Synopsis
After completing jail time for beating up a man who tried to seduce his mentally-handicapped teenage daughter, The Butcher wants to start life anew. He institutionalizes his daughter and moves to the Lille suburbs with his mistress, who promises him a new butcher shop. Learning that she lied, The Butcher returns to Paris to find his daughter.
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Cast
- Philippe NahonThe Butcher
- Blandine LenoirDaughter
- Frankie PainMistress
- Martine AudrainBelle-Mere
- ZavenMan with Morals
- Jean-François RaugerReal Estate Agent
- Guillaume NiclouxSupermarket Manager
- Olivier DoranPresenter (voice)
- Aïssa DjabriDoctor Choukroun
- Serge FaurieDirector of Hospital
Recommendations
- 89
Austin Chronicle
I Stand Alone uses a cannon ball to shatter the psychological horror at the heart of human society. - 88
San Francisco Examiner
I Stand Alone has the ghastly stink of a rotting corpse. You can smell the cess as clearly as you can see the blood vessels striking like lightning around the pupils of its malefactor's eyes. - 83
The A.V. Club
I Stand Alone, Gaspar Noé's raw, corrosive, and relentlessly provocative response—part companion piece, part critique—to Taxi Driver unfolds with rare force and clarity of vision, rarer still for a director's first feature. - 80
Time Out
A film of alarming intensity. - 80
Total Film
Bolstered by a fine performance from Nahon, this even merits comparisons with Scorsese's Taxi Driver. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
I Stand Alone ("Seul contre tous" in French) is a portrait of a pathetic soul, but it is also a cautionary tale. The butcher cannot be dismissed as a monster, nor is this a creep show. Something like the butcher's story can be found almost every day in newspaper crime reports. - 75
Chicago Tribune
Strange and unsettling as it is, Noe's clarity of vision makes his film ignite. Like a slammed door or a scream of anger, it slaps you awake. - 70
The New York Times
The movie's triumph -- if that's what it is -- is in the force of its assault. It takes one man's unbearable truth and bashes us in the skull with it.
