路易十四垂暮，曾经的大有为君王垂死如何挣扎，人力如何不胜天。大屏幕窥视华美宫殿与腐朽病躯，医生们诸种SHOT IN THE DARK无效，满屋子的人围着老国王说着WHITE LIES，其实躺着的站着的也许都心知肚明。认命，但有责任配合命运的脚本一步一步走——于是银幕内外，仿佛都预知结局等着看路易十四咽气。n忍住不看表，需要意志力。但转念一想：能预知结尾，不代表当下就放弃。坚持下去有转折，一是临终告解了仪式也进行了，BGM铺天盖地——但还没有完。二是最后的五分钟，归于尘土前打回原形，什么面前人人平等？哪怕预知结局也没法掌握全局，这剧情走向，此前入戏中国帝王家史与“我真的还想再活五百年”，这结局却想也想不出。nn看电影仿佛探险——根本就是探险，逼着自己根据海报和简介想象影片能够对胃口或满足好奇心，甫入场便咬定座椅不放松，只有跟自己较劲——不能暂停，不能快进，不能截图……这场又有人睡着了，电影节的排片大有玄机啊。请叫我闷片大王［捂脸］
Country: Spain, France, Germany, Portugal. French Polynesia
Language: French, Polynesian, Portuguese, English
Director: Albert Serra
Screenwriters: Albert Serra, Baptiste Pinteaux
Music: Joe Robinson, Marc Verdaguer
Cinematography: Artur Tort
Editors: Albert Serra, Ariadna Ribas, Artur Tort
Cast:
Benoît Magimel
Pahoa Mahagafanau
Marc Susini
Sergi López
Matahi Pambrun
Alexandre Melo
Montse Triola
Cécile Guilbert
Lluís Serrat
Mike Landscape
Mareva Wong
Michael Vautor
Cyrus Arai
Rating: 7.4/10
A double-bill from Spanish nonconformist Albert Serra, who apparently takes a shine to Gallic history and culture in both THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV and PACIFICTION.
In the former, Léaud plays a scarcely ambulatory, bed-ridden Louis XIV, body reclining, facial muscles tickling, heavily gasping and wheezing in his final days. It is perhaps his best performance as he strenuously immortalizes the toll and horror of senile moribundity, a conception couldn’t be more removed from his cachet as the erstwhile cover boy of French New Wave. The Sun King's mind remains reasonably sound (his exhortation of his heir about statesmanship is nothing if not apposite), only his frail body has no defense against the infection of gangrene. There is no death rattle to jolt audience out of the narcotizing pace. We are witnessing a slow death, as excruciating as it is incrementally illuminating (the King's belated reconciliation with the Catholic church is deferentially arranged). How to approach one’s mortality is a topic of utter significance. Even for an esteemed and long-reigned sovereign, this piteous and harrowing process cannot be yassified.
THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV is a morbid chamber drama enclosed in a Tenebrist pall with ornate costumes, large wigs and ghastly pallor. The odor of death seems to plumes through every frame. Louis XIV's leg putrefies in the airless room, until it becomes jet black. However, those around him behave with impeccable bedside manners, specifically Guy-Crescent Fagon (d'Assumçao), the King's chief physician, and Blouin (Susini, Serra’s regular), the King's valet. Both are solicitously and meticulously dedicated to their duties. Matching each other stride by stride, they present an empathetic viewpoint on the sidelines, contemplating on and anticipating the inevitable ending with complete obeisance and nuanced affect.
It is difficult to pin down Serra's own agenda through the monotonous murkiness and glacially progressing scenarios, but THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV isn't wanting in offering some "terminal lucidity" as regards the inconvenient truth about the eternal rest and that winded road down the homestretch, meanwhile Serra’s formal nicety (a felicity calls to mind of Manoel de Oliveira) as a filmic belletrist is here to stay.
Nothing gets set in the stone in PACIFICTION, a Cannes main competition title. It appeals as an intoxicating slow dance amid tropical loci, under seductive lightings, armed with veiled intentions and inarticulate calculations.
Magimel plays De Roller, the High Commissioner of the Republic of France, on the Polynesian island of Tahiti. A solitary but immaculately tactful enigma, De Roller enjoys all the post-Colonial entitlements and prerogatives yet exudes a self-deprecating humility that individuates him as a tolerable protagonist whose well-balanced sophistication has no cracks, not even during a discourteous meeting with the locals about an intending protest against the rumor that France will resume its nuclear testing in the area. De Roller’s diplomatic presence of mind and all-around facility in fielding onerous situations are propitiously coordinated and charismatically portrayed by Magimel, who is accorded with either introspective or philosophical lengthy monologues to dazzle us spectators. De Roller is simultaneously aloof and caring, but his inscrape retains an elusiveness that cannot be penetrated by the goings-on, after 165 minutes, he has remained as opaque as we first meet him.
Featuring one of the most astonishingly invigorating wave-riding scenes, where you can vicariously experience the elemental force wash all over you, and a cockfighting spectacle paralleled with a slam-bang ingenious dance battle, PACIFICTION points up Serra’s keen attention and insatiable curiosity about a specific milieu’s cultural and natural heritage. Be that as it may, as a geopolitical thriller, the film is just as cagey as the trans-indigene girl Shannah (an entrancing Mahagafanau) who gains the favor of De Roller yet betrays nothing of her own thoughts. It attempts to extract something topical and urgent from the islanders’ unique biosphere, by mystifying it with a beguiling sleight of hand, as De Roller maunders amid the intricacies of a potent threat where distrust, mistrust and indecency also roam under Serra’s particularly pleasurable conjurations.
At the end of the day, while the coda bears down on the direction of doomsday lunacy, with the Admiral (Susini) and co. going gung-ho like nobody’s business, PACIFICTION is more likely to trigger your wanderlust and mesmerize you with its sublime splendor and tranquil vibes. An oneiric jaunt with no clear demarcation, Serra’s cinema testifies to be quite a different reactor of sensorial stimulation.
referential entries: Pere Vilà i Barceló’s LAPIDATION OF SAINT ETIENNE (2012, 4.2/10); Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s KON-TIKI (2012, 6.9/10); Alan Rickman’s A LITTLE CHAOS (2014, 6.5/10); Tran Anh Hung’s THE TASTE OF THINGS (2023, 7.6/10); Manoel de Oliveira’s THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (2010, 6.2/10).
#ICA #InFocusAlbertSerra 太喜欢了，虽然影片节奏偏慢，但整体讽刺力度还是非常棒的，尤其是前期讽刺的点可以帮助过度，中期展现脚部后开始渐入佳境，到结尾甚至超出我的预期，总感觉如果结束在戛然而止的祈祷就好了，当还在继续时很堪忧会有个不好的结尾，但当一众人对着君主的器官夸赞时，我发现我还是太年轻了…整部电影最牛逼的是把皇帝这个角色完全的客体化，甚至死亡化。以观众视角展现了全世界曾经最有权势的君主接近死亡的过程。
其中当歌剧响起，一个超长的君主直视镜头开始时，我深深的被折服了…他一眨不眨的眼睛看向“观众”，不记得多长时间的长镜头中他仿佛在尝试从“观众”眼中夺回他生的权利，他不想死，仿佛也不会死！尝试跟他不眨眼对视的我眼睛被酸哭了，我只能说男主演的太好了，面部的抽动，重重地喘息，眼神的变化。
影片中大量使用脸部特写，更多的是对着周围的一众人，他们的情绪我们尽收眼底，我们看到他们的夸赞与吹捧，看到他们的焦虑与彷徨，看到他们尝试千百种办法。固定镜头烛光效果不错，不过感觉另一个方向的打光还是有些怪怪的。
听觉上就更细腻些，钟表的声音基本贯穿全片，大量的自然音介入，流水虫鸣鸟叫，人物的声音体现状态，喘息声，呻吟声，呐喊声和嘶吼声，最后死亡的苍蝇飞翔的声音也是代来一种“恶臭感”。
不喜欢主要是剪辑，大量特写快剪其实还是太过突兀，还有几处越轴同样不适。
生、老，接下去什么？是我们知道，但故意不去想的。是诅咒、发誓，真相却严酷到不该拿来开玩笑的。n即便绕开此类虚构类作品，非虚构的也不断在发生。更何况，有的虚构类，直面阴影和沉重，是大写的真实。
路易十四垂暮，曾经的大有为君王垂死如何挣扎，人力如何不胜天。大屏幕窥视华美宫殿与腐朽病躯，医生们诸种SHOT IN THE DARK无效，满屋子的人围着老国王说着WHITE LIES，其实躺着的站着的也许都心知肚明。认命，但有责任配合命运的脚本一步一步走——于是银幕内外，仿佛都预知结局等着看路易十四咽气。n忍住不看表，需要意志力。但转念一想：能预知结尾，不代表当下就放弃。坚持下去有转折，一是临终告解了仪式也进行了，BGM铺天盖地——但还没有完。二是最后的五分钟，归于尘土前打回原形，什么面前人人平等？哪怕预知结局也没法掌握全局，这剧情走向，此前入戏中国帝王家史与“我真的还想再活五百年”，这结局却想也想不出。nn看电影仿佛探险——根本就是探险，逼着自己根据海报和简介想象影片能够对胃口或满足好奇心，甫入场便咬定座椅不放松，只有跟自己较劲——不能暂停，不能快进，不能截图……这场又有人睡着了，电影节的排片大有玄机啊。请叫我闷片大王［捂脸］
看了《路易十四的死亡纪事》，体验了一场物理般的死亡感受，这样细致的观看死亡过程所带来的平静是成埃落定的感受，心如死灰好像所有的激情都没了。但这种终结感就是死亡么？起码我不会只展现死亡这物理的一面而放弃去观看它荒唐的那一面。 -------------------------------#¥%@#¥……！¥#……！¥%！¥
English Title: The Death of Louis XIV
Original Title: La mort de Louis XIV
Year: 2016
Genre: Drama, History, Biography
Country: France, Spain, Portugal
Language: French, Latin
Director: Albert Serra
Screenwriters: Albert Serra, Thierry Lounas
Music: Marc Verdaguer
Cinematography: Jonathan Ricquebourg
Editors: Albert Serra, Ariadna Ribas, Artur Tort
Cast:
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Patrick d'Assumçao
Marc Susini
Bernard Belin
Irène Silvagni
Jacques Henric
Vicenç Altaió
Alain Lajoinie
Olivier Cadiot
José Wallenstein
Lluís Serrat
Rating: 6.9/10
Title: Pacifiction
Year: 2022
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, France, Germany, Portugal. French Polynesia
Language: French, Polynesian, Portuguese, English
Director: Albert Serra
Screenwriters: Albert Serra, Baptiste Pinteaux
Music: Joe Robinson, Marc Verdaguer
Cinematography: Artur Tort
Editors: Albert Serra, Ariadna Ribas, Artur Tort
Cast:
Benoît Magimel
Pahoa Mahagafanau
Marc Susini
Sergi López
Matahi Pambrun
Alexandre Melo
Montse Triola
Cécile Guilbert
Lluís Serrat
Mike Landscape
Mareva Wong
Michael Vautor
Cyrus Arai
Rating: 7.4/10
A double-bill from Spanish nonconformist Albert Serra, who apparently takes a shine to Gallic history and culture in both THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV and PACIFICTION.
In the former, Léaud plays a scarcely ambulatory, bed-ridden Louis XIV, body reclining, facial muscles tickling, heavily gasping and wheezing in his final days. It is perhaps his best performance as he strenuously immortalizes the toll and horror of senile moribundity, a conception couldn’t be more removed from his cachet as the erstwhile cover boy of French New Wave. The Sun King's mind remains reasonably sound (his exhortation of his heir about statesmanship is nothing if not apposite), only his frail body has no defense against the infection of gangrene. There is no death rattle to jolt audience out of the narcotizing pace. We are witnessing a slow death, as excruciating as it is incrementally illuminating (the King's belated reconciliation with the Catholic church is deferentially arranged). How to approach one’s mortality is a topic of utter significance. Even for an esteemed and long-reigned sovereign, this piteous and harrowing process cannot be yassified.
THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV is a morbid chamber drama enclosed in a Tenebrist pall with ornate costumes, large wigs and ghastly pallor. The odor of death seems to plumes through every frame. Louis XIV's leg putrefies in the airless room, until it becomes jet black. However, those around him behave with impeccable bedside manners, specifically Guy-Crescent Fagon (d'Assumçao), the King's chief physician, and Blouin (Susini, Serra’s regular), the King's valet. Both are solicitously and meticulously dedicated to their duties. Matching each other stride by stride, they present an empathetic viewpoint on the sidelines, contemplating on and anticipating the inevitable ending with complete obeisance and nuanced affect.
It is difficult to pin down Serra's own agenda through the monotonous murkiness and glacially progressing scenarios, but THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV isn't wanting in offering some "terminal lucidity" as regards the inconvenient truth about the eternal rest and that winded road down the homestretch, meanwhile Serra’s formal nicety (a felicity calls to mind of Manoel de Oliveira) as a filmic belletrist is here to stay.
Nothing gets set in the stone in PACIFICTION, a Cannes main competition title. It appeals as an intoxicating slow dance amid tropical loci, under seductive lightings, armed with veiled intentions and inarticulate calculations.
Magimel plays De Roller, the High Commissioner of the Republic of France, on the Polynesian island of Tahiti. A solitary but immaculately tactful enigma, De Roller enjoys all the post-Colonial entitlements and prerogatives yet exudes a self-deprecating humility that individuates him as a tolerable protagonist whose well-balanced sophistication has no cracks, not even during a discourteous meeting with the locals about an intending protest against the rumor that France will resume its nuclear testing in the area. De Roller’s diplomatic presence of mind and all-around facility in fielding onerous situations are propitiously coordinated and charismatically portrayed by Magimel, who is accorded with either introspective or philosophical lengthy monologues to dazzle us spectators. De Roller is simultaneously aloof and caring, but his inscrape retains an elusiveness that cannot be penetrated by the goings-on, after 165 minutes, he has remained as opaque as we first meet him.
Featuring one of the most astonishingly invigorating wave-riding scenes, where you can vicariously experience the elemental force wash all over you, and a cockfighting spectacle paralleled with a slam-bang ingenious dance battle, PACIFICTION points up Serra’s keen attention and insatiable curiosity about a specific milieu’s cultural and natural heritage. Be that as it may, as a geopolitical thriller, the film is just as cagey as the trans-indigene girl Shannah (an entrancing Mahagafanau) who gains the favor of De Roller yet betrays nothing of her own thoughts. It attempts to extract something topical and urgent from the islanders’ unique biosphere, by mystifying it with a beguiling sleight of hand, as De Roller maunders amid the intricacies of a potent threat where distrust, mistrust and indecency also roam under Serra’s particularly pleasurable conjurations.
At the end of the day, while the coda bears down on the direction of doomsday lunacy, with the Admiral (Susini) and co. going gung-ho like nobody’s business, PACIFICTION is more likely to trigger your wanderlust and mesmerize you with its sublime splendor and tranquil vibes. An oneiric jaunt with no clear demarcation, Serra’s cinema testifies to be quite a different reactor of sensorial stimulation.
referential entries: Pere Vilà i Barceló’s LAPIDATION OF SAINT ETIENNE (2012, 4.2/10); Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s KON-TIKI (2012, 6.9/10); Alan Rickman’s A LITTLE CHAOS (2014, 6.5/10); Tran Anh Hung’s THE TASTE OF THINGS (2023, 7.6/10); Manoel de Oliveira’s THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (2010, 6.2/10).