Private Project

Cheap Thrill

If you had been accused of not one, but several murders that you had not committed. If there was a lifeless body, covered in blood, on the backseat of a car, which you were suddenly driving. If you had the police tracking you down. And if you’re like any other perfectly normal human being, you should be doing whatever you can to get out of this nightmare. But Mickey Cozik is not that type of person. He hears voices, likes to picnic in heaven, sees red when his elevator bleeds and when the Zombie Aquarium starts to overflow. Are you ready to enter the strange world of Mickey?

  • David Barrouk
    Director
  • David Barrouk
    Writer
  • David Barrouk
    Producer
  • David Barrouk
    Key Cast
    "Mickey Cozik"
  • Philippe Nahon
    Key Cast
    "Driver"
  • Stephane Nigentz Gumuschian
    Cinematographer
  • Vincent Lefebvre
    Sound Engineer
  • Katia Boutin
    Sound Mixing
  • Johanna Saint-Pierre
    Music and Sound Design
  • Bobby Palmiero
    Music and Sound Design
  • Celine Fossati
    1st Assistant Director
  • Christian Maury
    Set Design
  • Karine Marsac
    Make Up Artist
  • Sophie Deseuzes
    Editing
  • Bobby Palmiero
    Editing
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Cheap Thrill
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 15, 1996
  • Production Budget:
    22,500 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    France
  • Language:
    French
  • Shooting Format:
    Super 16
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.66:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Canal+
    Paris
    France
    Canal+ Award
  • Connus méconnus
    Paris
    France
    First Prize
  • FNAC
    Paris
    France
    Talent Award
  • TPS
    Paris
    France
  • San Sebastian Film Festival
    San Sebastian
    Spain
    September 19, 1996
    Official Selection
  • Torino Film Festival
    Torino
    Italy
    July 6, 1997
    Official Selection
  • L'étrange festival
    Paris
    France
    September 8, 1996
    Official Selection
Director Biography - David Barrouk

Taking into account that the identity is a prison, David(s) Barrouk has decided to escape it by creating more than one for himself. That’s why he can be described as a multi-faceted creator, hyperactive and resoundingly Mannerist.

He has written, directed and produced many short and medium-length films in our beautiful country of France, one feature-film which has been sponsored by the legendary directors Nicholas Roeg and Ken Russell in the dirty country of England, a short series on the strange means of communication that is Internet, as well as many music videos (Syd Matters, Kill For Total Peace, Poni Hoax, etc.). His films have won many more or less well-earned prizes from many international film festivals, all of them more or less famous (Prize Canal +, Fnac Prize at Cannes, Digital Festival of Vierzon, etc.), and they have been largely broadcast on many French and international channels and platforms (France 2, Canal +, Arte, TPS, Netflix, Vice, etc.).

He has written and co-written many films on spec, as well as requests for documentaries, short and feature-films (for Flair Productions and Maja Films, Bikini Films, Realitism, Numero 6 and Partizan Midi Minuit, Obedience Films, Mac Films, etc.), certain of which have been broadcast on many different channels (Arte, Canal +, TPS, France 2).

Apart from his career as a screenwriter, director and producer, David is the founder and director of the Method Acting Center, a school which is reputed for its masterclasses for actors, screenwriters and directors, all based on the famous methods of Stanislavski, the Actors Studio and Robert McKee. He’s also participated in many films as an acting coach and/or a script doctor (La Petite Reine, Partizan Midi Minuit, Bac Films, etc.). He’s the author of Stan or The Acting Partition, a book which combines education, autobiography and fiction in a whirlwind of mises en abymes.

At the moment, he’s in the midst of creating an anthology series titled Collyrium. His latest film, Saddam Hussein, is being shown in many festivals, and Le Blanc-Seing, a short film which he co-produced and co-wrote is in post-production.

His first novel, An Open Letter to a Closed Woman, which has just as much of the acid taste of pop culture as of the theatricality of dark Romanticism, will be published this year.

David lives in Paris. He has a child whom he doesn’t know, from an enchanting woman who refuses to speak to him.

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Director Statement

Through Cheap Thrill, Mickey Cozik in the Zombie Aquarium, I wanted to explore a theme which has always been very precious to cinema - urban solitude. But I wanted to explore it from a deliberately subjective angle, from the point of view of a character who has become isolated to the point of social dislocation. A dislocation which will make him start to project his inner world onto the outside reality, while drowning his solitude in the most insane choices, to the point of taking on a murder that he didn’t commit. One looks for salvation wherever they can find it and free goosebumps are always welcome when one would prefer to be anything but nobody - even if it’s the guilty, the killer, the insane.