Kritiken

One of the most forceful and unflinching anti-colonialist films to be released in years.

Kent’s strongest critique of violence—retributive or otherwise—emerges at the moment she abandons her graphic restraint. . . . This subtlety makes Kent’s interrogation of the emotional responses and ethics of audiences all the more successful.

Kent’s violence is not designed to shock or even enrage us, though certainly it accomplishes. At their best, these scenes make a case for filmmaking as a document of historical experience.

While "The Nightingale" is obviously a labor of - if not love, then rage - for Kent, it left me cold, even with the two wonderful performances at its center from Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr.

Kent is a genuine filmmaker of ideas, but The Nightingale is clipped by problems of form.

Though “The Nightingale” is an effective history lesson, it is even more powerful as an ethical inquiry into the consequences of violence and the nature of justice.

To bring together these distinct (but connected) narratives of gendered and racist violence is an ambitious prospect, but Kent takes on the challenge admirably, pushing her film into unexpected, uncomfortable, and often audacious places.

It’s far less interested in providing a travelogue of Tasmania’s wilderness than it is in zeroing in on the characters struggling inside it – and the boxy frame, combined with close ups, only amplifies the disturbing realism of the many acts of unspeakable violence, bridging the gap between the audience and the horror consumed onscreen.

The Nightingale falters a little in Kent’s frustratingly broad depiction of the malignant forces at work in this emerging society. . . . Nevertheless, Kent’s efforts to subvert genre tropes pay off in a haunting climax that allows Clare to assert her identity and autonomy, without forcing her to stoop to the level of her antagonist.

Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent may be the only woman in the Venice competition this year, but her second feature The Nightingale exudes enough impassioned feminist rage to fuel ten festivals. Unfortunately, ambitious as it is, this historical revenge drama represents a step backwards in storytelling prowess from her dazzling debut, 2014’s domestic chiller The Babadook.

Just like Franciosi’s clear-as-a-bell voice effortlessly updates that old-fashioned style to sound melodic and fresh to a modern ear, if Kent can get rid of some of the melismatic curlicues from her film, paring it back to its thrilling and beautiful essentials, then “The Nightingale” will really sing.

Up until the end I felt that she was overestimating the amount of exasperation an audience ought to suffer, and several of the turns in the plot simply do not convince.