Carnages (Carnage) | Review

A surreal Lynch-esque kind of experiences awaits in euro-flavored film.

A small child with big eyes flinches as she watches the television screen, a matador is dueling it out with a massive bull and the decision comes to a draw. The bloodied confrontation leaves one dead and one injured. French filmmaker Delphine Gleize explores a world of enigmatically designed characters, a bunch of strangers who are brought together by eyeballs and dog-bones. Carnages is the bizarre, surrealistic story of a bull that spreads itself inside a series of characters from the matador all the way to Madrid.

With a Lynch-esque kind of quality, Gleize pastes together a bunch of strangers, initially the array of characters which are so uniquely different from one another are shown each in their own distinct weirdness. While some people meet in naked swimming pools some are pushed together through family attachment as the odd relationship between a mother and adult son, but the most banal of them all is a character that purposely plows his head into skating rink boards. The affect of the bull almost transpires itself into their systems, provoking responses that are between the ranges of out of the ordinary to the pure commonplace act of living.

There is a sensuality in the images, not since Talk to Her has a film been so aware of the aesthetic found in the thematic beauty of the images, however, unlike Almodóvar’s hit, this film presents character which are instilled with emotional baggage which remains detached from the viewer. We watch these characters, but never get the chance to enter the abstract discussions or frame of mind. The balance of characters and narrative directions don’t allow us to care much for the cast of faces I was happy to see one of Italy’s greatest actor’s daughter with Chiara Mastroianni’s low-key performance who I hadn’t seen since Gregg Arkai’s uneventful Nowhere and the smallest member of the pack of people resonates in the same kind of way that that little girl did in Ponette.

Though Gleize seems at times to be more concerned about the form, letting the subject go aloof and getting carried away with themes of death and leaving the characters without the care of a story, I think that in the end there is something intriguing about this film, in fact I kind of had an odd attraction to the film. Carnages was presented at Cannes in a sub-category and for a first major effort, Gleize has certainly got my attention and has answered that life question of happens to a bull’s life when it ends. It will be nice to see what this director does next.

Viewed in original French langauge.

Rating 2.5 stars