Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

GUENOT PHILIPPE If you are fond on French crime novels world, you know that this film was adapted from à Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel. One of the best French novelist from the seventies and eighties. The novel which this feature is adapted from was a very nihilistic tale against the institutions, governments and state rules. And this movie made by Claude Chabrol - whose it is not the kind of movies he usually did, you know that - this film seems very close, scene for scene, to the book. If you dare comparing, this film NADA is, to the genuine novel material, exactly the same that Jean-Pierre Melville's LE DEUXIEME Soufflé was to Jose Giovanni's novel. In both cases, the movies made from the books seem so close to them. But you would be damn wrong if you thought so. Concerning Melville's film, please read my comment. But about NADA, I repeat, Manchette gave us a story which enhanced the anarchists, or left winged terrorists, he tried to give them some good reasons to behave as they did. But if you read the book and then watch the movie very closely, you will notice that Chabrol doesn't have the same language. In a sort of way, he criticizes the anarchists. He wants to show to the audiences the emptiness of everything they do. In that purpose, he uses some sentences told by the anarchists characters. Even if, I repeat, the movie seemed to have been shot, "book handed". Page by page.The message was not the same.And, besides, I have already seen movies adapted very differently from novels but only on the "shape" - scenes - but not on the true meaning. For instance both RIFIFI films: RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES and RIFIFI CHEZ LES FEMMES. I will finish by telling you that Michel Aumont gives in this film one of his best performances ever as the terrific, nasty, disgusting commissaire - superintendent - Goémond. Michel Aumont who is still alive and also a great stage performer.

Camera Obscura THE NADA GANG (Claude Chabrol - France/Italy 1974).With this excellent political thriller Claude Chabrol charted into more familiar genre territory. This time he made this cynical account about a small Franch group of post '68 terrorists kidnapping the American ambassador from a luxury Parisian brothel, secreting him away in an isolated farmhouse while they wait for an answer to their demands. But the police chief they're dealing with is even more violent than they are and doesn't care about getting back the hostage alive.In hindsight this film has become a typical exponent of the - mostly left wing - underground activities in the '70s and 80's. In these modern times, when terrorism is almost exclusively associated with Islamic religiously motivated terrorists, this kind of political activism comes across as refreshingly modern.While some might consider Nada as somewhat of a disappointment after Chabrol's brilliant series of films, like La femme infidèle (1969) Qua la bête meure (1969), Le Boucher (1970), La Rupture (1970) and Juste avant la nuit (1971), this remains cool, stylish and exciting film-making of the kind very few directors can match. And what about Fabio Testi in his black leather overcoat? Is he the coolest looking criminal you've ever seen, or what?Camera Obscura --- 8/10

MartinHafer I've got to admit that this movie was pretty interesting to watch, but because it didn't seem very clear in its message I doubt it had much impact. It was just a rather cynical and nihilistic mess. The story is about a group of anarchists who snatch the US ambassador and hold him for ransom. But, we then see that although the terrorists aren't very nice, the police are a bunch of fascist thugs and they deliberately kill all the terrorists and let them kill the ambassador. So, the message seems to be contemporary French society of the 70s stinks and individual acts of terror are meaningless--so rise up all peoples and have a widespread revolution instead. Please,...I didn't watch the movie to be preached at or listen to distorted moral relativism. Ponderous and preachy seem to be the general tone of the film. PLUS, if EVERYTHING stinks, what, then, does the film's maker suggest instead?PS--this movie is pretty violent and there is some VERY explicit nudity that would make this inappropriate for all kids.

HEFILM A thriller with serious intentions but also with a fast pace and a comic/ironic view of all its characters motivations. The ideas behind the brutal police and the brutal kidnappers are dead serious, but Chabrol shows each side to be rather absurd and many scenes have some odd or funny pay off moment. The main policeman lounges like a goof ball in a chair while they torture a suspect. During the kidnapping one of the kidnappers knocks out a completely naked hooker and at the end of the scene comes back into the room to cover her pubic hair. The dialog is filled with comedic twists throughout. These Little things let us know that these deadly doings are, well silly. If it wasn't that people get killed doing them these people would be laugh out loud funny. That's the point of the tone of the film. It's an additional layer of damnation that most dead serious thrillers forget. The violence in the film is bloody and the message about politics being against all of us and ready to betray anyone, especially if you resort to killing your fellow man is important today. This is one of Chabrol's best films, he makes good use of helicopter views of the assault on the hideout at the end of the film. A well cast film with many parts, but you never get confused as to who is who. There aren't many films that have tried or achieved this combination of elements, one that does come to mind is the excellent TV movie THE DAY REGAN WAS SHOT.