A Little Bit of Horror in Paris…
With the explosion of a genre stunner that’s going to trigger
some serious shock waves: StarryEyes
A little bit of horror in Paris with
the Paris International Fantastic Film Festival that just wound up its 4th
year!
A little bit of horror… But too
little, far too little in the end! If it’s true that globalization pushes creative
movie products and works to the sidelines, French distributors’ heroic blinkered
attitude toward genre films, which are constantly growing, makes you wonder! Showing
hastily subtitled copies of John Dies at
the End and All Cheerleaders Die
was, from this standpoint, an unbelievable challenge for PIFFF during its previous
years… The possibility of offering us stock cinema horror in 2014 has been
reduced even more. Yet the audience is there, always in greater numbers, eager,
loyal… Cult screenings, X-rated, out of competition or in competition, evening
or afternoon, genre film fans filled the Gaumont Opéra movie theater, just a
few minutes from the Paris Opera house.
Out of the eighteen movies
shown, only eight were in competition. The festival’s highlight was the fantastic
“Alien Invasion” night from 11PM to 7AM with: Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Philip Kaufman, The Blob by Chuck Russell, They Live by John Carpenter and Killer Klowns from Outer Space by
Stephen Chiodo. Great movies all, but nothing very new. Whether it was French
rigidity or this still young festival’s poor visibility, no world-wide premiere
found its way into the selections.
Two fun nightmares, a delirious pseudo S&M, a trashy trip in
the everyday life of a video journalist and the appalling transformation of an
aspiring actress into a star without a soul, here is a brief summary of what we
could have seen during these horrific Parisian screenings…
The Cult Screenings:
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) Wes Craven - 91 min
Re-released in theaters and
presented at PIFFF with a perfect copy for its thirtieth anniversary, A Nightmare on Elm Street was certainly
one of the best moments festivalgoers experienced. This top-notch horror film, winner
of the Critic Award at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in 1985, still
surprises by the tension it establishes from one end of the movie to the other
and by the imaginative insanity it displays. Right from the tense and biting
first scene with opening credits, shivers thrill through us… The movie’s impact
on the big screen is phenomenal and Wes Craven’s genius fantastically powerful;
Craven is never better than when he films our nightmares as being the sole and
unique reality: We are awe-struck by Tina’s disembowelment and levitation, we are
staggered by Nancy’s fall into the bottomless pit that her bathtub has become
and, most of all, we are literally petrified by the horrendous carnage committed
in the bedroom of Nancy’s boyfriend where a young Johnny Depp, playing her immature
lover, turns into a geyser of blood before changing into a torrent, then into a
swimming pool full of blood and gore. These mind-blowing scenes are pure
moments of madness and filmmaking genius. Moments of rare visual and emotional
beauty. A Nightmare On Elm Street still
remains today just as surprising, terrifying and exhilarating. In the same style, one has seldom done as
well since.
WAKE IN FRIGHT (1971) Ted Kotcheff - 108 min
Shown in the festival with a
restored copy after long years in limbo (there were no VHS or DVD releases or
TV airings, nothing that would have made it possible to build up this fierce,
exceptional movie’s reputation), Wake in
Fright has been released in theaters and finally shines forth in all of its
voracious, nihilistic and frightening splendor.
With this movie, the director of
First Blood puts us alongside John
Grant, a polished “Rambo” who takes on the appearance of a young teacher on his
way to Sydney to find his fiancée in an arid Australia where the feeling of isolation
and insecurity rival with stupidity, idleness and cruelty. After stopping at
Bundanyabba, a small town where he’s going to get bogged down in a gambling
addiction, forced alcoholism, sexual brutality, the slaughter of kangaroos and
self disgust, Grant is going to return to his home, back to square one, without
managing to make it to Sydney…
By showing us the tragic path taken
by his sleek, conformist hero, Ted Kotcheff reveals the fine line that
separates humanity from animality and the point where loss of morality and
survival merge: An arduous and intimate trip in the revolting lands of human
disgust!
The X-Rated Screening:
R100
(2013) Hitoshi Matsumoto - 100 min
R100, whose title refers to the Japanese system of movie
classification (understand here that this movie is off limits to any moviegoers
under the age of 100), is an “X-rated” comedy, half-absurd, half-cartoonesque with
parallel plots and scenes of people in the audience commenting on the movie,
apparently to muddle the story. The film is about an ordinary man who signs a
one-year contract (with no breach possible) to get roughed up by delectable
creatures. Frightened by the painful and dangerous onslaughts these eccentric dominatrixes
inflict on him every day, the man ends up breaching his contract at the risk of
his life.
The inclusion of short sequences
revealing possible questions the audience might have about the show it’s
watching confirms the idea of a movie by staging the fantasized reality of a
hero who’s suffering and not his real life… All these women, torrid and cruel,
are in fact the fruit of his imagination! Through them, the hero gives his
tormented mind the punishments it deserves all the better to get closer to the
woman he loves and who now lives hooked up to an artificial respirator! The
movie ends with the idea that a maximum threshold of suffering would explode
all rationality, making this man even capable of giving birth…
Is R100 screwy? Oh, yeah, big time! Yet we remain outside of what is
happening on the screen… Having said that, there are a few striking moments in
the movie, like its superb introduction with this fascinating creature who is primping
in front of a mirror… or the grotesque dance of the “queen of spit” who inadvertently
kills herself plus the irresistible whip attack by the amazing Lindsay Kay
Hayward, the movie’s real revelation… But the lack of pace, suspense,
provocation and outrages (no scandalous scenes interrupt the comfort the story
settles into), when coupled with the movie’s complex meaning make R100 a lovely objet, somewhat cold and
nonconventional, but rather boring.
Out of Competition:
NIGHTCRAWLER
(2014) Dan Gilroy - 117 min
Released as Night Call in France, Nightcrawler,
screenwriter Dan Gilroy’s first feature film is a tour de force. It’s a thriller, day scenes were shot in 35mm and night
scenes in digital. Scope was added in a lab.
Action takes place in Los
Angeles. The hero, Lou Bloom, is a petty thief who finds his calling by selling
shock video footage to local TV stations. His ambition, supported by a successful
beginning and questionable methods, gradually turns into an obsession…
Nightcrawler is an hypnotic movie totally driven by an impressive Jake
Gyllenhaal. The actor, who produced the film, gives 200% of himself in a role
of chilling ambiguity. Less charming and rougher than Tom Cruise’s Vincent in Collateral (the two movies are somewhat
related particularly in the atmosphere they generate), Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou hides,
behind his good-natured smile, a predatory being that’s purely sadistic. Since the
actor Gyllenhaal is very likable, we accept Lou’s true face and his flaws.
In the movie, we follow the path
of Lou, a sorry ass loser who struggles to find a job and is forced to steal to
survive… Up until the day he happens upon an accident and sees two reporter-scavengers
specialized in shooting shock footage that, once sold, will be shown on local
TV stations’ major shows. Driven by an evident thirst for revenge, by a definite
liking for risk and a remarkable sense of initiative, Lou sees his chance,
seizes it and builds the future he wants as a video journalist. Quicker and
smarter than the average person, Lou learns and calculates everything in a
flash. He’s out of place, he surprises, he even manages to reach his goal, but
once all his efforts are rewarded, he knowingly proves unworthy of what he
receives and sets out to enslave all those who helped him on his way up: To
make her his thing, he humiliates the woman he desires (René Russo’s
magnificent) and sacrifices his only friend, hastening his death… He becomes monstrous
and bluntly reveals his true nature: “And what if I didn’t have communication problems
with people… In fact, what if I didn’t even like them!” he concludes as his
“best” friend dies in front of him.
Besides Lou’s fantastic
character and Gilroy’s brilliant directing, one of the movies most interesting
aspects lies in this unbelievable feeling we have of living through certain
events as though they were real news items suddenly inviting themselves into
the story without having been asked. In this regard, the murders perpetrated in
the villa, the shootout in the fast food restaurant and the amazing chase
through the streets of Los Angeles are impressive in their realism and
efficiency.
One of the other fascinating things
about the movie is the vision it portrays of our cannibalistic society; of the
alarming insecurity in which individuals struggle and the callousness the hero
displays to get ahead (which he succeeds in doing very well). If Lou’s
character has no empathy, doesn’t the system as it exists in our societies
today contribute to the emergence of this kind of person? Using Jake Gyllenhaal’s
character, the movie clearly puts the question out there and warns us.
In Competition:
STARRY EYES
(2014) KEVIN KOLSCH / DENNIS WIDMYER - 96 min
Starry Eyes is the second feature film by the duo Kolsch–Widmyer, who
also directed Absence released in
2009.
Starry Eyes tells about the descent into hell of one Sarah Walker, an
aspiring actress who is ready to do whatever it takes to get her name on the
top of the bill. Sarah lands an audition likely to open the doors to glory, but
to get the part she covets, she has to pay a high price by submitting to the
wishes of a strange sect that holds the keys to power in Hollywood.
Shot with a Red Camera in Los
Angeles over a period of 18 days, the movie benefits from a solid screenplay,
directing that is spot on and incisive, a cinematography more than well-crafted
and fabulous actors including the brilliant Alexandra Essoe in the title role
of Sarah and the extraordinary Maria Olsen as the casting director, the pawn of
a libidinous producer.
Alexandra Essoe, the outstanding
actress playing Sarah, literally bares all in the role of this fragile beauty
suffering from trichotillomania (the compulsive urge to pull out one’s hair)
and determined to sell her soul. She becomes just as disgusting outside as inside
after having inflicted the worst on herself and having accepted the
inacceptable. Very Faustian, the character undergoes multiple physical
transformations according to her psychological malaise and her mental and
bodily suffering. Sarah is pushed in her descent to hell by a woman who could
be her mother and whose character, played by Maria Olsen, has a central place
in the story. In fact, this woman is going to catch Sarah pulling out her hair in
a ladies’ restroom and decides to let her pass another audition so she can make
her dreams come true. She’s the one who is going to warn her about what she
will bring upon herself if she refuses to follow the rules… She is also going
to encourage her to prostitute herself. This severe-looking woman, who sees
everything and knows everything, is her true catalyst. She represents the
maternal authority that Sarah is deprived of. She is the one who could
positively guide the heroine and would almost be tempted to do so, as a certain
gleam in her eyes suggests when Sarah sees the producer for the second time. A
sententious mother, a possible protector, a rival, a confidante? The character
is all those things and Maria Olsen recreates them fantastically. When Sarah
chooses glory and, with it, to sell her soul by joining the sect, the character
of this fictitious “mother” disappears…
Sublime, radical and atrocious,
Sarah’s metamorphoses captivate and repel. The movie’s high point takes place
in the last half hour when Sarah takes control of the story by becoming the
story, and by giving herself what she wants more than anything else: to be a star,
even if that means being responsible for an unprecedented massacre. The
communicative elation with which the heroine gets revenge on her entourage
(especially her oblivious and futile roomie friends) and the memorable, endless
carnage she delights us with, offers one of those intense movie moments that
remain etched in our memories for a long time.
With the theme of the actor who
dreams of glory and gets tangled up in his fantasy world, Starry Eyes is somewhat related to Black Swan (which deals more with the performer’s schizophrenia)
and especially Mulholland Drive (more
oriented toward rivalries, the quest for recognition and absolute love). Just
like the latter film, Starry Eyes
attacks the Hollywood star system and the monstrosities it engenders. But even
though its criticism of Hollywood is admittedly heavy-handed, the movie is more
satirical and the presentation of the cheap sect that constrains Sarah to prostitute
herself (the sect represents temptation and the base instincts that lie dormant
in Sarah) is resolutely symbolic. As for horror, it’s well rooted in reality, brutal
and straightforward. The directors confide having been more influenced by the
French trash horror wave (Frontier, Martyrs) and Polanski than by Lynch or
Cronenbeg.
Starry Eyes is therefore a real little cluster bomb that has already
had a lot of press since being shown in festivals. I would bet that the shock
wave effect it produces isn’t about to stop.
Emilie Flory.
English translation by Cameron
Watson.
