Themroc

Themroc (1973) — watch online on iFILM, an anarchic French comedy directed by Claude Faraldo, with Michel Piccoli as a middle-aged house painter who hits his limit. Small apartment, overbearing mother, pointless job. One run-in with his boss is all it takes.

Themroc tears down his apartment wall, hollows out a cave in the side of the building, and begins living like a Neanderthal in the middle of Paris. Neighbors stop calling the police and start copying him instead. The authorities have no procedure for this. What gives the film its strange edge is that almost nobody speaks — characters communicate in grunts, howls and gestures, which somehow says more about alienation than a script full of dialogue would. Miou-Miou, Coluche and Patrick Dewaere all appear in supporting roles. A blunt, funny, slightly feral attack on the routines that pass for a life. Stream Themroc online on iFILM.