CARLOS

France, 2010, 165 minutes (cinema release), 330 minutes (television series), Colour.
Edgar Ramirez.
Directed by Olivier Assayas.

Some older audiences will remember forty years ago Frederick Forsthye’s novel, The Day of the Jackal, and Fred Zinneman’s exciting film of a fictitious attempt on the life of General de Gaulle. The Jackal became a nickname for mysterious assassins.

Illich Ramirez Sanchez, a Venezuelan revolutionary cum hitman, who linked with Palestinian rebel groups in the 1970s was referred to as the Jackal, but gave himself the public name of Carlos.

This film is an abbreviated version, half the length of the original mini-series for television. It runs for two and three quarter hours. It plays quite well in terms of photography and style on the big screen.
Director Olivier Assayas, who has directed all kinds of French films from personal dramas to period pieces, from thrillers to science fiction, employs a much more realistic approach to his subject. It is not a documentary, but it resembles some documentary styles at times, especially with names and dates, as it covers the period from the mid-1970s to the mid 1990s, when Carlos was taken by French authorities from the Sudan and imprisoned, where he still remains.

The film has the advantage of having Edgar Ramirez, himself from Venezuela, play Carlos.

At first, he is eager to be employed by the Palestinians, travels between Lebanon and France, as well as a job in London, aiming to become an important person in the network. He does, though the Palestinians are wary of his ambitions and his propensity for self-promotion and not taking orders well. He himself mouthes revolutionary language but, as time goes on, his associates and the audience realise that he is more pragmatic than idealistic, likes the good life and ease rather than self-sacrifice. The film also emphasises his narcissistic linking of his sexuality with his love of weapons. At times he indulges himself and puts on weight only to lose it in terrorist training camps and regimes. Later his vanity will lead him to liposuction. He is fickle in relationships, his wife eventually leaving him and his having little trouble in acquiring another.

The key section of the film and the most interesting is the attack on the OPEC meeting in Vienna in 1975 where he leads a group into the building, holds the delegates to ransom and divides them into friends, neutral or enemies (with the backing of Sadam Hussein’s Iraq against Iran still under the Shah). Some of his associates are eagerly trigger-happy. With the granting of a plane by the Austrian government and a flight to Algeria, the plan goes askew, with Tunisia and Libya refusing to let the plane refuel and a compromise found with Saudi money. (To this extent, the film is interesting in 2011 with the uprisings in north Africa and Colonel Gadaffi playing a role in this drama in the 70s.)

Carlos was responsible for the deaths of police in an attempt to arrest him in Paris (which was the ground for his ultimate trial and sentence). Let go by the Palestinians, he is taken up by Syria, with its links to Russia, the KGB, East Germany and the Stasi, and involved in arms smuggling during the 1980s.

The last part of the film shows Carols abandoned by Syria after the collapse of the Soviet Union and his finding refuge in Sudan.

Rather than presenting Carlos as a lone Jackall, mysterious assassin of popular imagination, the film shows him and his friends as another equivalent of the protest movements of the 1970s and the armed terrorist activities of organisations like the Red Brigade and the Baader-Meinhof? group.

How much more the full mini-series would show of Carlos’ activities and motivations, we don’t know. But, this is a portrait rather than a biography. There is a caution at the opening of the film that, while it is based on a true story, much of it (especially the writing of dialogue between official characters that was not the subject of record) is also a fiction.

Originally filmed as a television mini-series, the film version runs for half that length at 165 minutes.

1. The scope of the film? For television? For the theatre? The editing? Decisions about what was to be included or excluded for the cinema release? The television style? Yet appropriate for cinema?

2. The film based on a true story, the story of Carlos? Activities, headlines, hiding and protection, arrest and jail? The photo of the real Carlos at the end?

3. The film describing itself as a fiction, an interpretation of the public events, the public characters, the deals, the interactions?

4. Truth and interpretation – providing a portrait rather than a biography?

5. The nature of the portrait, the image, physical, weapons and sexual, self-regarding (the mirror sequence), over the years? Selected aspects of Carlos’s life and manner? The point of view of the director, the point of view of the audience interest, the audience alerted to different aspects of character? Partial portrait, enigma, an aid to understanding Carlos?

6. The background information, from Venezuela, his name, his family background, his cover stories, the playboy from Peru, working for Palestinian agencies, threats and torture, deaths? Vienna and the OPEC meeting? The aftermath and Algeria? Syria?

7. The introduction to the character, his visit to Haddad, his making himself available for terrorist activity, his ideology, his ambition, his attitude towards revolution? His girlfriend and the talk about revolution, her challenging him? Visits to Beirut, meeting officials, going through passport control, in France, in London? The significance of the initial assassination scene and his asking for the job with Haddad? Going on probation, the London shooting, the Marks and Spencer’s executive, Jewish, his escape?

8. Haddad and the organisation, Andre as his underling, Haddad’s choice? Carlos and the encounters with Andre, his name, image? Dealing with Andre? Andre and Lebanon, the fake passports, being picked up by the police, visiting Carlos, hiding the documents? The interrogation by the police, his giving the information, the address, the visit to the house?

9. Carlos and his friends, Che Guevara and the ideals of revolution, guitar-playing and singing? The background of the police and the investigation office for terrorism? Andre being brought in, identifying Carlos, Carlos going to the toilet, getting the gun, shooting the police, shooting Andre after accusing him of betrayal, returning for the extra bullet?

10. The interview with Haddad, Haddad and his authoritarianism, the nature of orders? Carlos and the issue of obeying orders? His independence? Yet Haddad trusting him with the OPEC operation?

11. OPEC, the background of the 1970s, Carlos and Nada, Khalid, Angie? The personal relationships? The team? The contacts for explosives and arms, the Germans? The preparation for the attack? The motivation? The Iraq connection? The role of the Saudis and other Arab countries? Iran?

12. The OPEC meeting, the officials arriving, the attack, the various underlings and secretaries? The guns, Carlos and his control? Nada and her anger, shooting officials? Khalid and his caution? Angie and his being shot? The discussions, the secretary and giving the declaration? The officials, dividing the group into friendly and hostile and neutral? The doctor and his treatment of Angie, getting Angie out to the hospital? The demands, the Austrian officials arriving, the discussions, the offer of assistance from the Algerian president? The compromise? The plane, the airport, the Austrian pilots, the flight, Angie on board? Algiers and the reaction, wanting them out? Going to Libya, the Libyan refusal for them to stay, Tunisia’s refusal? The offer of money? Carlos and the acceptance, going to sleep, the officials walking out to safety? The Saudi money and the deal? The pilots, the return of the Austrian plane? The end of the affair – failure? The reactions of Nada and Khalid?

13. The sequences in Yemen, a haven for the terrorists, the meetings with Haddad, the detail of the training camps and exercises? Carlos and his being out of action, going to fat, being returned to Yemen for training?

14. The Germans, terrorist cells, the Entebbe situation, the anti-Semitic attitudes of the terrorists? The Israelis and the capture of the plane? The effect on the Palestinians, on Haddad?

15. Carlos and his having to hide, the interest of Syria, the interview with the general, the information, the arms deals, protection of Syria, going to the Soviet Union, Andropov and the KBG, (**KGB or another org?) the visits to East Berlin and the Stasi?

16. Magdalena Koop, the Stasi connection, spy, the sexual relationship?

17. The passing of the years, the 1980s and the protection of Syria, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Empire, the new era?

18. Carlos and his age, going to fat, hedonistic, not at the front, the contrast with Nada, at the Swiss border and her shooting the police? Carlos and his wife, the divorce? The new wife?

19. Syria no longer able to protect Carlos, his going to the Sudan, the power behind the throne and the interview with him, the Sudanese being careful? His life, comfort, new wife? His German friend? His illness and the need for an operation? His vanity and liposuction?

20. The French police, preparing their case, the photos, discussions with the Sudanese authorities? The taking of Carlos, the return to Paris?

21. His arrest, his jail sentence, serving his sentence?

22. How sincere a terrorist, his authoritarian attitudes towards his underlings in his later career, the exact opposite of how he reacted to Haddad? Ambition, pleasure, wealth? A phenomenon of the 20th century and a reminder of political assassinations, hijackings, terrorism?

23. The role of the Middle Eastern countries – and the retrospect of their activities in the light of the 21st century, Al Qaeda, the Twin Towers’ destruction, the uprisings in the Middle Eastern countries in 2010-11? Colonel Gaddafi and the war in Libya?