Denis Villeneuve, at this stage, can be sufficiently estimated as one of the most distinguished and visionary commercial directors of our era, so let us dive into his two earlier Canadian outputs, which have legitimately put his name on the map.
POLYTECHNIQUE is his third feature, a black-and-white reenactment of the deadly École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, on December 6, 1989, which left 14 women murdered. With its 77-minute length, it is a succinct, intense drama, and unlike Gus van Sant’s ELEPHANT (2003), it sends you shudders right out of the box when gunshots suddenly disrupt the pedestrian school life of École Polytechnique, an engineering school, blood splatter and panic erupts.
After that, the film rewinds back to an earlier time of this fateful day, we get a glimpse of the unnamed killer’s (Gaudette) motive, his targets are female feminists, but Villeneuve and his co-scribe deliberately keep a lid on the details, we don’t know what breeds his hatred, maybe the lowdown is still inconclusive (an incel before the digital age?), ergo, the film’s fulcrum is to deplore the dastardly act itself, regardless of its grounds.
Valérie (Vanasse) is one of the fortunate survivors of the ordeal (does she suffers from the survivor’s guilt?), and before that, she has a first taste of working-place sexism when she is interviewed for an internship, and her classmate Jean-François (Huberdeau) is also on the spot, being the stronger sex, he is spared by the killer with other males, but he seems to be the only one who shows some valor when all hell breaks loose. And after the fact, he is tormented by mounting guilt that he hadn’t done more to prevent the mass killing (a typical messiah complex), whose ramifications are immeasurably grave, varying from individual to individual.
Shot with an absorbing fluidity often with unconventional frames (like the topsy-turvy shot of the hallway), appending a bland positive note to the coda, and grappling with prickly subjects with conviction and tact, POLYTECHNIQUE is a dry run of Villeneuve’s next picture INCENDIES, a bi-continental truth-seeking drama that knocks you dead with a bang!
A modern-day Oedipus tale that beggars belief, INCENDIES is a riddle in two parts. In the wake of the passing of their mother Nawal Marwan (Azabal), an Arabic immigrant in Canada, twins Jeanne and Simon (Désormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette) are requested, upon Nawal’s will, to ferret out their father (whom they think is dead) and brother (whose existence is unbeknown to the twins hitherto) in the Middle East.
The narrative bifurcates and alternates between Nawal’s checkered past in her war-riddled fatherland (an unnamed country, but the events alluding to Lebanese Civil War, and her actions take a leaf from the book of a Lebanese woman Souha Bechara), and decades later, the twins’ journey (Jeanne goes first and Simon will join her later) to their provenance, to discover the inconceivable story of their parentage. As an audience, you are granted an advantage of first-hand information from Nawal’s POV, while the twins slavishly track down breadcrumbs, gather details in dribs and drabs, so the film hooks you by this tack, you are one step ahead in the game, until the riddle is solved, you are in utter shock, like the twins. If you think finding out they are the offspring of a rapist is a major hammer blow, you are too naive!
INCENDIES is everything one needs to show his competence as filmmaker, blaring out Radiohead’s monotonous jeremiad, Villeneuve bestrides the two narrative strands with precision and grit, Nawal’s traumatic experience is steadfastly devised to elicit a vicarious frisson of terror and her “the woman who sings” incarceration marks a heartfelt homage to a woman’s indestructible fortitude. However, the tricky part is the final reveal, and how those characters react to the bombshell, Azabal, who is superlatively good from A to Z, registers Nawal’s quiet implosion in fine fettle, but Désormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette’s philosophical acceptance leaves much to be desired.
Notably, in this Oedipus tale, Oedipus himself is relegated to a marginal place, it is his mother and children’s story to be told, and by doing so, Villeneuve potently denounces the warfare that germinates such unthinkable tragedy, and shows us religion can be a lifesaver, but also the scourge of partisanship. Both INCENDIES and POLYTECHNIQUE are conscience-driven works of art daring to look man-made atrocity straight in the eye, and raring to urge audience to make their own unaffected judgment, although, for me, it would take an oceanic effort to rewatch them, precisely, once is enough, I dare you.
referential entries: Gus van Sant’s ELEPHANT (2003, 8.1/10); Villeneuve’s PRISONER (2013, 8.1/10); Xavier Dolan’s I KILLED MY MOTHER (2009, 7.1/10).
Title: Polytechnique
Year: 2009
Country: Canada
Language: French
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve, Eric Leca, Jacques Davidts
Music: Benoît Charest
Cinematography: Pierre Gill
Editing: Richard Comeau
Cast:
Karine Vanasse
Maxim Gaudette
Sébastien Huberdeau
Evelyne Brochu
Pierre Leblanc
Johanne-Marie Tremblay
Pierre-Yves Cardinal
Rating: 7.3/10
Title: Incendies
Year: 2010
Country: Canada, France
Language: French, Arabic, English
Genre: Drama, Mystery, War
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve, Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne
based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad
Music: Grégoire Hetzel
Cinematography: André Turpin
Editing: Monique Dartonne
Cast:
Lubna Azabal
Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin
Maxim Gaudette
Rémy Girard
Abdelghafour Elaaziz
Allen Altman
Baya Belal
Dominique Briand
Majida Hussein
Nabil Koni
Rand Faris
Nabil Sawalha
Baraka Rahmani
Mohamed Majd
Rating: 7.9/10
半夜深受失眠的折磨,于是爬起来看了《焦土之城》,这是一部适合深夜独自一人安静欣赏的电影。看到一半,甚至一大半,我都认为这是一部关于宗教和战争的电影,直到电影结束,得知真相的我久久不能从如同被人莫名打了一巴掌的震惊中恢复过来,对,这种状态叫做“失语”。与其说这是一部关于战争和宗教的电影,更是一部讲述在战争背景下一个女人荒诞又悲惨的一生的故事。
电影通过双胞胎为完成母亲的遗愿寻找父亲和哥哥的过程中不断插叙35年前母亲苦苦寻求儿子的过程中发生的一切,时空的交替切换让整个故事的真相浮出水面,与此同时,带来的也是触目惊心的残酷。
【唱歌的女人】
35年前,在一个南方小镇,身为基督教徒的纳娃玛文与穆斯林难民相恋怀孕,两个有着严重冲突的种族怎么可能在那个战乱时期和睦相处,纳娃的行为让玛文家族蒙羞,在相约私奔的那天,恋人被哥哥一枪爆头之后,走投无路的纳娃接受了奶奶的安排:生下孩子,孤身前往达黑什进入学校学习法语,而孩子则被送到当地的孤儿院。战火纷飞,终有一天烧到了南方的小镇,纳娃始终牵挂着自己的儿子,于是在一个清晨,她踏上了回乡寻子之路,一路上,纳娃看到的都是备受战火摧残的焦土,穆斯林报复基督徒,攻打了整个小镇,她亲眼目睹激进的基督徒扫射了满满一车的穆斯林并放火焚烧,在一幕幕惨剧之下,纳娃站到了穆斯林的一边,利用给右派基督教民兵首领儿子当家教的机会,刺杀了首领,但是代价是沉重的——纳娃玛文被关在卡法利亚特监狱长达15年,15年间她在狭小的囚犯受尽折磨,她被称为72号房囚徒,被称为唱歌的女人,被专门折磨囚犯的Abou Tarek强暴怀孕生下了双胞胎珍玛文和西蒙玛文,当珍追溯到这里时,原本认为穆斯林难民是父亲的双胞胎才知道Abou Tarek才是自己的父亲。
【消失的父亲和哥哥】
在穆斯林攻打小镇时,没有放过任何一个基督徒,除了孤儿院里的孩子,这就是电影一开始慢镜头播放的内容,穆斯林首领占西丁带走了孤儿院的孩子并收编进穆斯林的武装阵营接受训练,纳娃的儿子尼哈德也在其中,并成为了一名优秀的穆斯林狙击手。尼哈德也在寻找母亲,为此甘愿成为一名烈士,这样他的照片就可以遍布全国,让母亲看到,但最后,敌方入侵,训练他成为一名基督徒,并将其送到了卡法利亚特监狱看管囚犯,同时,尼哈德改名成为Abou Tarek……
【寻找父亲和哥哥的双胞胎】
妹妹目睹了母亲精神失常的过程,所以在寻找父亲的这件事情上比西蒙积极得多,一开始认为母亲是疯了的西蒙最后也在妹妹的行动的鼓励下踏上了寻找哥哥的过程,在先得知真相的西蒙神色恍惚反复念叨“一加一,能等于一吗?”时,珍突然大惊失色倒吸一口凉气,真相来得如此猝不及防,我只猜对了双胞胎是Abou Tarek的孩子,万万没想到也是他的弟弟妹妹……
最后尼哈德收到了来自纳娃的两封信,一封写给父亲,一封写给哥哥,我难以洞悉尼哈德在看完这两份信之后将会以什么样的心情生活下去,但肯定如他母亲讲的,他将会消沉下去。战争和历史的悲剧让哥哥成为了父亲,我都不敢去想任何一个当事人的心情,这沉重的悲伤萦绕在我的心头,不敢回看第二遍……
真相残酷,逝去母亲的三封信力道十足,但在一起最美的说法难以让人内心释怀。很完美的电影,只是对于角色的悲剧性命运简单的归罪于历史的错误,编导的这种做法实在有待商贾。致使观众进入故事容易,想走出来就难了。★★★★
如果《老男孩》让人觉得变态,那么跟此片一比简直不值一提。
重要提醒:此片剧透了就无法看
停留在“失语”的状态里,去除掉那个惊世骇俗Astonished的结局,这都会是一部伟大的电影。恍惚间我去理解一加一的意义和有些神谕的这种错乱的时候,跟那个女儿一样,差点就喊出来。宗教让人痴迷,战争让人扭曲,自始至终不会少的爱充斥在两者之间,让一切都变得可以理喻。佳片。
非常喜欢这部电影。双线叙事的结构,娓娓道来,情绪到最后积累成一个震撼性的结局。虽然探讨的是宗教,政治,军事,恐怖分子,但关切的却是个人——一个母亲,那段被历史所绵长的一生,平淡而克制的叙述,却隐忍着强大的情感内核,直到最后一刻爆发,于是,观众被震慑住了,长久地处于这种情绪中无法自
✪93//娜瓦尔对爱的理解是去系统化的,对信教的家族来说,发生与异教间的爱情是肮脏;对民族主义者来说,异教的难民是要清除的污垢;而对于娜瓦尔,她珍视生命、相信普适的爱,不受意见体系的禁锢,认为只是毁灭与杀戮肮脏,事物只要是因爱而生的便是纯净。娜瓦尔在池边近乎木讷地释然,她把孩子看作爱的结晶,就可以坚信孩子生来美丽,其他因系统冲突而差生的污秽都可以原谅;通过她的孩子们对母亲命运的体会,沉默被打破,身份与环境的不协调、洁净和肮脏的冲突、爱与恨的矛盾间,意外地出现了一种看起来像是无奈、又像是和解的心境,结果是命运可能性的残忍被揭露,而人之情感进入平和状态的机会被揭示。
极具震撼力的杰作。1.废墟之城,道德荒原,宗教仇杀,残酷乱世,古典悲剧。2.维伦纽瓦的冷峻节制深得我心,避免煽情,以隐忍内敛笔触带出伤痛。3.1+1=1来自老塔[乡愁]。4.双线叙事,Radiohead配乐。5.唱歌的女囚,脚上的三点刺青。6.无言以对是对所有真相的响应 | 没有什么比相守相伴更美好的了。(9.0/10)
无法解释母亲这样做的动机,使得整部电影最终的主题表达显得很荒唐。整个寻找的过程其实是不断挖掘恨意的过程,所谓的爱在哪里?对母亲第一个爱人的交代几乎没有。影片过分追逐剧情的奇情,反而让批判的力度大大减弱,母亲无非是把自己心中的那份恨意,又传递给了双胞胎而已。
枪声震碎一个本该幸福的家庭,战火燃烧一座无辜之城,俄狄浦斯的悲剧在这上演,每个人将面对的,是内心的炼狱和刑罚。影片结尾用三封信稀释了壮阔的悲剧,但是却在每个观者心中铺上焚城后的焦土。喜欢战争片,猜到结局但依然深深震撼。影片仿佛有一只巨大的手推动着你接近寻找的真相,真相却最难将息。
两代人寻觅的身影叠画成一个爱与黑暗的故事,时空在这片焦土上汇合,她一生的故事,用一生寻找的爱,竟在硝烟中开出荼毒恶之花;用生命保卫的秘密,用死亡消解的罪孽,用尽力气告诉我爱你;得知真相的一刻,如2049木马在手,重温回望如摸索维伦纽瓦风格渐成之路。
开头震撼的RADIOHEAD慢镜直接将人带入情绪,另外电影中有一个镜头母亲的侧面神似PATTI SMITH,后方熊熊烈火燃烧着大巴车,特别美
悲苦的女人啊!另,加拿大移民的过去真的好神秘阿。。
这个结尾也太狗血剧情了吧,其实这东西有BUG,不过以讨论剧情就剧透了,自己看吧。借寻亲去讲一段痛苦的历史,两个时空反复转换,相比之下,故事随着真相的接近而变得更有趣了。
这才是寻找她妈的故事
看到1小时15分一下悟到结局,就像拼图骤然清晰。对母亲的动机设置感到难于赞同。真正的爱是沉默与承担,独自吞咽和消化,是我的苦难今日在我身上清算和截止,绝不会强制性的让一双儿女踏上对痛苦抽丝剥茧的继承之旅。如果导演让母亲瞒下惊天真相,带着秘密离世,由儿女主动追寻谜底,结局会更震撼。
四星半。真正的希腊悲剧,层层剥落后直指人心。面对真相,唯有沉默。看过越想越悲伤。。。
用伦理悲剧折射宗教战争,主题严肃、深刻,但故事毕竟狗血,所以,在影像、叙事上,采取极度克制、避免一切廉价煽情的手法,相当明智。缺点是略沉闷。烧车、枪杀小女孩那场……最见功力。
好久好久没有看到这样一个让人震惊到愕然,并扼腕叹息的故事,(或许它有些太过戏剧和巧合)一个女人爱与奇迹的史诗。宗教信仰的冲突可以烈火焚城,但绵延几十年的亲情谁也无法阻隔,“世界上最好的事,就是在一起”。22号美国上映一定再去捧场一遍,太精彩了。这届的外语片水准真不错!
实话说,一点不觉得假,因为母亲和儿子都太努力了,总有一天他们会想见,而且在这种环境之下,一定会是以最残酷的方式。彻头彻尾的古希腊悲剧,交叉叙事。一般片子只会使用一种悬念营造方式,要不就是观众知道剧中人不知道,要不就是二者都不知道,这部片子两个都用到了,给人以双重震惊。两封信很妙
一个女人的史诗 看完以后让人恍如隔世