you’ll probably find a lot of bresson’s films perplexing – developing the psychological motivations in his characters was one of his least concerns. i wrote an essay called ‘bresson and the anti-film’ – it might give you some context for analyzing his films: http://moveease.blogspot.com/2009/07/bresson-and-anti-film.html
“Lorna’s Silence,” the newest award-winning film from the Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, defies review while demanding discussion. Like John Sayles’s "Limbo " and the Coen Brother’s “No Country for Old Men,” the film’s unresolved ending has polarized audiences and critics alike, leaving us guessing at both the protagonist’s fate and the filmmaker’s intent. Though there are a myriad of elements we could analyze and debate (including the Dardenne brother’s increasingly nuanced examinations of those marginalized in the European economic integration following the collapse of the Soviet system), I would like to limit this discussion to, what are to me, the film’s two most audacious features: its narrative form, and its incongruous ending.
The first two acts of “Lorna’s Silence,” up until the junkie’s murder, are the cinematic equivalent of a jigsaw puzzle, and on the surface, there’s certainly nothing new about that. The confoundingly elliptical narrative structure that slowly doles out disparate elements of an obviously doomed criminal scheme has very solid roots in the classic film noir of half a century prior. Consider the following plot synopsis: Lorna and Sokol, two Albanian immigrants with big dreams but little means, team up with Fabio, a paranoid Belgian mobster, in an elaborate double marriage scheme. Lorna first gains Belgian citizenship by marrying Claudy, a Belgian drug addict, and after securing her citizenship card, Fabio sells her hand in marriage for a hefty sum to a Russian mafioso attempting to gain citizenship in the country. Now all that stands in the way of their mutual enrichment is Claudy, and the Russian won’t wait for a divorce. But can Lorna live with herself if she allows Fabio to go through with his nefarious plans?
What’s interesting here to me is that, of course, “Lorna’s Silence” isn’t a noir. The hand-held, gritty cinematography, consisting primarily of naturally-lit closeups, stands in complete antithesis to the slick, moody black-and-white photography of the classic noir. Although I found the story compelling, it hardly exudes the aura of doom and tension we would expect from a noir. And of course the omission of a soundtrack (a Dardanne signature) simply removes the film that much further from the genre. So the real question is, why did the Dardanne brothers spend the first two acts of the film developing an elliptical form more akin to films made 60 years ago? In the noir, the developmental omissions are in the service of suspense, but in ‘Lorna,’ I think we have a case of a cinematic metaphor: the narrative mirrors the confused state of our protagonist; just as we slowly learn more about the larger scheme at work, Lorna slowly comes to grips with her own conscience. It’s a daring marriage of form and content, and though it’s certainly not the first to attempt such a feat, I think it’s one of the more successful.
Even more audacious, though, is of course the ending (or lack thereof, depending on who you ask). Lorna’s attempts to save Claudy’s life fail; Fabio gives Claudy an overdose even though Lorna has already secured a divorce. Recognizing her own culpability, and lacking any real path to redemption, she imagines that she is impregnated with Claudy’s baby, and is determined to save it at all costs. She grows increasingly unstable, and when Fabio has one of his goons drive her out to the woods under the pretext of taking her out of the country, she manages to escape, only to find herself utterly alone and lost in the woods, constantly talking to her imagined baby with reassurances of his safety. The film fades to black with her falling asleep in an abandoned shack, her mortal fate left unknown.
The entire third act is jarring, having passed with little preparation from the stubbornly hard-scrabble to the spiritually surreal. My initial reaction to the ending was a letdown; the film, having satisfied all of my predictions, had led me to expect Lorna’s brutal yet matter-of-fact murder. But instead, we find her transferred from the city, a veritable maze of human interaction and cruelty, to nature, far from any signs of humanity. She stumbles through the trees, lost, happening on an abandoned shack just before nightfall, and falls asleep, alone with her insanity. Any filmmaker attempting such a feat runs the danger of being accused of laziness or immaturity, and I have to admit that both crossed my mind. Yet upon reflection, I’ve come to see this end as deeply satisfying, if melancholy. Lorna had gambled another human’s life away and sacrificed her sanity in the process; whether or not Fabio’s goon kills her matters not. She’s already lost, forced to invent a new reality to smother her guilt. What more could we have gained from her death that’s not already evidenced in her separation from reality?
i think we can set twilight aside as less an attempt to redefine the vampire genre and more of an attempt to covertly indoctrinate tweens with the gospel of abstinence.
true blood, on the other hand, is edgy and provocative, and a welcome revamp of a mythology that had gone stale some years ago. we don’t need more remakes of nosferatu. we need originality.
the dood made great films, but seriously y’all, he drugged, then fucked a 13 year old girl. and then ran from the law for 3 and half decades instead of owning up to his mistake.
he ran because he thought the judge might not rule favorably. but guess what? our legal system has protections against that sort of thing. it’s called appeal. he took the law into his own hands. for that, there are consequences. if he was a big enough man to drug and fuck a 13 year old girl, then maybe he can find the balls to own up to his mistake.
Deeply Uplifting Films almost 3 years ago
i’m surprised it’s not already been said: “Paths of Glory,” by Stanley Kubrick. The ending is transcendent, and will stay with you for a lifetime.
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Au hasard Balthazar almost 3 years ago
you’ll probably find a lot of bresson’s films perplexing – developing the psychological motivations in his characters was one of his least concerns. i wrote an essay called ‘bresson and the anti-film’ – it might give you some context for analyzing his films: http://moveease.blogspot.com/2009/07/bresson-and-anti-film.html
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Which movies would you like to see on The Auteurs? almost 3 years ago
all movies. we’ll sort ’em out.
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Deeply Uplifting Films almost 3 years ago
@roscoe it’s all in that final scene in the bar. it sums up all we have: hope.
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CLASSIC FILM NOIR almost 3 years ago
wow amazing. i’ve seen exactly none of these. which ones are most worth the admission price?
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Lorna's Silence: inconsonant form, incongrous ending? almost 3 years ago
“Lorna’s Silence,” the newest award-winning film from the Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, defies review while demanding discussion. Like John Sayles’s "Limbo " and the Coen Brother’s “No Country for Old Men,” the film’s unresolved ending has polarized audiences and critics alike, leaving us guessing at both the protagonist’s fate and the filmmaker’s intent. Though there are a myriad of elements we could analyze and debate (including the Dardenne brother’s increasingly nuanced examinations of those marginalized in the European economic integration following the collapse of the Soviet system), I would like to limit this discussion to, what are to me, the film’s two most audacious features: its narrative form, and its incongruous ending.
The first two acts of “Lorna’s Silence,” up until the junkie’s murder, are the cinematic equivalent of a jigsaw puzzle, and on the surface, there’s certainly nothing new about that. The confoundingly elliptical narrative structure that slowly doles out disparate elements of an obviously doomed criminal scheme has very solid roots in the classic film noir of half a century prior. Consider the following plot synopsis: Lorna and Sokol, two Albanian immigrants with big dreams but little means, team up with Fabio, a paranoid Belgian mobster, in an elaborate double marriage scheme. Lorna first gains Belgian citizenship by marrying Claudy, a Belgian drug addict, and after securing her citizenship card, Fabio sells her hand in marriage for a hefty sum to a Russian mafioso attempting to gain citizenship in the country. Now all that stands in the way of their mutual enrichment is Claudy, and the Russian won’t wait for a divorce. But can Lorna live with herself if she allows Fabio to go through with his nefarious plans?
What’s interesting here to me is that, of course, “Lorna’s Silence” isn’t a noir. The hand-held, gritty cinematography, consisting primarily of naturally-lit closeups, stands in complete antithesis to the slick, moody black-and-white photography of the classic noir. Although I found the story compelling, it hardly exudes the aura of doom and tension we would expect from a noir. And of course the omission of a soundtrack (a Dardanne signature) simply removes the film that much further from the genre. So the real question is, why did the Dardanne brothers spend the first two acts of the film developing an elliptical form more akin to films made 60 years ago? In the noir, the developmental omissions are in the service of suspense, but in ‘Lorna,’ I think we have a case of a cinematic metaphor: the narrative mirrors the confused state of our protagonist; just as we slowly learn more about the larger scheme at work, Lorna slowly comes to grips with her own conscience. It’s a daring marriage of form and content, and though it’s certainly not the first to attempt such a feat, I think it’s one of the more successful.
Even more audacious, though, is of course the ending (or lack thereof, depending on who you ask). Lorna’s attempts to save Claudy’s life fail; Fabio gives Claudy an overdose even though Lorna has already secured a divorce. Recognizing her own culpability, and lacking any real path to redemption, she imagines that she is impregnated with Claudy’s baby, and is determined to save it at all costs. She grows increasingly unstable, and when Fabio has one of his goons drive her out to the woods under the pretext of taking her out of the country, she manages to escape, only to find herself utterly alone and lost in the woods, constantly talking to her imagined baby with reassurances of his safety. The film fades to black with her falling asleep in an abandoned shack, her mortal fate left unknown.
The entire third act is jarring, having passed with little preparation from the stubbornly hard-scrabble to the spiritually surreal. My initial reaction to the ending was a letdown; the film, having satisfied all of my predictions, had led me to expect Lorna’s brutal yet matter-of-fact murder. But instead, we find her transferred from the city, a veritable maze of human interaction and cruelty, to nature, far from any signs of humanity. She stumbles through the trees, lost, happening on an abandoned shack just before nightfall, and falls asleep, alone with her insanity. Any filmmaker attempting such a feat runs the danger of being accused of laziness or immaturity, and I have to admit that both crossed my mind. Yet upon reflection, I’ve come to see this end as deeply satisfying, if melancholy. Lorna had gambled another human’s life away and sacrificed her sanity in the process; whether or not Fabio’s goon kills her matters not. She’s already lost, forced to invent a new reality to smother her guilt. What more could we have gained from her death that’s not already evidenced in her separation from reality?
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Is the artistic heritage of vampires being destroyed by recent takes on the subject? almost 3 years ago
i think we can set twilight aside as less an attempt to redefine the vampire genre and more of an attempt to covertly indoctrinate tweens with the gospel of abstinence.
true blood, on the other hand, is edgy and provocative, and a welcome revamp of a mythology that had gone stale some years ago. we don’t need more remakes of nosferatu. we need originality.
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Defining films of the deacade almost 3 years ago
has no one listed a single pixar? in fact i don’t think anyone has listed any animation. come on cinephiles!
up
wall-e
ratatouille
spirited away
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polanski arrested again over 2 years ago
the dood made great films, but seriously y’all, he drugged, then fucked a 13 year old girl. and then ran from the law for 3 and half decades instead of owning up to his mistake.
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polanski arrested again over 2 years ago
he ran because he thought the judge might not rule favorably. but guess what? our legal system has protections against that sort of thing. it’s called appeal. he took the law into his own hands. for that, there are consequences. if he was a big enough man to drug and fuck a 13 year old girl, then maybe he can find the balls to own up to his mistake.
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What do you think is on Werner Herzog's Ipod? over 2 years ago
herzog on herzog
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