Film

A Pure Formality

Name: A Pure Formality
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Drama
Released: 1994
Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Roman Polanski, Sergio Rubini, Nicola Di Pinto, Tano Cimarosa

Gérard Depardieu is a famous recluse hauled into a rural police station with no memory of his evening. What follows is a hypnotic interrogation: the Inspector circles, prods, and gradually unmasks something darker than any simple crime. Polanski directs this chamber piece like a trap closing. It's cerebral, unsettling, utterly committed to one long, strange night.

TMDb rating

3.7

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The wildcard

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Memento2000

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Blow Out1981

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The Machinist2004

A haunted insomniac unravels in a industrial maze. Like A Pure Formality, it's a descent into psychological dissolution, revealing terrible truths through obsessive, almost hypnotic repetition.

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Trance2013

A hypnotherapist and an art heist collide in increasingly unreliable ways. Danny Boyle uses technique and manipulation as narratively as Polanski does, keeping you permanently off-balance.

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