Calvaire

Wow...the other review is nuts. This movie was fantastic!

I got a chance to thank the director (in french) after the film. The lighting was unbelievable, the acting was great, the directing was great, and the script was fantastic. Definitely not for the weak of stomach...pretty gory and painful at times, but let up with some hilarious moments (ie. the dance). They shot on super 16 which gave it an incredible grainy quality...very 1980s sci-fi/horror (which i liked). It was very dark with extremely high contrast, and some beautiful locations. The end seemed like a bit of a let-down at first, but the more i think about it the more i like it. (won't give it away though).

Suffice to say it was gorgeously shot, great cast/crew, and a interesting take on insanity and love. The director described it as a 'love story'...ermmm...yes? with a crucifixion...and pig buggery...

anyways, I would LOVE to see this get a release (without a re-edit), or at lest a distribution deal. It really deserves it.

-cheers,

claire

I first saw this in the early 2k on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently.

The plot - On a Christmas eve, a singer's van breaks down in a deserted and marshy region. The singer takes refuge in an inn run by a hospitable but creepy innkeeper who became psychologically upset with the villagers after his wife left him. The innkeeper offers to repair the singer's van as a token of brotherhood between professional entertainers.

The next morning when the singer tells the innkeeper that he is going for a walk, the innkeeper suddenly becomes paranoid and aggressive, warning the singer not to go into the nearby village.

The movie has tons of atmosphere but is very claustrophobic, surrealistic n horrifying at times.

The bar scene where outta blue the people starts dancing with one another is downright creepy.

The backwoods village without a single female character and not a single sane male character is an epitome of eeriness.

At first view, a horror, At the second- story about basic instincts and about the small difference between human and beast. In fact, film about vanity, illusion and reality's ambiguous limit. In essence, a religious movie.

The values of Marc Stevens life are few, mediocre, ordinaries. Nothing very important, nothing special. Powerful taste of job, impressions, and memories of show. He is only shadow of a gray existence, boring and strong. Like many of us. His life's image is the image inside the car. The old lady is a spectator. The sentiments or the passion are not important. So, the punishment is a good solution to end a stupid dream of chimeric glory.

Bartel is, in same time, victim and master. His innocence is charming, his expectation - brave. For him the life has a precious sense and the rules are essence of life. A little man with decent desires. Ordinary people, sensitive and good.

The film is picture of an impact. The impact between two worlds, very different, cruels in special way, the only common element is the form and value of sin.

"Calvaire" presents the heart of world. The heart without glamor, lights, masks or shining skin. Without beautiful illusion and subtle gestures. It is not the wild life or new Lord of the Flies. It is not slice of community's madness. It is only essence of another reality. The reality of cruel gods and perfect faith.

The subject is not new: the you-take-your-life-in-your -hands -when -you-get-into -that-inn trick was the subject of Claude Autant-Lara's "L'Auberge Rouge" (1951)and of Hitchcock's "psycho" .One can also notice borrowings from Schoedsack/Pichel's "the most dangerous game" (1932) ,from "Texas chain saw massacre " ,from François Ozon's "Les Amants Criminels"(1996) .The atmosphere even recalls sometimes that of the director's compatriot André Delvaux's "Un Soir Un train" (1968).But the main influence is a French movie: "Barracuda " by Philippe Haïm starring Guillaume Canet and Jean Rochefort;Marc and Bartel strongly recall their characters.

Let's forget the hackneyed quicksands trick,which could not happen ,if the writers knew about Archimedes's theorem.All that remains is really spooky.The first part succeeds in building a tension ,without any special effect.The Christmas party,when the singer performs in front of a bunch of old ladies in an old people's home already leaves the viewer ill at ease.In the following sequences ,fear grows and never leaves you.Even the story of the dwarfs (did you notice the children dressed as little red riding hoods in the woods?) and Mark's song seem lugubrious,sinister.

Except for the old ladies and the nurse who takes care of them (played by an ex-porno star Brigitte Lahaie) ,and one or two peasant women on the farm,this is a male bestial atmosphere.Marc's cries look like animal screams .

Not for the squeamish.

Fabrice Du Weiz's thriller mines "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs", Still, it is unique enough and original enough in its cinematic eccentricities to be noteworthy.

A travelling showman (Laurent Lucas) finds himself in hostile territory when his van breaks down. A local jack-of-all-trades (Jackie Berroyer) helps him out, but is soon helping himself to Lucas's van, mind and body.

The film takes interesting, perverted turns and dishes the atmosphere thick. A fog-shrouded chase through the woods is almost surreal, and a fantastic dance sequence with hillbilly-like weirdos works a twisted treat and foreshadows a surplus of gloom and doom.

The violence is not plentiful, but the sense of threat is always present. Benoit Debie, who photographed Gasper Noe's IRREVERSIBLE, creates memorable, haunting images and makes expert use of the terrific locales.

A solid, oddball shocker, but overlong at times.