Icarus Films awesomely combines its tradition of releasing "innovative and provocative" documentaries with the recent expansion into "films from independent producers worldwide" (emphasizing Eurocinema) by releasing the 2016 French docudrama "The Outsider" (a.k.a. "Team Spirit") on June 5, 2018. This tale of titular wunderkind trader Jerome Kerviel (Arthur Dupont) comes six months after the Icarus release of (the reviewed) "In Her Name" (nee "Kalinka") based on the real-life decades-long quest of a father to get justice for the death of his daughter.
Compelling and informative "Outisder" follows the modern film trend of opening with out-of-context scenes of chaos only to soon travel back in time to the events that create that mayhem. In this case, the "boiler room" young Turk traders at leading French bank Societe Generale are equally nervous about being the one called in to get kicked to the curb and giddy regarding speculation as to which of their colleagues faces that fate during the 2008 financial crisis. Said newly terminated Master of the Universe soon takes the walk-of-shame.
The time shift this time is to eight years early when Kerviel and fellow new hire and equally recent friend "compliance guy" Mathieu Priestar are attending an orientation lecture by Societe General legend Jean-Pierre Kaplan. Our boys soon going in opposite directions is highly symbolic.
Typical middle-class guy Kerviel is doing his tedious entry-level job when he lands on the radar of sadistic, rude, and crude trader boss Fabien Keller, who should have been named Fagin. Keller initially promotes Kerviel to the position of assistant/bitch to that rainmaker and his team. Kerviel then survives the hazing in an environment that makes a Dartmouth frat house seem like the Algonquin Round Table.
The trouble for Kerviel and the bank comes when Keller teaches this ambitious boy allowed (but illegal) tricks of the trade following a rookie mistake. The problem is that Keller (who comes across as a partial hero) does not realize that he is offering an addict a meth recipe.
The thrill of the high-risk nature of trading that includes the high of a devastating loss turning into an obscene profit in the blink of an eye in a world that irresponsibly condones such activity leads to Kerviel becoming pathologically reckless. It is equally reprehensible that he is a god to the bank so long as he fills the coffers and becomes street trash the INSTANT that the same daring feats that bring home the bacon turn sour.
All of this occurs in the background of an investigation that has Prieter, Keller, and other persons-of-interest facing a literally shadowy tribunal. The nature of those interrogations is what did you know, when did you know it, and why the Hell did it go on so long. Predictably, only Prieter came out looking at all good.
We further learn both the fate of the trader whose career ends in disgrace at the end of the film; this includes the reactions of his former colleagues/sadistic bastards.
Le fin consists of the standard docudrama epilogue regarding the end result of all this.
Anyone with any familiarity with the financial crisis knows that the tale of "Evel" Kerviel is similar to that of many of his colleagues. Personal amusement comes via a relative connection with a counterpart who is not so far from this risk-taker. The geographic, family background, and fate similarities are so incredible that they show a need to better manage guys with characteristics that make them prone to such behavior. The bigger picture is that the risk-takers in the corner office greedily exploit the ambition and ruthlessness of these guys until these pit bulls befoul their oriental rugs.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Outsider" is strongly encouraged to email me; you alternatively can connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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