Carnage - and more
Added 7/23/2007
Great entertainment. But the DVD also has two enjoyable short early films of Director Delphine Gleize on it: "Sale Battars" which received the César for Best Short Film in 2000, and "Un Château en Espagne" which was chosen for the Directors Fortnight.
Sadly, no effort to get a live filmed interview with Gleize...
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Insert standard bull joke here.
Added 12/14/2006
Carnage (Delphine Gleize, 2002)
The last thing I expected from Carnage was that it would be such an amusing little movie. Gleize's conceit is a now-familiar one-- take one item and show the lives through which it passes-- but instead of taking one item and passing it whole (as in Robert Altman's famous series Gun), Gleize takes a bullfight from the movie's opening scenes, in which the bull himself is killed and the enthusiastic young toreador is horribly gored, winding up comatose and needing a new liver in the hospital. The bull is rendered, and the movie follows various pieces of the bull's remains, and the intertwining stories of the characters who end up with some of them.
Much has been made of the initial bullfighting scene, which is choreographed and shot in a beautiful, almost dreamlike manner. And while all the praise of that scene is justified, it eclipses the scene of the rendering a bit farther into the film. It has the same qualities, but they are applied to a much more mundane setting, and they are almost intensified in the application. It's an utterly fascinating, if short, scene, that gives some insight into Gleize's talent as a director.
As for the rest of the film, it's almost on, but not quite. It never seems to get a handle on what it wants to be, and thus pinballs from tragedy to silliness, with hefty doses of cleverness and with thrown in for good measure, as well as more than a modicum of coincidence (one can explain this away by the sort of magic-realism trope that seems inherent to this subgenre); while watching Carnage, you get the idea that there's a great film buried somewhere close to the surface, but that it is never quite realized. Still, what's here is usually fun; it's not a failure by any means. ** ½
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The Bull Still Has Powers
Added 10/2/2006
Carnage is a film that is set into motion, at the very beginning, when a young bullfighter is gored in the arena. The bullfighter and the bull exchange penetrations in this dance to the death. The bull is killed in the arena by the final sword wound while the young man falls into a coma. The bull is processed, as most bulls are, and his body moves out into the world in pieces.
The story then illustrates how we consume these animals. People come into contact with the bull's various body parts at a restaurant, at the grocery store, a taxidermist's workshop and a research lab. Each person's life seems to be `touched' by some sort of unexpected, seemingly miraculous event that brings change and transformation. The changes we see are at times brutal and inspirational.
The film was brilliant in the way that it handled classical subjects of mytho-poetics in an understated subtext. For those looking to understand the film on this level I would bring your attention to a young girl named Winnie who has an epileptic seizure early in the film; This can be read as the initiation of a Shaman who undergoes a symbolic "death and resurrection." It parallels the coma of the young bullfighter that was gored at the beginning.
After a series of amusing, disturbing and tragic events, in the lives of those who were touched by the bull, a final miracle resolves the crisis that initiated this story wheel. The bullfighter is resurrected by events put into motion by the bull's death and subsequent consumption. Thus the dance continues, made possible by an unspoken covenant between man and beast to do battle, die and then live again. As a witness to the magic in this dance, Winnie assimilates the bull's power in the end with a child's toy; she wears a pair of glowing, flashing horns as an audience member in the arena. She is a fountain of bliss and a function of nature's wonder.
Sage choices in editing and music along with a strong cast of actors brought this story to life. Delphine Gleize is a talented filmmaker right out of the gate. I would repeat the observation made earlier that this is not a film for everyone. It's a film in multiple languages and carved into different connected stories. If you enjoy straying off of the beaten path from time to time and enjoy foreign films, I highly recommend this.
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Trajectory: The Pulsing Global Balls of Coincidences
Added 10/1/2005
CARNAGE is a stunning film - though from the outset it should be made clear that it is not a film for all audiences. For those who cringe at gore, those who are frustrated by nonlinear storyline, and those who feel uncomfortable with magical realism - beware. This is a two-hour plus journey that demands concentration and suspension of belief to glean all of the multilayered meanings it holds.
Stylishly opening with the elegant dressing and preparation of a handsome young bullfighter discussing his incipient time in the ring with his father, the film moves into a the bull ring in Spain and while the young bullfighter is gored, a young girl watches in horror on a television in France. Thus the sequence of coincidences begins. The dead bull is dragged from the ring, butchered, and his various parts (meat to restaurants, horns to a taxidermist, testicles, eyes, etc) are sent to unrelated places in Spain, Belgium and France. Along the way we meet the child who observed the goring on television and discover she is epileptic and draws pictures where dogs are larger than humans (because her's is!), an actress searching for her center, a therapy group bonding and yielding primal screams while nude in a pool, a taxidermist who lives with his mother (the wondrous Esther Gorintin of 'Since Otar Left') and his estranged anatomist brother married to a woman pregnant with quintuplets (neither brother speaks to their damaged father), and so many more. Each of these characters encounters one form or other of the dead bull as food, souvenirs, gifts, etc: each time the consequences of these coincidences add greatly to the story.
Meanwhile our gored bullfighter lies in coma in need of a liver transplant and it is one of the various women touched by the bull's demise in some way that dies in an accident and becomes the saving liver donor to the young bullfighter. The manner in which all of these myriad coincidental effects of the original bullfight mesh (altered relationships, rejoined parent/child schisms, deaths, altered lives) are sewn tightly together by the end of this apparent conundrum of a story.
The cast is uniformly exceptional. The camera work and pacing are mesmerizing, making the willing eye of the viewer see far more than previously thought possible. Writer/Director Delphine Gleize is truly a talent to closely observe. The audience for this artwork may not be large, but for those souls seeking unique films this one is Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, September 05
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Truth is stranger than fiction...
Added 2/1/2005
While this film doesn't aspire to foist a "truth" upon the viewer, it perhaps best understood as an exercise in following a thread, seeing where it leads and how it intertwines with the different chracters presented in the film--interesting, but with inherent limitations. I give four stars for great casting, excellent music and cinematography, and scope of the issues covered. A good first film; hopefully things can only get better.
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