BEHIND ME
Rafael Ouellet
2008 Appeared in the journal Sequences
life before they
Intriguing ride, door-to- wrong with the movie of teens, the suspense, the docudrama, the 'high concept' and socialist realism, Behind me, the first incursion of key-on Rafael Ouellet in the feature film funded, offers a primer catchy, but its effects run out of steam quickly.
At pretty much behind me takes over from Cedar looked , self-production which has Ouellet cinema on the map in Quebec and abroad (Shanghai, Mannheim, among others). The village of Dégelis (Lower St. Lawrence), a handheld camera, a generic thin, two young girls who tamed the call of the big city: Ouellet's inspiration seems to have marked between a manner and familiar surroundings, invigorating the possibilities - his next two projects, New Denmark and Trucks, will also take root in this soil there. The promise of
Behind me is that of a filmmaker in tilling his art, with the experience of clipper and cinephilia the key. Taking the formula of female tandem, Ouellet retains both its actresses in this bracket, with more scenes and dialogues written to ensure its lead story, more conventional than before, to a final surprise on which rests entirely causation of his film.
Less opaque than they seem, the intentions of Betty, who arrives in a small village after nine hours of highway, hanging over all its meetings, seemingly casual, with some girls barely younger than herself . With its large sunglasses, her clothes and her dark casually interested, Betty clashes with the local wildlife as a praying mantis on a mission. The interest of the film, we feel it immediately, is not how his ballad ends (Now doubt is), but to discover when, how and especially that the inevitable will happen. The fate
empties quickly Leah, the epitome of the ingenue, and her femininity inevitable - Betty can not itself help to show him her awesome beauty on a few occasions. But as good looking as it is, life in the village for 14 years, stuck in a grandmother working part time in a canteen, is not the most conducive to realizing its potential or even just his desires. Lea possibly live if the frenzy of the first times - first kiss, the first drug trip, the first fugue - through Betty, it seeks above all the presence of an accomplice, a confidante and a kind of mentor, not for lack of thrills, but rather for fear of appearing stupid stuck. Behind me
applies thereafter to follow a logical step for Leah to tip the other side of the mirror, she applied to be and do like Betty. In addition to demonstrating a genuine insurance to depict images with little explanation and an environment which must flourish many girls like Leah, filmmaker manages to create a very real dynamic between the idol and his disciple in this respect, it is not surprising that the fairest scenes of the film are those in which two people examine themselves and one another For their part, operating more than once the game's transfer of attitude and personality (Betty should get at Lea to win his confidence, and vice versa).
Yet, like Betty's something wrong with the film so that the charm really operates, this is something that takes the viewer to accept being handled in turn by the seductive, or, better yet, to wish to flee rather than accompany the lamb to the slaughter. On the one hand, the game is an approximation of actresses do not forgive and transform dialogue into school recitations sometimes, a major irritant, so that each replica is vital in carrying out careful of any game of persuasion. The other, the characters are too straight to really worry about their fate.
Finally, the film, although it provides compositions welcome at times, too often balance between exploration and formal loyalty to the relationship is transformed before our eyes to deliver an outcome truly implacable as the command that kind of history. Whether for reasons of economy or editorial independence, Ouellet took a big chance by taking into account only his writing, directing, editing and camera (although Pascal L'Heureux is also credited to the department) while directing actors would normally occupy a prominent place in its specifications. Auteur film 100% behind me does not give the least impression that the result does not surpass the promise of its premise, as concrete it may be.
© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy
0 comments:
Post a Comment