2013 dream
Rating: 15/20
Plot: A man comes home from a trip and finds his wife missing. So he investigates.
No, I did not understand what was going on. It all takes place in one apartment building which might represent one human being’s psyche or something. And all of the characters might be the same person. or maybe all the characters are one of two characters. If you decide to watch this movie because you want a good story or good characters, you are going to end up disappointed. This is the type of movie that I feel I could watch a hundred times and never really get a grasp on what exactly is going on.
Watch this for the visual flare. I can’t think of another movie I’ve seen recently where the creators have this much command of their visuals. It’s unbridled camera trickery, and I’d understand if you watched this and wanted to argue that it’s all style and no substance or that directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani are just showing off. But when the style’s this stylish, you take notice, you let it happen, and you let your eyes gobble it all up. You’ve got garish colors, lurid perspectives, black ‘n’ white touches, split screen tomfoolery. You name the trick, and Cattet and Forzani probably utilize it in painting the screen for us. Masterful visual storytelling even when there’s not much of a story at all. It’s the cinematic equivalent of looking into a kaleidoscope for a little over an hour and a half. Violence and sex abounds, and although I kind of wish there was a little less of the former, there was still something exquisite about most of that, too.
This is abstract, and for that reason, it’s not for everybody. But I can’t imagine a lot of people would watch this and not appreciate it as a work of art. I know Cattet and Forzano only from one of the better shorts in that ABC’s of Death anthology, but I’m impressed with what they’ve done here to stretch the medium and use a myriad of tricks we’ve all seen before to create something that I really haven’t seen before.
It’s possible that I could watch this again, get a better idea of what the hell it’s about, and rate it higher. Regardless, anybody who’s spent any time reading my poorly-written thoughts on movies already knows that I don’t really need a lot of substance to like or even love a movie. I’m fine with nothing but style, and this movie’s about as stylish as it gets.
