I as in Icarus (1979)

Here we have a movie, I as in Icarus, that would fit perfectly in a triple-bill together with the 1973 masterpiece Executive Action and the 1991 masterpiece (yes) JFK. The big difference here is that this movie is French and deals with the assassination of a French president, but it's almost an identical set-up as the JFK-murder and the conspiracy theories afterwards. Yves Montand plays general attorney Henri Volney, who are the only one in the official investigation that refuses to agree that it was a lone gunman killing the president. So he starts a new investigation and quickly unravels some new leads that leads him into the belly of the beast...

Oh, this was such brilliant movie. I love conspiracy movies, especially from the seventies and if you enjoy a dialogue-heavy investigation with no stupid romantic plots, a lot of details, men in suits looking serious and a good budget - this is the movie for you. From first scenes which copies the Dallas-assassination (including mysterious men with umbrellas and witnesses that obviously are bought) to the chilling last half hour when Volney is getting closer to the mystery, this is a marvelous good time. They never hide that it's based on the JFK-murder, but makes witty references to the orginal case. For example, the lone gunman's name is Daslow, which of course is an anagram of Oswald!

Like a lot of French movies from this time, the acting is brilliant. Yves Montand is almost emotionless, but it's because he's not overacting. There's stuff happening all the time in his eyes, it's just his character that is very strict and sets work before pleasure. Actually, he's so obsessed with his job that it's not until the end that we realize that the women on his desk is his wife and not someone he divorced or a realive. He's just not at home at all. And blink and you miss her, because our favorite Brigitte Lahaie shows up as Ursula Hoffman, a german striptease-dancer that saw the real killer - and pays with her own life!

Totally without action, this is one of those movies that only could have been made in the seventies. The script is no 1, with a couple of very smart moves and intelligent use of psychology and paranoia. My favorite sequence is when Volney is visiting an institute for memory-research, which turns out to be something else. It even surprised me. It's a cool idea - based on reality by the way - and it's used in a way that it makes the following scenes make sense. It's important to understand some of the characters motivations.

The ending is bleak and mysterious, and of course the only correct ending to a story like this. Watch it and you will see. I as in Icarus is a smart movie filled with tension and great acting. It's a pity it's not out on an English-friendly DVD (what I know anyway, but feel free to correct me), because it's a movie I would like to own for real, and not like now, downloaded with fan-made subtitles!