The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq

It tells the story of how the famous author Michel Houellebecq is kidnapped and held for ransom by three men during a promotional tour in 2011.

For some time, he appeared to give no signs of life, which made newspapers in France speculate that he had been kidnapped.

[4] Scott Foundas wrote in Variety: "Mostly, the film turns on the curious chemistry between Houellebecq and his captors, who insist on engaging the writer in intellectual debate, despite their obvious disadvantages in this realm, querying him about Auschwitz, the Armenian genocide, his 1991 H.P.

Foundas continued: "None of this would work nearly so well were Houellebecq not such a hoot playing himself — or at least a shambling, sad-sack version of himself, at once bolstering and gently skewering his self-perpetuated image of the author as misanthropic recluse.

In what is effectively a one-joke movie, the joke is a good one, and Nicloux ... manages to keep the comic energy high for almost the entire 90-minute running time.