in Calm downAlbert Serra and Benoit Magimel abandon themselves to Polynesian slumber in a film that oscillates between hypnotic fantasy and powerful narcolepsy.
Discovered in 2006 with Honor KnightsVery personal re-read Don QuixoteSince then, Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra has traced a unique furrow so prominently, which he exploited in Casanova’s memoir The story of my deathOr that he attaches himself to the Sun King The death of Louis XIVWith the amazing Jean-Pierre Laud. Reasonable development Calm down Today we see him dealing with a contemporary topic, without radically changing the feel of cinema.
French Polynesia, and Tahiti more accurately, provide its enchanting setting for this drama that drifts lazily towards a paranoid thriller. This is where we discover De Roller (Benoît Magimel), High Commissioner of the Republic, an uncommunicative and brilliant man who surveys islands of nightclub receptions, from surf spots to casual get-togethers. Dedicated to his job, even though he feels abandoned by the hierarchy, and available—”If I can help…—if nothing else; also attentive to local gossip. Namely, this report indicates a possible imminent resumption of nuclear testing, in which the small community soon falls into the grip of a certain excitement. Finally, it means all relatives, since for the most part nothing happens At all, or very little happens, a feeble boat that takes young women, overnight, to an unknown destination—a submarine?—or the disappearance of a visitor’s Portuguese passport forms the climax of the slow-moving narrative…
The disintegration of the world
Albert Serra, in the film’s press release, explains that he was a particular inspiration when writing the film’s screenplay Memories of the actress of Polynesian origin, Tarita Teribayawho for ten years was Marlon Brando’s companion, and the contrast that appears there between original purity and modern corruption. althoug, Calm down Not re-read Muharram De Murnau, even if the director is interested in returning his story to a larger canvas, between the remnants and continuation of colonialism, geostrategic issues and the disintegration of a world that contemplates its disappearance. It probably thrills that the film only scratches the surface, sticking, for the most part, to the hazy rumination (connection, right, with the world’s incomprehensibility) blurred by Magimel that develops in this milieu. Opaque in a near dazed state – more fossil than mineral at the end. Separate composition for a film about the lysergic experimenta journey into an uncharted cinematic universe whose episodic plastic brilliance is not always enough to overcome boredom: between hypnotic fantasy and powerful suspense, the thread is sometimes tenuous…
