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Tell No One

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the 2006 French film. For other uses, seeTell No One (disambiguation).
Tell No One
UK release poster
Directed byGuillaume Canet
Screenplay by
Based onTell No One
byHarlan Coben
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyChristophe Offenstein
Edited byHervé de Luze
Music byMatthieu Chedid
Production
companies
Distributed byEuropaCorp Distribution
Release date
  • 1 November 2006(2006-11-01)(France)
Running time
131 minutes[1]
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget$13.5 million[2]
Box office$33.4 million[3]

Tell No One(French:Ne le dis à personne) is a 2006 Frenchthriller filmdirected byGuillaume Canetand based on the 2001novel of the same namebyHarlan Coben.Written by Canet andPhilippe Lefebvreand starringFrançois Cluzet,the film won four categories at the 2007César Awardsin France: Best Director (Guillaume Canet), Best Actor (François Cluzet), Best Editing and Best Music Written for a Film.

Plot

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Dr. Alexandre Beck has been slowly putting his life back together since his wife, Margot, was apparently murdered by aserial killerusing wild attackanimalseight years before. However, Alex finds himself implicated in a double homicide – even though he knows nothing of the crimes. The same day, he receives an email that appears to be from Margot, which includes a link to surveillance footage that shows his wife looking alive and well; the message warns Alex that they are both being watched. As Alex struggles to stay one step ahead of the law, henchmen intimidate his acquaintances into telling them whatever they might know about him, eventually killing a friend named Charlotte. In the meantime, Alex'slesbiansister Anne persuades her well-off partner Hélène to hire a respected attorney, Élisabeth Feldman, to handle his case.

Margot attempts to arrange a meeting with Alex by sending him an email that he must read in aninternet caféto avoid being spied on. Before this meeting can take place, a warrant is issued for Alex's arrest for Charlotte's murder. Alex goes on the run whilst his friends and lawyers struggle to find out the truth about the murder and Margot's reappearance. As he is being pursued by police, Alex is rescued by Bruno, a gangster from a rough part of the city who feels he owes Alex a favor. The mysterious henchmen reappear to prevent Alex's meeting with his wife, but he is rescued once again by Bruno. Margot is seen almost escaping on a flight toBuenos Aires.Élizabeth proves that Alex has analibifor Charlotte's murder thanks to eyewitness accounts at the internet café.

Alex notes the numerous mysteries about his wife's death – mysterious photos of her covered in bruises and traces ofheroinin her body. He soon discovers that Margot's father Jacques Laurentin faked her death: she had discovered that Philippe Neuville, the young son of a local aristocrat and governor Gilbert Neuville, was apedophilerapistwhose activities were covered up with help from local police; when she confronted him, Philippe beat her, causing the bruises. Jacques explains that he walked in on the beating and shot Philippe. Gilbert Neuville hired thugs to kill Margot via a phone call. Having tapped the phone call, Jacques doubled the payout for one of the thugs in order to get him to abduct his daughter, kill the other thug and knock Alex out. After shooting the second thug and burying both, Jacques used the body of a dead heroin addict to stand-in for Margot, which was then cremated, and Margot spirited into exile. Furthermore, Jacques reveals that Alex's father who works as the horse rancher for the Neuville family was also murdered for uncovering Philippe Neuville's abuses before Margot did. Jacques apologizes and gives Alex a document compiling the evidence of the Gilbert family's crimes.

Police, listening in on the confession, move to arrest Jacques, but he shoots himself dead as Alex leaves. Keenly aware of the wire, he blocked the bug's transmission to reveal Alex the last piece of the truth: it was Margot who shot Philippe after he beat her; Jacques was covering up her crime, not his. Subsequent to Margot resurfacing, Neuville hired assassins to torture Alex into revealing her location to avenge his son. Neuville Sr is arrested, and Alex and Margot reunite at the lake where their ordeal took place, revealed as the place where they also fell in love as children.

Cast

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Production

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The script made several alterations to the book; a torture expert changed from an Asian male to a white female, and the identity of the killer was switched. The book's author was quoted in an interview as saying that the film's ending was better than his original ending.[4]

Reception

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Tell No Onewas well received both critically and commercially.

Academy Award-winning British actorMichael Cainesaid of the film it was the best he had seen in 2007 on theBBC'sFilm 2007programme. He also included it among his Top Ten movies of all time in his 2010 autobiography,The Elephant to Hollywood.[citation needed]

Critical response

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Rotten TomatoesgivesTell No Onea rating of 94% based on reviews from 104 critics.[5]Metacriticgive the film 82/100 based on reviews from 30 critics.[6]

Box office

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The film generated $17million in ticket sales during its first four weeks at the French box office.[7]In total, the film grossed $22,194,261 in France becoming the 12th highest-grossing film of the year with 3,111,809 tickets sold.[8][9]Music Box Filmsacquired the rights to the film and gave it alimited theatrical releaseon July 2, 2008. The film opened in eight theaters grossing $169,707 during its opening weekend.[10]In total, the film grossed $6,177,192 in the US and Canada.[11]

Top ten lists

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The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[12]

References

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  1. ^"Ne le dis à personne:Tell No One(15) ".British Board of Film Classification.2007-04-27.Retrieved2012-01-01.
  2. ^"Ne le dis? personne (Tell No One)".JPBox-Office.2006.
  3. ^"Tell No One (2008)".Box Office Mojo. 2009-02-08.Retrieved2010-12-23.
  4. ^Saner, Emine (June 18, 2007)."Tell everyone: Interview with Guillaume Canet, director of 'Tell No One'".The Guardian.London.RetrievedMay 25,2010.
  5. ^"Rotten Tomatoes".Rotten Tomatoes.2 July 2008.
  6. ^"Metacritic".Metacritic.
  7. ^"Film4 | Channel 4".www.channel4.com.RetrievedOctober 5,2023.
  8. ^"2006 France Yearly Box Office Results".Box Office Mojo.
  9. ^"Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One) (2006)".JP’s Box-Office(in French).
  10. ^"Weekend Box Office Results for July 4-6, 2008".Box Office Mojo.
  11. ^"Tell No One (2008): Weekend Box Office Results".Box Office Mojo.
  12. ^abcdefghij"Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists".Metacritic.Archived fromthe originalon January 2, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 11,2009.
  13. ^TheJeff Buckleyversion of the songLilac Wine,from his albumGrace(1994), was used as background music in the film.
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