A man lives and works in his car. He meticulously, dutifully works as its driver until, one day, a New Driver is employed. Absurdist-existentialist film about bears, the best honey and the importance of wearing the right footwear.
In L, you are what you drive. The protagonist, aged 40, is a more than dedicated driver. His work is literally his life and his car is more than a means of transport. He lives in his car and receives his family at fixed times. His employer is a rich narcoleptic who can’t drive. The driver, known as the Man, provides him with special honey. But when an even better driver comes along, the Man loses his job and decides to look for another means of transport.
Aris Servetalis, who can also be seen in Yorgos Lanthimos' Alps, plays the Man without batting an eyelid. Whether he's talking seriously to his children, listening to a friend or just has his eyes on the road, he always focuses intensely on what he is doing.
With a screenplay by Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, Alps) it's not surprising that the absurdist tone recalls Lanthimos' films. L is also akin to Attenberg by Athina Rachel Tsangari. But Babis Makridis distinguishes himself from his colleagues because he allows his film to be even more abstract. L is a unique combination of comedy and existential drama. A debut film filled with bizarre dialogues, a stuttering Moonlight Sonata and a song about bears.
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lovely state of mind movie, just wonder about one thing: when will tt be available on dvd?
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Webreview from marilou on 03 February 12:18
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Mark as improper
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The title of this film clearly refers to the capital letter L that can be see on driving school cars. We see a man who is literally one with his car. It is his home in all meanings of the word: he sleeps in it, he receives his wife and two children, and so on. His main job is to obtain honey for a man who cannot drive. The uncommon situation gives rise to several absurd dialogs with his employer, the honey salesman, his family, and others.
A crucial scene (in hindsight) is when he sees a wounded motor driver and his bike lying on the pavement. He stops to see what is going on. Rather than helping the man who is obviously in pain, he stays in the car, stares and does nothing. When the friends of the motor driver return from calling for help, a peculiar dialog enfolds about the apparent “war” between cars and motor bikes. And how strange it is that the wounded motor driver needs to be rescued by a car, in the form of an ambulance. Going further with his monolog, our main character, obviously being a professional driver, is inferred to be a professional killer. After this eccentric speech of the leader of the motor gang, the car driver leaves the scene unharmed and continuous his ride.
However, this delay caused him to show up late for an appointment with his employer. Because of him being late for the second time in a row, he is replaced by a new driver. The latter gets the job by virtue of winning a very odd competition against our main character.
Obviously all of the above can be seen as a metaphor for loss of stability. He apparently does not cope very well with being fired. He joins the motor gang he met before, wrecks his car while they watch, learns from them how to drive a bike, and all other rituals accompanying an initiation in a new world. From his former safe place (a car) he makes a move to a different world with its own rules and also more dangers ahead.
All in all, this film incorporated several nice ideas, but these did not suffice to make up an entertaining film for the whole one and a half hour. A question that came up with the Q&A after the screening was whether this film could be intended to trigger a discussion about how to watch films?? However interesting to raise this issue, I did not hear a definite answer, short of the obvious contrast between cars (safe) and motor bikes (adventurous).
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Webreview from JvH48 on 02 February 18:26
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Mark as improper
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