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 Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 5:44 pm |
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A mad, sprawling film that is almost beyond description, but
is nevertheless extremely impressive and powerful. It stars
Sophie Marceau and Pascal Greggory and is directed by the
Polish director Andrzej Zulawski transplanted to France.
I have only seen two other of his films, _Possession_, in a
severely cut VHS version which is all but incomprehensible,
and _On the Silver Globe_, where some of the footage is
missing from the DVD and has to be described in voice-over by
the director. The voice-over doesn't make that film any more
easy to understand; in fact, I was convinced the director is
as insane as the strung-out astronauts-turned-sacrificial-messiahs
in that mess of a film, and that watching any more of his stuff
will literally drive me crazy.
So I was apprehensive going into this one. It turns out to be much
more disciplined, at least by his standards. And it is very
beautifully
shot too. This story about mad, stubborn love and lack of love and
personal principles is shot as though it were an action film; the
camera is as kinetic and assertive as many characters are languid
and passive. The sound design is also elegant and spare -- the
spare piano score comes in rarely, and is all the more powerful
for it. Things don't start spinning out of control until the 3/4
mark,
and even then it is sustained by the presence of Marceau and Greggory.
Marceau plays a the hot photographer in town. Photographers make
for interesting protagonists in movies; without having to show a lot
of
emotions, they get to assert their physical presence in the world all
the time. Who can forget Binoche in riot scenes in _The Unbearble
Lightness of Being_ or Hugo Weaving in _Proof_ (the Australian one,
by Jocelyn Moorhouse). There is a gaping void at her character's
core; she wields her camera like a shield, thrusting it into the face
of everyone and everything. Pascal Greggory is the real revelation
here. I don't think I've seen him play such a sweet, vulnerable, and
introspective character since, well, _Pauline at the Beach_? (Maybe
not even then.) He is the childlike, Auden-quoting scion of a
prestigious
publishing family. While buying flowers for his wedding, he runs into
Marceau's photographer and falls madly for her. Marceau has never
loved anyone but sleeps with all. When they get married, she holds
on to her vows like a new-found part of her persona. (There is a
subplot
with her mother which suggests that religion may play a role in this
-- this is a Polish director after all.) Unfortunately she runs
across
the love of her life just before the wedding, a paparazi photographer
who nevertheless shoots interesting portraits of the working class
in addition to the prostitutes and celebrities on whom he makes his
money. It just so happens that Greggory's father is selling his
prestigious company to Sobor's character, the boss of both
photographers.
The film has a huge cast and far too many ideas, but they
are all so full of life it is a treat to watch anyway. Subor, possibly
modelled after Rupert Murdoch, reminds me of his_Le Petit Soldat_
and _Beau Travail_ characters. Marina Hands is more interesting
than anything she does in the interminable _Lady Chatterly_. Edith
Scob is unforgetable as the cynical, drunk editor who has followed
Sobor (and no doubt slept with him) for 20 years. I've never seen
Guillaume Canet much: as "Nemo," Marceau's soulmate but polar
opposite, he plays his character with as much abandon as Cyril
Collard in _Savage Nights_. In fact, _Savage Nights_ crossed with
_Polar X_ seens a reasonable description of the film, except it
also alludes to the three fairy tale piggies (Greggory's family) and
the wolf (Sobor); identifies the media as the ultimate traitor (which
even manages to falsify and destroy Marceau's fidelity vows);
has ghosts walking into and through our protagonists more than
a few times; turns into a surreal mob-hit movie, with Marceau shooting
assualt rifles at thugs from a organ-trafficking ring; indicts both
Sobor and an "Italian newspaper magnate" who might be prime
minister one day; an African princess turned prostitute; ... and more
It is a total mess towards the end, but ends on a note of sobriety
and purity, in a remote convent A thoroughly jumbled and strange
film that mixes many genres, but in so doing, it is much more
interesting
than, say, the confused, lifeless _A Christmas Tale_ that has just
as many characters and plotlines but manages to make all of them
uninteresting. I don't remember ever reading about _La Fidellite_.
It is well worth catching. |
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