A hallucinogenic horror allegory that is inspired both by film history and psychoanalysis. The viewer follows a woman in her childhood, adolescence and adulthood and her wrestling with her own emotions and those of others. Not suitable for people with a weak stomach.
After a series of suggestive short fiction films, the French-Belgian directing duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani have hit the big time with the sinister, hallucinogenic Amer. The film follows a woman through three decisive episodes in her life. She is still a young girl when she brings her dead grandpa back to life and her parents make love - her first confrontation with the world of adults. Then she discovers in her puberty the terrifying power of decay and sexuality. In the third part, she wrestles with loss, loneliness and death when she returns to her parental home, now derelict. There, a chase begins with a taxi driver and a mysterious third person - but it never becomes clear who is following whom. Amer is intriguing because the directors juxtapose horror elements with colour and montage experiments, elegant narrative strategies and references to Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch and Mario Bava. A complex Freudian allegory with impressive production design.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
'I can feel myself under the gaze of someone whose eyes I do not see, not even discern. All that is necessary is for something to signify to me that there may be others there. This window, if it gets a bit dark, and if I have reasons for thinking that there is someone behind it, is straight-away a gaze.'
This quote by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan would not be out of place characterising Amer, the feature debut by Cattet and Forzani, that builds a narrative with little more than glances, gestures and bodies. In addition, they pull a few more tricks out of the film hat that played important roles in the films of their predecessors. The sparse yet effective use of a Morricone-like soundtrack; sequential scenes of monochrome colours; the use of distorting lenses, to mention but a few. The most obvious cinematographic references are the ‘gialli’, of Italian cult directors from the 1970s like Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava and Dario Argento (the poster of the film is the most convincing evidence of this!).
The movement is in the film, from dark interiors to the colour explosion of the French south coast, roughly following three phases in the life of a girl/woman. It's obviously the female perspective that dominates here, with the lustful looks of men being both threatening and intriguing, and sex a forbidden fruit that is shouting out to be tasted.
EH