Basterds (Les Salauds).

A very enjoyable discussion took place following the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club screening of the French film Bastards (2013). A great deal of time was spent trying to analyse the films non-linear narrative and work out what the film was about. And although the plot was not absolutely clear none of the Film club actually disliked the movie!

Claire Denis.

Introduced by Brendan Kearney, recently returned from ‘down under’, who gave us a brief account of tonight’s director. Known as the dark queen of French cinema Claire Denis was born in Paris in 1946. She was an assistant director from 1974 until 1987 and during this period worked along side Wim Wenders on Paris Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987). Her own directorial body of work has dealt with themes of colonial and postcolonial West Africa (White Materials 2009) as well as issues in modern France (35 Shots of Rum 2008[1]). She is said to pay more attention to the characters than the narrative, and is reputed to ‘shot fast and edit slowly’.

 

Vincent Lindon in the ice blue Alfa. 

Her films have often proved challenging and confrontational viewing and tonight’s film was no exception. It concerns tight-lipped Marco Silvestri (Vincent Lindon, Mademoiselle Chambon 2009) a captain of an oil tanker who has too return to Paris to help his sister Sandra (Julie Batalle). Her husband has committed suicide because of the failure of the family shoemaking business and his debts to a sinister businessman.  Sandra’s daughter Justine (Lola Creton, Bluebeard 2009, Something in the Air 2012) has been injured in mysterious circumstances involving a cornhusk! Brendan went on to say that to give away any more would spoil the movie. But he did inform us that that this was the fifth soundtrack that the English indie band Tindersticks had produced for Denis and that Bastards would not be quite be as atmospheric without their pulsating score.

 

Chiara Mastroianni as the mistress.

Michel Subor as the businessman.

The film is prominently dark and with her regular DOP Agnes Godard placing her camera up close and personnel gives it a macabre noir feel. A film that can be described as a tragedy, which like any good tragedy involves suicide, murder, car crashes and revenge, but mainly it is shrouded and deeply imbedded with sex: normal, abusive and incestuous. Similar to Miss Violence (2013) its a harrowing, but slightly laboured film, one I’m glad I had the opportunity to see, I’m not sure if I would want to see it again, although it certainly may be clearer on repeated viewing’s?

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[1] Narrative by eye and not by ear, gestures and looks 35 Shots of Rum has little or no dialogue. The story is a tender but uncomfortable, almost incestuous relationship between a father and his daughter. The viewer may not realise that Lionel and Jo are actually father and daughter until its confirmed 20 minutes into the film. Based on the directors grandfathers relationship with her mother Claire Denis 2008 film is set in high rise blocks of flats in a suburb of Paris.

Something in the Air (Après Mai).

The English translation for Après Mai (2011) is ‘After May’. The May referred too is the one in 1968 when France erupted into volatile period of civil disquiet that began with student unrest and wildcat strikes followed by street battles with the authorities, a massive general strike involving 11,000,000 workers and the occupation of factories and universities. This action by the people of France lead to a governmental fear of a civil war or even a revolution, President Charles de Gaulle fleeing to the safety of a military base in Western Germany. It brought the entire advanced capitalist economy of France to a dramatic halt. This mini revolution eventually petered out with the violent confrontations evaporating and the workers returning to work. When new elections were held in the following June the Gaullist party emerged stronger than ever!

Director and writer Oliver Assayas latest outing is set near Paris, we have moved on 3 years from the heady days of 1968. But we are still dealing with students and their political activism. The main character is the 16-year-old Gilles (newcomer Clement Metayer) a leftist activist and budding painter with a taste for the Madcap Laughs of Syd Barrett who is prepared to act on his beliefs and take part in various forms of civil disobedience. We meet like-minded teenagers who belong to such collectives as Vive la revolution or the Youth Liberation Front and think they can change the world order. But they come up against not only the elite French bourgeoisie but also various left wing groupings that offer no support to the enthusiastic youngsters, as normal it appears impossible for the Left to be unified. (Something’s never change) Other characters involved in Gilles life and politics are the willowy bohemian Laure who is more of a hippy than a politicalised activist, his ultra serious girlfriend Christine (Bluebeard star Lola Creton) who, after a particularly nasty incident involving a security guard during a violent confrontation, goes travelling with a group of militant filmmakers and best friend Alain who takes up with Leslie an American dance student whom he accompanies  on a journey to Afghanistan.

The excitement of youth.

This adrenaline rush of a movie pays great attention to detail from the vinyl long player to the VW Camper Van via Molotov cocktails and slogan graffiti and does not hold back when demonstrating the brutality of the authorities representatives. How this semi autobiographical works makes you envy the freedoms afforded to youth during this period. In an interview with the director, conducted on behalf of The Guardian newspaper, he states that ‘the films motivation is the dynamics of the collective, likened to an anarchist organism, but at the expense of intimacy’. Which basically means that the ‘cause’ comes before anything else even your own personnel feelings.

 

The end justifies the means?

My only criticism is that the film merely hints at the real struggle: the inequalities of the working class. Where as our middle class academic students don’t really seem to want for anything, they walk the walk and talk the talk, but you can’t help but feel that most of them will end up as the bourgeoisie with well paid careers, a large semi detached, three privately educated children and croissants for breakfast. But all the same a great movie from the man that gave us Carlos the Jackal 2010, a five and a half hour masterpiece originally made for TV and the slow burning emotional study of a French family under stress Summer Hours (2008). 

Bluebeard.

Illustration by Gustave Dore 1862

The French author Charles Perrault was responsible for laying the foundations for what we now call Fairy Stories. Amongst his better-known works are Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty and of course his most frightening tale Bluebeard which he wrote in 1697. It tells the story of a violent nobleman whose wives had the habit of disappearing shortly after their wedding day. The character is said to have been based on Gilles de Rais a 15^th century nobleman, best friend of Joan of Arc the virgin of France and a prolific serial killer and paedophile, a man who was never charged with his crime’s because of his wealth and standing within the aristocracy: history tells us that this was not unusual.

Catherine Breillat.

Controversial French film director Catherine Breillat, best known for films focusing on female sexuality, intimacy, gender conflict and sibling rivalry, has turned Perrault three-page fairy story into a feature film Bluebeard (2009). She elects to tell the gruesome tale via two young sisters in the 1950’s who have hidden themselves in a forbidden attic room, the younger of the two, 5 year old Catherine, reads the story to her older sister in order to frighten her, the two, who constantly bicker and argue are then metaphorically transported into the story when we are taken back to 1697 where we find two more sisters, the youngest is 14 and the elder is 18 years old. The sudden death of their father forces them to leave the convent where they’re being educated and travel home, with little or no hope of marriage because a dowry is now non-existent. The local lord a wealthy aristocrat, feared and shunned by all because of his fearsome appearance invites the two sisters to a banquet with an offer of marriage for one of them even when there is no possibility of a settlement. The older sister Anne is terrified of the man but her younger sister Marie-Catherine takes an instant liking to this giant of a man finding him kind and considerate. Following her marriage she goes to live in his castle but within a short time Bluebeard tells her he must go away on business for a while however he gives her his keys informing her she can go any where in the Castle but under no circumstances is she to unlock and enter the store room under the castle. Promising she would comply with his wishes he sets off on his journey. But within a very short time curiosity gets the better of Marie and she descends the stairs to the forbidden room, unlocking the door she discovers a dreadful secret. When Bluebeard returns home he quickly discovers that his young wife has disobeyed his wishes and he must inflict the ultimate punishment. 

Mr and Mrs Bluebeard.

Originally made for Franco-German television with a very modest budget it was praised for its simplicity and directness. Breillat very clever reworking of this legend almost turn’s the brutal tale into a conventional love story with Marie-Catherine actually falling in love with Bluebeard. The director’s clever interpretation of this classic legend teases out the teenage adolescence of young girls and their early sexual desires, which the director explains in a very interesting interview. The story continues to fascinate little girls with its fairy tale format and its grotesque chamber of horrors. She goes on to say that there is a strange attraction to the man who will eventually kill you, without giving an explanation! It is also said that serial killers instantly know who will be their victims: some disturbing thoughts!

Lola Creton as Marie-Catherine.

Unusual for this director there is a lack of physical sex, but not of sexuality, the fresh blood on the floor of the secret chamber symbolizes the blood from Marie-Catherine impending loss of virginity. Her innocence and her most precious asset, her pure condition, protect her from the threat of immediate death. But in this latest version we find Bluebeard is actually captivated by his very young wife.

The film was shot in the Limousin area of France. The director did not want well known actors used in the production so she choose people from the local area and set up auditions in Paris to cast both sets of young girls. The stand out performance is from Lola Creton who is totally convincing as Bluebeard’s young spouse Marie-Catherine. The movie has a picture book feel, pictures that resemble paintings, ones you would have remembered from childhood. Tightly framed with even the smallest details controlled, the dialogue is almost incidental with the images telling us more than words can do following a principle that very young children can hardly read therefore children’s fairy story’s should be communicated with the use of colourful pictures. Breillat implies that the story is a sort of child immunisation preparing for the realities of grown up lives, underlining the horrors that can befall us all in adulthood, she explained it thus: children must face up to evil, its like an immunity, being exposed to germs at an early age can give you immunity in later life. Can’t wait to see this courageous directors take on Sleeping Beauty!

The End.