Fantastic Fest 09: TRUFFE Review

A hidden gem from our Canadian back yard - the film had its world premiere at Montreal's Fantasia Festival before heading south of the border for a US bow at Fantastic Fest -  Nguyen's Truffe calls to mind the Delicatessen era of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, creating a deliriously off-kilter world for his cast of characters to play in. Nguyen butts images of the deeply absurd up against the immediately familiar to create a totally unique experience, a world anchored by the quietly grounded performances of Roy Dupuis and Celine Bonnier -- also a couple in real life -- as their surroundings spin increasingly out of control. From backyard mushroom mines to the brilliantly lo-fi mind-control fur creatures to gangs of brainwashed door to door salesmen spreading through the neighborhood with full sized, vintage refrigerators strapped to their backs, Truffe is a true visual delight - a film that delights the eye just as its subject delights the tongue.

Roy Dupuis anchors the film with the sort of quiet charisma that has marked his entire career, a presence that makes the entire project feel surprisingly grounded and real - even as it spins farther and farther into bizarre science fiction territory.  With his sly sense of humor and striking visual style director Nguyen is surely one of the great undiscovered talents working in North America today, a man blessed with the ability to spin completely convincing alternate worlds out of next to nothing.  Thanks to a series of business collapses and buyouts along the production and distribution chain - economic troubles that had nothing at all to do with this particular film,, but which it very much became a victim of - Truffe is very much in danger of become a lost film in its native Canada.  Thank god for events like this which allow it to be discovered.