Cleveland Versus Wall Street
Jean-Stéphane Bron
Switzerland, France | 2010 | 94 min
Language : English
Subtitle : French
In 2008, a group of lawyers from Cleveland began legal proceedings against the Wall Street banks they deemed responsible for the property seizures that left 100,000 people homeless. In the end, the trial never took place. Jean-Stéphane Bron therefore decides to recreate this trial in a cinema, transposing it into a codified fictional genre in order to better “avenge” a null and void reality.
Minimum legal age 7 years, recommended 14 years and over
2008 saw the banking and financial crisis that plunged the world into a deep recession. Josh Cohen and his partners, attorneys in the city of Cleveland, where 20,000 over-indebted families were evicted from their homes, want to sue the 21 Wall Street banks that they consider liable for these devastating repossessions. Sensing a possible film, Jean-Stéphane Bron is all ears, but quickly understands that their claim will not make it to court. No matter: he contacts all of the protagonists, offering to organise a “film trial” at the city’s courthouse. Filmed almost continuously with two cameras, Cleveland contre Wall Street is based on the classical dramaturgy that, from Otto Preminger to Erin Brokovich via Sidney Lumet, has been a staple of fiction feature films. As well as being a wonderful ‘genre’ film, so to speak, the filmmaker's fourth “documentary” also constitutes a powerful - and still relevant - analysis of American society, which is ideologically fractured around the notions of liberty and individual responsibility.
Emmanuel Chicon
