Pas une critique!

Revu sur ARTE, "Le carnaval de Bruno Dumont".

« Pour l’instant, ils s’emmerdent.»
― B.Dumont

A naturalistic vision of the young commoners left on their own, prisoners of their desolated northern french villages, where even the surrounding country seems desert.
Non-actors are chosen based on their mug and are shown constantly so close to the cinemascope camera that they appear as nothing more than idle beasts filling up the emptiness of their life with ennui, hate, and sex (as "raw" as required by the film's overall style). While it makes for an interestingly unpleasant eye catch, it doesn't help covering for the disgust the characters will inspire in the regular watcher throughout the chronicle of their life. On the opposite, you can't not notice how the only decent young humans in the neighbourhood look ordinary, be it the girlfriend character or to a lower extent the immigrants' son.

Devoid of any interest to me, the film was nevertheless successfull in its pessimistic portrayal and its simulation of this youth's boredom. There might be nothing appealing and unpredictable in-story, but the film is often looking for rather aesthetic views. Attempts I didn't find particularly convincing but that might tie into the spiritual aspect.

Given the title and the final sequence, is this whole thing an attempt to find some kind of "low" spirituality in such an unexpected place and situation? In this case, I am not seeing it.

Score: ?7?/10
Enjoyment: 1/5 (While it was easier to go through at 34 than at 13, it is still such a chore for me that it ended up making it even more displeasing.)
Dumont's whole career plan layed out right from the start, even though one might point out the lack of absurdism he would later use. (You can even find similar scenes in his later works.)