TIFF 2011: CARRE BLANC Review
Jean-Baptiste Leonetti's brilliant Carre Blanc is, quite simply, one of the most self assured and confidant debut films in years. It marks the arrival of a singular talent, one who arrives on the scene with an immediately recognizable and distinctive aesthetic. Just one film into what will hopefully be a long and thriving career and Leonetti is already very clearly an auteur in the fullest sense of the word.
Shot through with pitch-black humor as it fuses influences ranging from Orwell, Huxley, Kafka and Tarkovsky to create a stark image of a dystopic near-future society choking on the absurdity of consumerism and corporate supremacy, Carre Blanc cloaks a devastatingly raw emotional core in a flawlessly composed and controlled shell.
We first meet Philippe as a young teen just moments before his mother throws herself from their apartment balcony, her suicide accompanied by the sound of the omnipresent loudspeaker announcements promoting teen pregnancy and the moral benefits of croquet. It's a move that leaves young Philippe orphaned and at the mercy of the State, the young man taken away to be molded into a productive member of society.
And while Philippe becomes exactly that the question is whether this is something that should be aspired to at all. Wherever you look there is the brightly polished sheen of perfection but there is also the sense of rot just beneath the surface, of an omnipresent fear and desperation. As long as you remain useful life will be fine but slip even the tiniest little bit ...
Leonetti crafts his film with cold precision, every frame impeccably captured and every movement tightly controlled. Bringing life to Leonetti's frames are the devastating performances by Sami Bouajila as the adult Philippe and Julie Gayet as his wife, Marie, who he met and fell in love with when the pair were in the school for orphans together. The tension between them - Philippe burying his feelings beneath the clinical exterior required to stay alive, Marie's facade increasingly crumbling as she simply ceases to care - provides the film with its emotional core and a sense of unease, of the dread that comes from knowing that soon something will break and the consequences will be dramatic.
A nearly flawless film, one that rewards every bit as much as it challenges, Carre Blanc is quite simply one of the very best of the year and an introduction to an astounding new talent.
Shot through with pitch-black humor as it fuses influences ranging from Orwell, Huxley, Kafka and Tarkovsky to create a stark image of a dystopic near-future society choking on the absurdity of consumerism and corporate supremacy, Carre Blanc cloaks a devastatingly raw emotional core in a flawlessly composed and controlled shell.
We first meet Philippe as a young teen just moments before his mother throws herself from their apartment balcony, her suicide accompanied by the sound of the omnipresent loudspeaker announcements promoting teen pregnancy and the moral benefits of croquet. It's a move that leaves young Philippe orphaned and at the mercy of the State, the young man taken away to be molded into a productive member of society.
And while Philippe becomes exactly that the question is whether this is something that should be aspired to at all. Wherever you look there is the brightly polished sheen of perfection but there is also the sense of rot just beneath the surface, of an omnipresent fear and desperation. As long as you remain useful life will be fine but slip even the tiniest little bit ...
Leonetti crafts his film with cold precision, every frame impeccably captured and every movement tightly controlled. Bringing life to Leonetti's frames are the devastating performances by Sami Bouajila as the adult Philippe and Julie Gayet as his wife, Marie, who he met and fell in love with when the pair were in the school for orphans together. The tension between them - Philippe burying his feelings beneath the clinical exterior required to stay alive, Marie's facade increasingly crumbling as she simply ceases to care - provides the film with its emotional core and a sense of unease, of the dread that comes from knowing that soon something will break and the consequences will be dramatic.
A nearly flawless film, one that rewards every bit as much as it challenges, Carre Blanc is quite simply one of the very best of the year and an introduction to an astounding new talent.
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