Apaches by Romain Quirot was released this Wednesday, March 29 in our theaters. Discover the history of these gangs of thugs who terrorized Parisians at the beginning of the 20th century.
Second feature film by Romain Quirot after The Last Voyage, the French genre film Apaches takes place in 1900. From Montmartre to Belleville, Paris is in the hands of ultra-violent gangs who reign terror in the capital: the Apaches. Ready to do anything to avenge the death of her brother, a young woman joins a gang. But the closer she gets to the man she wants to eliminate, the more fascinated she is by him.
This gangster film is inspired by a real gang that reigned terror in the streets of the capital during La Belle Époque.
On the occasion of the promotion of the feature film, Romain Quirot explains to us: “When I heard about the Apaches, I thought to myself that there was an energy, a rage and a cinematography in these gangs of the Belle Époque. I immediately saw a new playground, a new universe to explore.
The Apaches were quite young. It was a gang that had something quite punk: “we live young, we refuse to work, we won’t go to the factory to die like our parents”. They are carried by an energy but there is also a form of youth which burns its wings by completely assuming.”
And to embody these thugs, the filmmaker called on the new generation of French actors: Alice Isaaz, Niels Schneider, Rod Paradot, Artus and Armelle Abibou.
Who were the Apaches?
The Apaches are gangs of criminals who proliferate from Montmartre to Belleville at the beginning of the 20th century. These gangs hate the police, the bourgeois and the work they consider enslaving.
During the Universal Exhibition of 1889, Parisians discovered Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the American Indians for whom they were fascinated. As early as 1900, a journalist from Matin baptizes these bands of thugs “Apaches”, and the nickname is taken up.
Tandem Rod Paradot, Frame
Henri Fouquier, who writes an article on the murder of two workers, defines the term: “We have the advantage of having, in Paris, a tribe of Apaches whose heights of Ménilmontant are the Rocky Mountains. These make a lot of talk about them […]. They are pale young men, almost always beardless, and their favorite hair ornament is called the sideburns. All the same, they kill you their man like the most authentic savages, except that their victims are not invading foreigners, but their fellow French citizens..”
Paris is in complete upheaval and under construction with the construction of the metro and the division of the city by Baron Haussmann. The workers and the popular classes were moved from the center to the outlying districts. The latter live in slums and try to survive in this rapidly changing city where they are no longer wanted. This is where the Apaches live.
The latter are on the margins of society and refuse to work in factories. They survive by committing thefts and do not hesitate to spill blood, attack passers-by and prostitute the girls of their group. It is estimated that there were between 30,000 and 80,000 at the very beginning of the 1900s.
Tandem
Niels Schneider, Artus, Alice Isaaz, Rod Paradot
The different gangs, most often made up of young boys between the ages of 15 and 20, give themselves names that refer to their neighborhood: Les Loups de la Butte (la Villette), Les Gars de Charonne, Les Monte-en-l air of the Batignolles. They are often recognized by their very particular style: cap worn on the side, scarf around the neck, worker’s jacket, boots, tattoos and slang language.
The Tiger Brigades against the Apaches
The press regularly relays in its columns the murders and thefts of these gangs which terrorize Parisians. So much so that Georges Clemenceau, then Minister of the Interior, decided to create specialized judicial police units, which were called the Tiger Brigades. These brigades will also have the honors from 1974 of a television series by Claude Desailly and a film released in 2006.
The First World War put an end to the actions of the Apaches since they were sent to the front. They nevertheless leave behind them a legacy and codes that will be recovered by the various gangs all over France.
Tandem
Niels Schneider
A cinematographic subject yet little treated
With his feature film, Romain Quirot wanted to take on French popular culture. “Ihe Apaches are very cinematic gangs. Yet there is only one film that talks about it: Golden Helmet with Simone Signoret, and it is very far from a gang film. The word Apaches is not even pronounced there.” he declares to our microphone.
The filmmaker has managed to recreate the Paris of La Belle Époque and thus offers us a French genre film in the tradition of Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese.
Romain Quirot tells us: “We shot in a small town because Les Loups de la Butte was in Montmartre, but in this case, Montmartre today is a museum. It’s very pretty, but you can’t make an Apache movie there..
Tandem
Apaches
The idea was to find a city that has cobblestones, dirty walls, where we can tell ourselves that we have at least a few streets that will allow us to recreate the illusion of Paris in 1900. And afterwards, we added special effects that will extend the decor.
For example, at the beginning of the film, the children have a hideout in a church. And there is a hole in the wall through which you can see Paris with the Eiffel Tower under construction. It’s a small detail, but it allows you to create a universe.”
With Apaches, French cinema reclaims its history and breaks the codes of historical film by incorporating revenge, action and an impossible love story. A film to see at the cinema.
The director explains to us why it’s so hard to make a genre film in France.
