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The Intruder (L'Intrus) (2005)

tomatometer

85

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 4

The impressionistic narrative may confound the viewer, but Denis crafts wonderfully poetic, dreamlike imagery.

100

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0

The impressionistic narrative may confound the viewer, but Denis crafts wonderfully poetic, dreamlike imagery.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 9,484

My Rating

Movie Info

Claire Denis' elliptical drama L'Intrus was inspired by a short book written by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy about his heart transplant. In the film, Michel Subor (Le Petit Soldat) stars as Louis, who lives fairly self-sufficiently in a small cabin in the snowy wilds near the Swiss border. Louis has a son (Grégoire Colin, who also starred with Subor in the director's Beau Travail) whose wife (Florence Loiret-Caille) is a border guard, and they have two young children, but Louis has a strained

G, 2 hr. 10 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau

Apr 25, 2006

$4.6k

Wellspring

All Critics (29) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (23) | Rotten (4) | DVD (7)

An interior epic with epic exteriors, a film with very little dialogue, where the pictures (photographed by the great Agnès Godard), actors and the juxtaposition of both tell the story.

March 31, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Never has Denis demanded so much from audiences as with this shimmering enigma, at once intimate and epic, but it's worth the effort and then some.

March 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
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A beautiful, complex work that challenges viewers to mentally sift interior and exterior journeys.

March 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Denis composes a majestic dream book of shots and sequences.

February 3, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[S]hould you see The Intruder? Yes -- but only if you're willing to ignore bothersome concerns about narrative and let the poetic images take over your mind.

December 27, 2005 Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Characteristically impressionistic, French director Claire Denis' latest meditation is simultaneously baffling and beautiful, and definitely not for everyone.

December 27, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A film that's so recondite, it's barely there.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

yet another meandering piece of existentialism, signifying nothing except for what you're willing to project onto it.

July 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

It's one of those films where it's best to go with its maddening elegiac but elusive flow and let whatever comes to you be enough.

May 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Walk the line with Claire Denis's The Intruder but take slow, deep breaths afterward.

April 21, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

While it may take a few viewings to sort the details out, much about L'Intrus lingers, shimmering quietly in the memory.

April 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

... the emotions and wishes and fears of the human animal thrown large on the screen in primal, lush images.

April 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

This is self-consciously intricate, but even if the storyline occasionally confuses, it's impossible not to admire Agnès Godard's glorious photography and the atmospheric soundtrack.

April 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Using very little dialogue, [Denis] focuses on casting a lingering, physically enticing spell.

March 31, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Visually ravishing and all-but-impenetrable.

March 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | Comment
Los Angeles Daily News

Denis' film -- which may be her most intricately constructed and intensely beautiful to date -- is one that transcends words and stories, a movie to be felt rather than rationalized.

March 16, 2006 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | Comment
L.A. Weekly

...an aesthetic mystery that requires at least two viewings to fully figure out. Luckily, the film is fun along the way.

March 16, 2006 Comment

... the film is surprisingly satisfying and meaningful.

December 27, 2005 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment (1)
TV Guide's Movie Guide
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Intruder (L'Intrus)

In "The Intruder", Louis(Michel Subor) enjoys spending his days frolicking with his dogs near the French-Swiss border while he spends his nights with a local woman. One night an intruder breaks in, but Louis kills him and quietly disposes of the body. This event along with his weakening health convince him that it is

March 29, 2007
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

An extremely murky script and cinematography together doom this picture. As for the acting? Well, there really isn't any. The players are only occasionally glimpsed in the darkness. Some critic here who describes L'Intrus as "Impressionistic" is clueless.

January 2, 2011
Hal
Hal Morris

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • L'Intrus (DE)
  • The Intruder (UK)
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