André Delvaux’s final feature film, based on the novel L’oeuvre au noir (Het hermetisch zwart/The Abyss) by Belgian-born novelist Marguerite Yourcenar, tells the story of Zeno, a doctor and alchemist whose quest for knowledge takes him around 16th-century Europe. The film focuses on the end of Zeno’s travels, when he has returned to Bruges to contemplate his life. Living quietly under an assumed name, he treats the sick in one of the town’s religious houses. But once his identity becomes known, the church authorities put him on trial.
Tag: FRANCE
Stéphane, a young Parisian, goes to Romania to search for Nora Luca, a Roma singer harshly criticized by Roma activists for allegedly denigrating Roma’s image that his father listened to incessantly in the last days of his life. His search takes him to a gypsy village where he befriends Izidor and witnesses the pains and joys of the Romani experience.
Isabelle Kahn is a successful film actress whose young daughter, Emily, is frequently cared for by her parents in Normandy while she’s away working. After a production ends in Berlin, she returns to visit her daughter. However, the rejoicing is short-lived. Her smitten costar follows, and his presence sets off an intense clash between the self-centered thespian and her mother.
Dai Sijie’s autobiographical third feature, adapted from his autobiographical first novel, is a visually assured reconstruction of memory and time. The story details the experiences of two friends, Luo and Ma, as they try to survive a Maoist reeducation camp in a remote mountain village during the Cultural Revolution. Outmaneuvering the party official who watches over them, they pursue the beautiful granddaughter of the village tailor, meeting with her secretly to read books by outlawed writers. In their most radical act, they persuade the villagers that the Mozart pieces Luo plays on his violin are songs about the revolution.
Mathieu Grégoire is an esteemed author who lives in Spa with his wife and daughter and leads a carefully structured life. One day, while out in the desolate landscape of the High Fens he meets a mysterious woman whom he calls ‘Belle’. An obsessive passion is kindled in Mathieu and in a short space of time he loses all control over his existence.
A police chief goes in search of a professor who has mysteriously disappeared after death threats. Throughout the investigation, he is obsessed with the presence of small erasers and seeks to escape a strange fatality. Variation of the Nouveau Roman inspired by the myth of Oedipus.
Jean’s solitary existence strangling women along the path of the Tour de France is upended when the troubled Claire finds herself hopelessly drawn to him. Grandrieux operates the camera himself shooting in low-light environments, offering an alien vision of the French countryside stuck in a state of perpetual dusk. SOMBRE announced Grandrieux as a singular voice in the New French Extremity movement, with its fearless gaze into the intersection of desire and death.