Misericordia

I cannot watch this film without thinking about Hitchcock's 1955 THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY. MISERICORDIA is a homage to this lesser known black comedy. The beauty of the autumnal palate, the crazy plot line and psychological sexual tension make this a winner. Morality is turned upside down, the dead body laying in the forest amongst the fall foliage and morels becomes an inconvenience.

The film's qualities are manifold. A script whose progression we never guess at, which keeps the viewer curious, imagining certain developments, some of which never come to pass. Subtle acting direction. Photography and sets that accentuate the drama. The absence of music, which lends permanent weight to all the images. The documentary element on mushrooms. Themes centered on the relationship between the characters: girlfriend, unrequited love, parent-child relationship, homoeroticism, but also humor bordering on parody and the ridiculous.

We understand that Guiraudie must admire Pier Paolo Pasolini's Théorème (1967), not for the universe, the bourgeoisie and the abstraction, but for the homoerotic possibilities. That said, we're not bored with Miséricorde.

Flaws: no empathy for the characters. We follow their evolution through the dramatic arc, but we're not concerned by what happens to them. The parish priest's dialogues at the end take the film away from naturalism and into the realm of the ridiculous or even Z-series, unless it's deliberate humor. But in the end, this is what makes the film so interesting: its constant navigation on the edge of the abyss of indecision and even ridicule, without falling into it.

French film industry is very profilic and rather effective in terms of such countryside dramas, taking place in remote villages. Nothing to do with the urban life. Good atmosphere, anyway far more intersting than the story itself, where you wonder where it drives to. Unusual character symphony, far from clichés. I won't say any harm about this film, it is a small film for which the director have perhaps worked during many years. It's worth the watch for those in search of petty French dramas, rapidly forgotten dramas. They have their peculiarity, their charm. We can't deny it, can we? Except Catherine Frot, I don't know the cast. But this movie delivers something disturbing, against moral and right thinking. Not for all audiences.

I very much enjoyed this gentle tale of intrigue and murder most foul. It really reminded me of the world of Twin Peaks, where nothing is really what it seems and you can't be sure of who anyone is or why they do what they do. There are so many unspoken elements of the production, that you're still guessing about elements of the story when the curtain closes.

However, that to me in a movie isn't necessarily a problem because not everything in life is neat and tidy anyway. There is some great acting and lovely cinematography and a nice seam of rich dark humour running through the affair. Slow paced but no less good for that.

TL:DR Misericordia is sort of like 'Columbo' on mushrooms.

Jérémie, a very cute, youngish man returns to the tiny French village where he was an apprentice baker, for the baker's funeral.

There's all sorts of Freudian dynamics going on, much knocking back of pastis, and one of the villagers (Vincent, the baker's son) very badly wants Jérémie gone back to Toulouse.

Everybody else wants blue-eyed Jérémie to go back to their place, and Jérémie reciprocates. Most of the way, I was engaged with this film; the priest turning up in almost every scene broke the spell a bit, and towards the end, the surreal behaviour of the gendarme, and the concluding shenanigans with the late Vincent were like that point in a dream where you realise you're dreaming and wake up. On the whole, though, it's convincing and pleasantly philosophical in itself. A Freudian comedy.

The symbolism of the morels wasn't lost on me either.