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A Man of His Time

Play trailer A Man of His Time 2026 2h 33m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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84% Tomatometer 19 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Ratings
September 1940. Henri Marre arrives alone in Vichy as the authoritarian regime settles in. Broke, estranged from his family, and carrying copies of his self-published manifesto Notre Salut (Our Salvation), the 49-year-old is determined to secure what he believes is his rightful place in the new administration. In his writing, Henri sets out his patriotic convictions and his engineer's methodology: efficiency above all. Claiming he wants to help save France after defeat, he does whatever is required to remain useful, serving the machinery of the new order with increasing skill. But he may be pursuing something more urgent: escape from his own ruin.

Critics Reviews

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Justin Chang The New Yorker 4d
Live in such a way that your descendants won’t one day make a movie about your inexorable, soul-killing descent into moral oblivion. Go to Full Review
Thomas Flew Sight & Sound 5d
What’s most impressive, however, is Marre’s restraint. He trusts in the power of his script, punctuated by the poetic letters between his great-grandparents, to create a portrait of a quagmired country. Go to Full Review
David Katz IndieWire May 22
B
Its 155-minute runtime suggests a grand historical epic, yet it’s more of a historical patchwork. Go to Full Review
Àngel Quintana Caimán Cuadernos de Cine 6d
Emmanuelle Marre ultimately reminds us of the existence of the serpent's egg and its connections to a new far right that is blinding the population with pronouncements and ideas that update the legacy of those times. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Carlos F. Heredero Caimán Cuadernos de Cine 6d
Emerges as one of the most daring, courageous, modern, and necessary works of the entire event. A pleasant surprise. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Elena Lazic The Playlist 6d
C
But this dramatic, grandiose treatment ultimately feels forced, ill-suited to a character who, despite the director and star’s joint efforts to mystify him, never ceases to come across as ordinarily mediocre. Go to Full Review
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Movie Info

Synopsis September 1940. Henri Marre arrives alone in Vichy as the authoritarian regime settles in. Broke, estranged from his family, and carrying copies of his self-published manifesto Notre Salut (Our Salvation), the 49-year-old is determined to secure what he believes is his rightful place in the new administration. In his writing, Henri sets out his patriotic convictions and his engineer's methodology: efficiency above all. Claiming he wants to help save France after defeat, he does whatever is required to remain useful, serving the machinery of the new order with increasing skill. But he may be pursuing something more urgent: escape from his own ruin.
Director
Emmanuel Marre
Producer
Alexandre Perrier, François-Pierre Clavel, Sébastien Andres, Alice Lemaire
Screenwriter
Emmanuel Marre
Production Co
Kidam, Michigan Films, France 2 Cinéma, Condor, Les Films de Pierre, Les Films Pelléas, The Ink Connection, Unité, RTBF, Proximus, Be TV, Orange
Genre
Drama
Original Language
French
Runtime
2h 33m