Pouvoir Intime

Director: Yves Simoneau
Screenwriters: Pierre Curzi, Yves Simoneau

Institute History

  • 1987 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Quebec filmmakers have often turned to the conventions and forms of the gangster film to make scathing statements about their society, but few have worked the genre with such ease as Yves Simoneau with Pouvoir Intime. Aided by some of Quebec’s finest acting talent and the brilliant eye of Guy Dufaux, one of Quebec’s finest cinematographers, Simoneau keeps this tautly-paced thriller, featuring a couple of wonderful set-pieces, well on track.

Theo, whose ravaged face already reveals his years behind bars, has planned his heist of an armored security truck down to the last detail. He has assembled a crack team of specialists: a trusted cellmate and his girlfriend, his son and one of the armored guards. Everything goes according to plan until the unexpected happens. One of the guards locks himself in the truck and won’t come out. A superb cat-and-mouse game ensues where the ante is raised with every passing minute.

Finely paced and modulated, Pouvoir Intime is more than just a well conceived thriller. There’s a catch. All the gangsters are acting under the illusion that they are working for big money. Only Theo knows that other powerful, shadowy forces are at work.

— Piers Handling

Screening Details

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]