Michel Piccoli, Béatrice Romand, Marilù Tolo

  • France 1973. 109min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    15

Prolific French star Michel Piccoli throws himself – quite literally in some scenes – into the role of Themroc, a factory labourer who, worn down by the relentless and brain-numbing tedium of his job, suffers a catastrophic meltdown. It causes him to regress to a neanderthal state, communicating via grunts. A dark and surreal political satire, Faraldo films in the style of Jacques Tati on acid. It was famed in the UK as the first film to be screened with the Channel 4 Red Triangle warning logo.

The screening of Themroc on Wednesday 7 May 17:50 NFT3 will be introduced by Muriel Zagha, writer and broadcaster on film, and co-host of cross-cultural podcast Garlic&Pearls.