Themroc

Made in 1973, with a screenplay comprising just gestures and grunts and lacking any comprehensible dialogue, French filmmaker Claude Faraldo’s provocative and subversive satire is known as one of his most challenging films. In 1986, when Themroc was first shown in the UK, it was branded with Channel 4’s notorious ‘adults only’ red triangle.

 

Michel Piccoli stars as Themroc, a factory worker whose daily existence comprises his job, his bicycle and the metro. He supports his mother and sister until a seemingly minor incident at work pushes him over the edge. Rebelling against dull conformism, he takes up the role of urban caveman in his apartment building – an insurgent attack on society's bourgeois ideals.