Wild Bunch – Connor Clarke Film

High Life (Claire Denis, 2018) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains some spoilers. It could be an entire gag from a comedy or in-depth conversation concerning events in the second act.

`"The sensation of moving backwards even though we are moving forwards, getting further from what's getting nearer, sometimes I just can't stand it."`

High Life, Claire Denis’ somewhat under-the-radar science fiction mystery that I had forgotten about in the nebulous limbo of the pandemic season. It is one of the strangest movies I’ve seen in a while, riddled with morbid oddities and future visions of humanity’s survival. The production design and absurd sexual habits – looking almost specifically at the void-like masturbation box here – reminded me of A Clockwork Orange in many ways. Who knows? Maybe it was the general disdain for human life from some of its characters and its central humanist themes that touch more on love than its visual proclivity to concentrate on violence.

Denis’ arthouse take on space travel owes much more to Kubrick’s 2001 and Tarkovsky’s Solaris than say something still considered to be a little more alternative like Interstellar or Gravity. It leans on metaphor rather than spectacle, with Pattinson and a newborn baby taking up the brunt of the narrative groundwork – everything leads back to that opening connection between Pattinson’s Monte and Willow. Sure, we get some spaghettification (great word), and it seems intent on showing some fierce gore in its climactic sequences at the pinnacle of each act, but it places a great deal more of its emphasis on the open-ended finale and the resonance of a dog. It’s a unique combination of ideas that span out superbly in Denis’ image.

Pattinson is impressive as always, continuing on the weird indie streak that propelled him back into the vanguard. His performance here isn’t a patch on Good Time, but this asks for a significantly more reserved turn from him with only the slight glimpses of that explosive energy he has. Juliette Binoche, André 3000, Mia Goth, and a really evil little turn from Ewan Mitchell are all superb additions and help to elevate the supporting cast in a film that needs that strong ensemble. I do think it’s a gorgeous film, intricately macabre and overflowing with cum; you’re hardly going to see anything else like this again for a long time.

Regardless, High Life failed to really stand out to me. Its interesting ideas and exciting presentation were not consistent enough to stand alongside the greats that influenced it. It’s a slow burner, but without much literal payoff for many of its concepts – it relies on you a lot which can be a 50/50 result. Here, it works better than most, but it doesn’t stop it from feeling a little redundant at times. Gorgeous movie impressively made for what was, in retrospect, a tiny budget, but I still feel like there was more to be had here.

[L’Événement] Happening (Audrey Diwan, 2021) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion features some important narrative information that could spoil the text for you. It does not necessarily spell out the film’s conclusion, but it does talk about events in detail.

`"You're all pale."`

Happening, winner of the 2021 Golden Lion in Venice, was a film that I just missed out on for its UK cinema run, despite being desperate to catch it. One year later, it’s easy to see why it won that eminent award, with a potent social trauma that feels even more timely now in its short lifespan. It helps a great deal that Audrey Diwan’s text is such a squirming, alarming, upsetting, and brilliant dissection of the issues at hand.

The setting of this text is mouthwatering: 1960s France, centring on a young literature student whose seemingly perfect life begins to spiral out of control when it should all have been so simple. I think that’s another reason this is so heartbreaking – you’re watching someone who is so highly intelligent, someone who is at the top of her class, someone popular with her peers – have her life torn apart because her country’s out-of-touch laws prevent her from doing what she wants to with her own body. Anamaria Vartolomei is breathtaking as Anne, perfectly capturing the sadness and fear of potentially seeing her parents laugh for the final time, the anxious pressure mounting from every angle, and the immense pain from her attempted self surgeries. She’s all-encompassing here.

I love the direction of Diwan; her 35mm cinematography is gorgeous, and the 1.37:1 aspect ratio begins to feel exceedingly claustrophobic with every setback Anne suffers. The sound design during her initial attempt at a home abortion is like something from a horror film, the deafening silence broken by the shirk of a metal rod or a stifled whimper will make you writhe in your seat. The interactions she has with those around her also tend to make you remarkably uncomfortable, as though she has nowhere to go for any sense of support. It’s outstanding writing, acting, and directing to achieve it as well as it does.

Happening is a devastating tale, one that rings just as vital in 1963 as it does in 2022. It’s texts like this that make you remember we have not come as far as we think we have. The contrast between this film’s beauty and the ugly politics it delves into is worthy of your time alone, never mind the effectiveness of its lead performance. This is one of the best foreign films I’ve seen in the last decade, do not let the slower pace and upsetting topic detract you from this one. The comparisons to Never Rarely Sometimes Always are not for subject matter alone.

[Grave] Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016) Review

`"I'm sure you'll find a solution honey."`

Ah well, looks like I’m never eating again. I watched Raw after watching Love yesterday, simply because I was in the mood to continue this streak of arthouse French cinema. This was seriously impressive for a couple of reasons which I will delve into.

It is rare that I am actually affected by film violence or gore, even in extreme circumstances because I can easily dismiss it as artificial. There’s only been a few occasions where it’s actually caused a reaction. This is one of those films. I made the extremely poor and untimely decision to eat a Kit-Kat around the same time that Justine decided to chow down on her big sister’s finger. Needless to say, I’ve never felt uncomfortable eating a Kit-Kat before until today. It’s the struggle to pull the flesh away and the ridiculously good effects on display. This made me feel queasy whenever these characters get into that headspace, but the entire film made it so that I couldn’t look away because I was so locked into these characters, the narrative and beautiful visuals. Before I talk about any of that, I just want to give a quick mention to the sickening sound design, the scratching sounds of Justine’s skin may forever ring in my ears.

In other news, these performances are immaculate. Marillier is the runaway star; she doesn’t have a bad scene in the entire film. Rumpf as the elder sister too, was brilliant when she featured. The lighting and use of colour in this are some of the most vibrant and effective that I have seen all year. The camerawork allows them to jump off the screen and serves the story really well. I was afraid that the cannibalisation element would be sort of secondary and a tactic to draw in audiences. However, the idea works really well as a running theme alongside growing up. Ideas of sexual awakenings, addiction and following what is expected of you run are a particularly effective parallel in this one. It has a pulsating soundtrack to match the blood the pumps through a number of scenes. Everything here makes this so much more than a horror film.

Raw is one of the most visceral and darkly effective films I’ve seen in a long time. Troubled characters, a volatile environment and an underlying sense of dread in every moment makes this film stand out as one of the best debuts I’ve seen in a long time.

Check out the soundtrack here:

Love (Gaspar Noé, 2015) Review

`"Maybe we are not the great artists that we dreamed we were. Maybe this is all just shit."`

The ever evocative Gaspar Noé strikes again with Love. I had obviously heard a decent amount about this film before going in. My curiosity lay in the man behind it, not known for subtlety but well regarded as an artist. I was intrigued to see how the concept came across. The very opening scene let me know.

It’s hard to talk about this film without addressing the unsimulated sex scenes. I have to give an immense amount of credit to Noé for deciding to break down barriers in mainstream film in this way. His goal was to show the most intimate form of love in this film, and I think it can be said that he achieved it; it doesn’t feel like you should be watching what you are. It feels too personal. Of course, the decision does come with its drawbacks, these mostly come with the rest of the film so I’ll move onto that.

The characters and dialogue here are pretty grim. The performances don’t really help much either – there are actually a few confrontation scenes that I winced at and just wanted to end. Noé also decides to make it weirdly autobiographical as the lead is a film director, has similar tastes to the man himself; even the character’s son in the film is called Gaspar. However, he then shows up in the film as a totally separate character, and it’s jarring. It also feels like an excuse for him to take part in some of the sex scenes, honestly. Anyway, what this all means is that the characters are kind of unobtainable – a lot of the actions help to make the relationships feel sensual, but nothing else does. As the film continues it gets more and more complicated between the two characters with more intense, long takes of intimacy.

Love looks excellent, as Noé films usually do. The colours pop, and the cinematography is smooth even if it is interrupted with strange editing choices at times. The narrative allows Noé to play around with different timelines (even if he forgets the function halfway through the film). The problem is character and screenplay, nothing else. Don’t shy away from this because of the idea, it’s perhaps the best-executed part of it, and it’s an interesting viewing experience. I just wish there was a better film to support it.

Climax (Gaspar Noé, 2018) Review

`“Go dance and have fun, you earned it.”`

Climax was totally bizarre; it gets a pretty high rating considering there were quite a few elements that I didn’t enjoy all that much. The reason this gets such a high rating is that it made me discover new levels of uncomfortable when watching a film.

The script is near non-existent, and there are some very obnoxious filmic choices that I didn’t like with the main example being the finale drowned in red and with an inverted camera – it made me sick, and I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I get that it’s meant to be like a bad acid trip and it’s what the characters were feeling, but the film style wasn’t like this throughout when they all had this bad trip, so the last ten minutes felt really out of place.

That being said this was a very effective film at what it was attempting to do and it was unique in its goal. The first half of the film features some truly outstanding camerawork, the dance sequence was excellent, and the dynamic movement from conversation to conversation was also fun. There’s a lot of grisly reds, and sickly greens used to full effect particularly for passageways from situation to situation to imply the varying degrees of danger.

The performances are so and so but how does someone act on a bad acid trip so I feel as though there’s not much to criticise because it could be accurate for someone. I actually like the ending with The Stones over the top until I found out who laced the drink, I think it would have worked much better if we never found out who did it.

Climax was my first Gaspar Noé experience, and for the most part, it lived up to what I had heard – unsettling and weird. I can’t say I enjoyed it because it was a complete nightmare to watch unfold, but it was a cinematic paradise (for the most part), and that deserves some recognition.

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