Film: Three new French films explore millennial angst
The terrific Film Society of Lincoln Center sponsors a yearly two week festival of new French film. I had the chance to see three of these this week. As luck would have it (or not), all the films ended up about millennials responding to stress. Given my stereotypes (amply backed up by student teaching) that millennials lack resourcefulness and resiliency, I was curious to see these films' perspectives, potentially broadening mine.
Nocturama—millennials blow stuff up
Nocturama (2016) by director Bertrand Bonello (1968-) was an irritating version of the “shocking adolescent rebellion” movie. This genre has a venerable tradition of critiquing establishment mores. The 1930's saw Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite shock a rigid Catholic society with visions of schoolboy rebellion. In the conformist 1950s The 400 Blows and Rebel without a Cause showed teens breaking out of rigid societal conformity. The protest stakes were raised by the 1960’s-- If… (1968) ends with rebellious English prep school boys on a shooting rampage against regalia-clad professors. What all these classics had in common was a rebellion motivated by demonstrated injustice. Not so with the millennials in Nocturama. The movie has 3 sections: French high schoolers coordinate a multi-site bombing in Paris (notably, this was produced just before the nightclub bombing), then gather in a big department store to chill out and hook up, and finally are hunted down and shot by the government. The first part is by far the best, showing tense, rapid cuts from teen to teen on various Paris Metro trains as we gradually piece together what they are doing. The middle section in the mall is pointless. The kids laconically wander among the expensive commercial items, embracing rather than rejecting consumerism, stealing clothing items and mostly feeling sorry for themselves. The ending is unambiguously shown as a militaristic society clubbing the junior rebels. The only motivations given for the bombing are from one (presumably Muslim) teen who talks of heaven, one who seems bored with the idea of a legal internship, and another who says “This [bombing] just had to happen, it was inevitable.”. The implication is that society is so bad, that one need not explain any justification. The bored nihilism of the teens certainly bored me. Like many millennial films, the individuals demonstrated no real camaraderie or ideals. The best they can offer us is “This will shake up the world”. But to what point? Just to make an individual statement? Or is the world so bad that counter-violence simply needs no explanation? The edgy jump cuts, fast editing, and mini-time warps probably intrigued some, but I thought Nocturama was a film without an emotional core.
In the Forests of Siberia: A millennial communes with Nature
In this film by director Safy Nebbou (1968-) a young guy disenchanted with his mundane Paris tech job goes to Siberia and spends a year alone by the shores of Lake Baikal, mostly cut off from others (except for a rogue felon-with-a-heart-of-gold hiding out nearby). Predictably, we see this nonconformist get cold, get thirsty, fight snowstorms and marauding bears, run naked outside, and feel how all this is truly more spiritual and real than his meaningless job. Interestingly, the criminal who has been hiding in the frozen woods for 10 years disagrees, and tells him to get back to Paris where he belongs. Because our protagonist is French, his first person narration often sounds like Rimbaud or Verlaine, fake symbolist poetry denoting his tale as A Significant Life Decision. The photography is beautiful and the story is kept moving but, like Nocturama, there is, at the end, no real point made and no real attempt to make the character individual or memorable. He just arrives, then goes home. But he did spend a year being himself, the ultimate compliment in 2017. If our new ultimate goal is that each person is special and must fulfill himself without the need for society, laws, rules, or jobs, why then are so many of these characters now so uninteresting? Peter Fonda's similarly motivated character in Easy Rider (1969) was just as tuned out from society, but far more compelling. Perhaps whatever is interesting about us comes from seeing how we interact and negotiate with society and others, not just in being ourselves, whatever that is. If the new ideal is the millennial solo achiever, it may hard to make interesting novels, films and plays about them. BTW, a better film with nonconformists, ice and bears is Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005), where the yuppie trying to be "at one" with bears get eaten instead.
Raw: Millennials partake in alternative dietary preferences
Raw is a new horror film by very promising newcomer Julia Ducournau (1983-). In it, young Justine (played by angelic teen Garance Marellier, above) goes to college (here vet school) and evolves from a timid, asocial vegetarian into a sexually voracious cannibal after being forced to eat raw rabbit kidney as part of a freshman hazing ritual. What enfolds is a well paced, cleverly gory film that does metaphorical takes on growing up (after an allergic reaction Justine literally sheds her skin), sexuality (bestial eating of one’s partner) and how to be yourself (as evidenced by dietary choices). The vet school setting provides ample opportunities to immerse us in an unrelenting carnivorous environment of surgery, dissection, and other meat-related scenes. The students are refreshingly non self-pitying, nor are they angry at nameless societal insults, as in Nocturama. They are mostly eager to party and have sex (unlike In the Forests of Siberia). But there is a message here--the blame for Justine's growing predilection for human flesh is not left unexplained. It turns out to be mom and dad’s fault (I won’t share why), tying in nicely with her parents’ fascistic familial vegetarianism (there’s a phrase I have not written before!). Bad genes and bad upbringing are more honest rationales for behavior than are societal angst, I think. Raw is energetic, well paced, but resides more in metaphor than in human characterization. The director explained in a post-film Q & A that she sought to "liberate cannibalism" from zombie-land, using it as a dark example of human behavior. So in the end the film is yet another take on being your own true self, shedding false old skins, and taking a bite out of the world (or your hookup partner). It will be interesting to see where this talented young director goes from here.
I find it interesting that the most honest and interesting of these three millennials-in-crisis films is Raw, the only one of them composed by an actual millennial. Perhaps she is just the most talented of the lot, or perhaps the older directors (who could be parents of millennials) had trouble making convincing non-romanticized movies about today's young people minus the direct insight of being one. Raw reminded me of Lena Durham’s Girls TV series—it was real-feeling and edgy, and just assumed that modern kids' ultimate goal is to be themselves, without romanticizing the notion. These two young women are creating film and dialogue that evokes the gritty reality of 1970’s movies. I hope we will see more of this.
Raw is a new horror film by very promising newcomer Julia Ducournau (1983-). In it, young Justine (played by angelic teen Garance Marellier, above) goes to college (here vet school) and evolves from a timid, asocial vegetarian into a sexually voracious cannibal after being forced to eat raw rabbit kidney as part of a freshman hazing ritual. What enfolds is a well paced, cleverly gory film that does metaphorical takes on growing up (after an allergic reaction Justine literally sheds her skin), sexuality (bestial eating of one’s partner) and how to be yourself (as evidenced by dietary choices). The vet school setting provides ample opportunities to immerse us in an unrelenting carnivorous environment of surgery, dissection, and other meat-related scenes. The students are refreshingly non self-pitying, nor are they angry at nameless societal insults, as in Nocturama. They are mostly eager to party and have sex (unlike In the Forests of Siberia). But there is a message here--the blame for Justine's growing predilection for human flesh is not left unexplained. It turns out to be mom and dad’s fault (I won’t share why), tying in nicely with her parents’ fascistic familial vegetarianism (there’s a phrase I have not written before!). Bad genes and bad upbringing are more honest rationales for behavior than are societal angst, I think. Raw is energetic, well paced, but resides more in metaphor than in human characterization. The director explained in a post-film Q & A that she sought to "liberate cannibalism" from zombie-land, using it as a dark example of human behavior. So in the end the film is yet another take on being your own true self, shedding false old skins, and taking a bite out of the world (or your hookup partner). It will be interesting to see where this talented young director goes from here.
I find it interesting that the most honest and interesting of these three millennials-in-crisis films is Raw, the only one of them composed by an actual millennial. Perhaps she is just the most talented of the lot, or perhaps the older directors (who could be parents of millennials) had trouble making convincing non-romanticized movies about today's young people minus the direct insight of being one. Raw reminded me of Lena Durham’s Girls TV series—it was real-feeling and edgy, and just assumed that modern kids' ultimate goal is to be themselves, without romanticizing the notion. These two young women are creating film and dialogue that evokes the gritty reality of 1970’s movies. I hope we will see more of this.
Comments
Post a Comment