Amer (2009)
Country: FR/BEL
Technical: col/2.35:1 90m
Director: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Cast: Cassandra Forêt, Marie Bos, Biancamaria D'Amato
Synopsis:
A girl grows up in a villa on the Riviera tormented by nocturnal visions, including an old woman in black lace who tries to kill her. As a teenager with her mother she bears the leering regard of young male bikers. Finally, she returns to the villa as an adult, where former horrors come back to haunt her.
Review:
Any attempt to construe a narrative out of this hysterical slew of images is doomed to failure, and rightly so for it is not the makers' intention. Clearly they have set out to orchestrate an elaborate homage to giallo (particularly Dario Argento's films: black leather, empty houses, swinging shutters, razor blades, high heels, etc.) while at the same time refracting it through a case study of psychosis that perceives its own mounting madness through the mind of the psychotic rather than the victim. The viewer must give in to the succession of images, which are exquisitely shot but vary from the erotic to the formally beautiful, and from the playful to the downright unpleasant. An assortment of Italian movie soundtracks reinforces the impression of pastiche, but the splintered editing style is ironically more redolent of Borowczyk.
Country: FR/BEL
Technical: col/2.35:1 90m
Director: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Cast: Cassandra Forêt, Marie Bos, Biancamaria D'Amato
Synopsis:
A girl grows up in a villa on the Riviera tormented by nocturnal visions, including an old woman in black lace who tries to kill her. As a teenager with her mother she bears the leering regard of young male bikers. Finally, she returns to the villa as an adult, where former horrors come back to haunt her.
Review:
Any attempt to construe a narrative out of this hysterical slew of images is doomed to failure, and rightly so for it is not the makers' intention. Clearly they have set out to orchestrate an elaborate homage to giallo (particularly Dario Argento's films: black leather, empty houses, swinging shutters, razor blades, high heels, etc.) while at the same time refracting it through a case study of psychosis that perceives its own mounting madness through the mind of the psychotic rather than the victim. The viewer must give in to the succession of images, which are exquisitely shot but vary from the erotic to the formally beautiful, and from the playful to the downright unpleasant. An assortment of Italian movie soundtracks reinforces the impression of pastiche, but the splintered editing style is ironically more redolent of Borowczyk.
Country: FR/BEL
Technical: col/2.35:1 90m
Director: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Cast: Cassandra Forêt, Marie Bos, Biancamaria D'Amato
Synopsis:
A girl grows up in a villa on the Riviera tormented by nocturnal visions, including an old woman in black lace who tries to kill her. As a teenager with her mother she bears the leering regard of young male bikers. Finally, she returns to the villa as an adult, where former horrors come back to haunt her.
Review:
Any attempt to construe a narrative out of this hysterical slew of images is doomed to failure, and rightly so for it is not the makers' intention. Clearly they have set out to orchestrate an elaborate homage to giallo (particularly Dario Argento's films: black leather, empty houses, swinging shutters, razor blades, high heels, etc.) while at the same time refracting it through a case study of psychosis that perceives its own mounting madness through the mind of the psychotic rather than the victim. The viewer must give in to the succession of images, which are exquisitely shot but vary from the erotic to the formally beautiful, and from the playful to the downright unpleasant. An assortment of Italian movie soundtracks reinforces the impression of pastiche, but the splintered editing style is ironically more redolent of Borowczyk.