By Roger Costa
THE SHROUDS
Master visionary filmmaker David Cronenberg is on his best form with this weirdly bizarre, sophisticated and strangely sexy sci-fi. Extremely unconventional and intentionally satirical, the Canadian director tackles the depths connecting technology and death, and how both can provide elevated doses of manipulation through a bold male character study. Vincent Cassel delivers an enigmatic performance as the protagonist, a former video producer turned entrepreneur and owner of a high-tech cemetery. There, rests his recently dead wife, leading him to a strange process of grieving: seduced by the most bizarre aspects of her death and its pathological process, he seeks answers through his delusional meetings, the disappearance of a mysterious doctor and his multiple sexual encounters. Diane Kruger plays a double role as Cassel’s wife’s corpse and as her sister, giving it all, in which seems to be one of the year’s most complex female performances.
Conjuring magnetic, stunning visuals to sinister sounds and precise editing, enhanced by the morbidly appealing and claustrophobic cinematography, Cronenberg maintains the audience intrigued and seduced throughout the entire narrative, while fully exploring the emotional turmoil of his hero, (including his ambition, flaws and pride) and his quest for relief- physical, emotional and professional.
Blending a mature romance under body-horror circumstances with a political/surveillance experiment, the film is an efficient, very sexy and authentic exercise of provocation.
(Sideshow/Janus Films. Now Playing at Film at Lincoln Center)
BLUE SUN PALACE
A winning, charming, deeply sensitive tale of immigration, love and loneliness, Constance Tsang’s intimate drama is one of the year’s most assured directorial debuts. Drawing from neo-realism influence, Tsang crafts a visually and sensorially appealing slowburn gem centered on the strong bond between four female co-workers of a massage spa in Queens. Though the film is seen through the feminine universe, it is a male character the conductor of the narrative, or at least, the core of its emotional impact. The film opens with two people having dinner and discussing the importance and value of spending time together. They develop a sudden romance, but an act of violence changes its course, and gives the film a different tone, a different and more profound direction.
Naturally capturing these relationships (between co-workers, clients, lovers) with incredible honesty and empathy, Tsang paints a modern portrait about chosen families, an off-key dramatic gem that plays like a melancholic jazz song encapsulated by gorgeous, meditative imagery. The film also serves as an important statement on immigrant values and the imminent threat of the American Dream. It’s the birth of a great cinematic auteur.
(Dekanalog. Now Playing at Film at Lincoln Center. Go to https://www.filmlinc.org/films/blue-sun-palace/ for details).
Comments