Portis_Charles

This TV country tragedy does not look like much at first. The filmmaking is very quiet and basic, nothing like the sadistic masterpieces Sam Peckinpah will align from 1969. The interest lies elsewhere, in an extraordinary story of morals and fate, simple yet powerful. The acting is excellent and renders the subtle psychology of the characters.

Like the vast majority of Gus Van Sant's work, this is a film of great poetic quality. Everywhere are mental images, dreamy musics, memory shots, integrated in the fabric of the film without ever being too heavy or risk losing the track of the narration. Superstition and fate hold a major place, which is reinforced by the narration made of what is in fact a large flashback. But it always remains, in a muted way, funny. In this first phase of his career, and it will come back very regularly after of course, Van Sant is passionate about various kinds of misfits moving on the fringe of society and wandering in the northwest of the United States, which gives a unique, cool, slightly 'grunge' coloring to these otherwise elaborate works. The world of junkies in particular here brought back many feelings from my constant reading of Hunter S. Thompson's work for decades, this feverish and nervous humor of people who constantly live on the edge of the Fall. A great film.

Stunning Claire Denis archive. It's very different from what she would do later. The filmmaking here is direct, effective, and basic. The interest lies elsewhere; it's a science fiction story set in the modern world, with hints of Philip K. Dick. It's a little-known fact, I think, but Claire Denis is a fan of science-fiction, particularly Dick, a very popular author in France. This sheds a slightly different light on her work, particularly her taste for kaleidoscopic and uncertain narratives. I find the ending is a little too literal, even clumsy, but it's certainly a high-quality work that announces the great director she would become later.