ODUVIJEK SAM ŽELIO BITI GANGSTER
/ J’ai toujours rêvé d’être un gangster
/ I Always Wanted To Be a Gangster

France
2007 / 113’ / 35mm

Directed by:
Samuel Benchetrit

Written by:
Samuel Benchetrit

Producer:
Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier

Cast:
Anna Mouglalis, Edouard Baer, Jean Rochefort, Laurent Terzieff.

Awards:
Sundance 2008 - World Cinema Screenwriting award

Distribution:
WILD BUNCH
Telephone: +33 1 53 01 50 20
Facsimile: +33 1 53 01 50 49
Address: 99 rue de la Verrerie - 75004 Paris - France

In a dirty, old restaurant in the Parisian suburbia, lives of a few characters intertwine in 4 gangster stories. Petty thief Franck, whose luck has ran out, decides to give up robbing the place. Waitress Susie sees right through him and confesses she has been thinking about it herself but realized there was no money in the register so she became a waitress there. Two middle-aged men, Leon and Paul, kidnap Malaury, a daughter of a rich business man. The kidnappers become uncles for the suicidal teenager who is desperately seeking parental attention. The third story takes place in the restaurant where two rock bands take a break after a concert. Singers Alain Bashung and Arno talk about friendship and their careers. In the fourth story 4 ex gangsters “rescue” Pierrot, their partner in crime from a hospital and go to their ex hiding place that is now the restaurant. Black and white comedy is a typical Jarmush film and depicts failures of wannabe gangsters in a pulpfictonlike sense of humor but without the icky stuff.

Samuel Benchetrit is a French director, screenwriter and novelist born in 1973.in Champigny-sur-Marne. He dropped out of school when he was 15 to become a writer. In 2000.he made his first film; News from the L project, a short movie that earned him a nomination from the European Film Academy. In the “off the wall” comedy style he makes his first full-length feature film Janis and John (2003). On this year’s Sundance he presented his latest film I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster and won the best screenplay award in the foreign film competition. He also writes plays and has recently published the first two volumes of his five volume autobiography Asphalt Chronicles.