★★★☆☆
3 February 2014
This article is a review of BASTARDS. |
“I’ve come back for my niece,” Marco Silvestri (Vincent Lindon)
Master filmmaker Claire Denis (35 SHOTS OF RUM, WHITE MATERIAL) has made something even more grim and distant than TROUBLE EVERYDAY. Is BASTARDS her CHINATOWN? A French film noir dividing characters into victims and perpetrators. Not as grandiose or political as Polanski’s masterwork, it is in keeping however with Denis’ portrayal of intensely intimate friction between a small group of players.
Disjointed scenes are our entry into a bleak universe: A man kills himself, a young woman wanders a street naked, and Lindon’s supertanker captain Marco abandons ship. Called back by sister Sandra (Julie Bataille), Silvestri must contend with a disintegrating family situation. Control of a monstrous vessel is exchanged for anarchy. Sandra’s husband is the one who committed suicide, apparently because the family shoe business, inherited from the parents of Marco and Sandra, has collapsed, debt-ridden. Compounding the misery, it turns out Sandra’s daughter, Vincent’s niece, Justine (Lola Créton), was the naked woman, and is now in hospital, the victim of an assault. Justine’s physician, Dr Béthanie (Alex Descas), tells Marco that she needs an operation to repair her vagina. That is not a statement one ever wants to hear. All bets are off as to how dark BASTARDS will go.
Master filmmaker Claire Denis (35 SHOTS OF RUM, WHITE MATERIAL) has made something even more grim and distant than TROUBLE EVERYDAY. Is BASTARDS her CHINATOWN? A French film noir dividing characters into victims and perpetrators. Not as grandiose or political as Polanski’s masterwork, it is in keeping however with Denis’ portrayal of intensely intimate friction between a small group of players.
Disjointed scenes are our entry into a bleak universe: A man kills himself, a young woman wanders a street naked, and Lindon’s supertanker captain Marco abandons ship. Called back by sister Sandra (Julie Bataille), Silvestri must contend with a disintegrating family situation. Control of a monstrous vessel is exchanged for anarchy. Sandra’s husband is the one who committed suicide, apparently because the family shoe business, inherited from the parents of Marco and Sandra, has collapsed, debt-ridden. Compounding the misery, it turns out Sandra’s daughter, Vincent’s niece, Justine (Lola Créton), was the naked woman, and is now in hospital, the victim of an assault. Justine’s physician, Dr Béthanie (Alex Descas), tells Marco that she needs an operation to repair her vagina. That is not a statement one ever wants to hear. All bets are off as to how dark BASTARDS will go.
Marco ensconces himself in an apartment block, containing the mistress of Edouard Laporte (Michel Subor), after being told by Sandra that she believes him to be the culprit of their family financial meltdown. Though it is not clear at first his responsibility; over time the picture orients itself into understanding. Final discovery, like the best of the genre, will make you want to un-know. Comprehension comes at a price for Marco.
Too well-to-do to surveil at Laporte’s main residence it seems (the audience must guess at the scene leaps), Silvestri’s taciturn navy demeanour attracts the mistress, Raphaëlle (Chiara Mastroianni). Effectively a modern-day courtesan, half the age of Laporte, Marco’s sudden appearance rekindles lust. Mystery shadows his commencement of seduction: Is it cold calculation or the desire in him to be a gallant rescuer? Focused duty permeates Lindon’s performance. Is it bone-deep or guilt for household disaster on his watch? Engagingly every character is immersed in muddy motivation.
Eviscerating your own life to right a wrong, seguing into a desperation closing off options, makes for a forbidding cinematic experience.