La vie de Jésus (1997)
(Life of Jesus)
Country: FR
Technical: col 96m
Director: Bruno Dumont
Cast: David Douche, Marjorie Cottreel, Kader Chaatouf
Synopsis:
Somewhere in Eastern France young men in a small town spend their summer riding their mopeds, baiting the local Arab boy and playing the drums in the town band.
Review:
From the held opening shot of the main protagonist's impassive face behind his helmet visor as he speeds his way along country lanes, this is a film of vast empty spaces whose impact gains from their cumulative effect. Everything is filmed with the same steady naturalist's gaze, the wide aspect ratio and lack of music adding to the sense of stasis; close-ups and wide steady tracks alternate as the characters interact (or fail to) and wander around town. The persistent buzz of their low capacity bikes is set off by slow cranes as they recede into the distance or long horizon shots. The film charts the descent into depravity of its epileptic antihero, as he brutalizes his girlfriend, molests a fat girl in the band and kills his Arab rival. His climactic tears as he stares up at the sun passing behind a cloud are as inarticulate as the policeman's gaze at the end of L'Humanité, which the film resembles in several respects. It's all very depressing, but curiously gripping.
(Life of Jesus)
Country: FR
Technical: col 96m
Director: Bruno Dumont
Cast: David Douche, Marjorie Cottreel, Kader Chaatouf
Synopsis:
Somewhere in Eastern France young men in a small town spend their summer riding their mopeds, baiting the local Arab boy and playing the drums in the town band.
Review:
From the held opening shot of the main protagonist's impassive face behind his helmet visor as he speeds his way along country lanes, this is a film of vast empty spaces whose impact gains from their cumulative effect. Everything is filmed with the same steady naturalist's gaze, the wide aspect ratio and lack of music adding to the sense of stasis; close-ups and wide steady tracks alternate as the characters interact (or fail to) and wander around town. The persistent buzz of their low capacity bikes is set off by slow cranes as they recede into the distance or long horizon shots. The film charts the descent into depravity of its epileptic antihero, as he brutalizes his girlfriend, molests a fat girl in the band and kills his Arab rival. His climactic tears as he stares up at the sun passing behind a cloud are as inarticulate as the policeman's gaze at the end of L'Humanité, which the film resembles in several respects. It's all very depressing, but curiously gripping.
(Life of Jesus)
Country: FR
Technical: col 96m
Director: Bruno Dumont
Cast: David Douche, Marjorie Cottreel, Kader Chaatouf
Synopsis:
Somewhere in Eastern France young men in a small town spend their summer riding their mopeds, baiting the local Arab boy and playing the drums in the town band.
Review:
From the held opening shot of the main protagonist's impassive face behind his helmet visor as he speeds his way along country lanes, this is a film of vast empty spaces whose impact gains from their cumulative effect. Everything is filmed with the same steady naturalist's gaze, the wide aspect ratio and lack of music adding to the sense of stasis; close-ups and wide steady tracks alternate as the characters interact (or fail to) and wander around town. The persistent buzz of their low capacity bikes is set off by slow cranes as they recede into the distance or long horizon shots. The film charts the descent into depravity of its epileptic antihero, as he brutalizes his girlfriend, molests a fat girl in the band and kills his Arab rival. His climactic tears as he stares up at the sun passing behind a cloud are as inarticulate as the policeman's gaze at the end of L'Humanité, which the film resembles in several respects. It's all very depressing, but curiously gripping.