Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022)
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Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022)
Grasshopper Film and Gratitude Films have bought Albert Serra's Pacifiction. I'm under the impression that this was one of the best-reviewed Cannes Competition titles this year.
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Grasshopper Film
Just noticed this got a Blu-ray release a couple months ago
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Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
The Films of 2022
Pacifiction
Due to the vicissitudes of foreign film distribution, I am only seeing in 2024 a film from 2022 that was released in the U.S. in 2023. It feels like one of Graham Greene’s international intrigue novels that feature an ineffectual government functionary with an inflated sense of his own importance as it might be adapted by Michael Mann or Tsai Ming-Liang and which would be a great double feature with Lucrecia Marel’s Zama.
Benoît Magimel is in late-period Delon mode, all pursed lips and sunglasses, swanning around Tahiti in his white linen suit and his white Mercedes, talking incessantly even when no one is listening. He takes equal interest in the doings of possible intelligence agents, military figures, political agitators, and nightclub dancers. His ravings seem increasingly paranoid and nonsensical until it turns out he might actually have been right all along.
These long scenes of monologue/dialogue are alternated with exquisitely gorgeous shots of the local scenery and shots of Magimel wandering around vast, empty spaces like a football stadium, outdoor arena, and the grounds of a dilapidated house. Four scenes really stood out for me: a scene of boats, jet skis, and surfers bouncing over huge waves which was so intense I was certain someone was going to be killed. Another scene which intercuts a dance representing a cockfight intercut with actual cockfighting is so precisely cut it might have come out of Raging Bull. And two hypnotic late scenes set in nightclubs that are just kind of impossible to describe in words.
This is probably one of the best films (for my tastes) that I’ve seen over the last few years, the slow cinema equivalent of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning in the way it sets a tone and rhythm at the start that it maintains throughout its extended runtime without flagging. I had to watch it over two nights, which is usually not a problem for me with most films that have clear act breaks, but it was definitely not appropriate for this film, which just steadily climbs up its narrative hill until the very end. I look forward to watching it again without such a break.
Due to the vicissitudes of foreign film distribution, I am only seeing in 2024 a film from 2022 that was released in the U.S. in 2023. It feels like one of Graham Greene’s international intrigue novels that feature an ineffectual government functionary with an inflated sense of his own importance as it might be adapted by Michael Mann or Tsai Ming-Liang and which would be a great double feature with Lucrecia Marel’s Zama.
Benoît Magimel is in late-period Delon mode, all pursed lips and sunglasses, swanning around Tahiti in his white linen suit and his white Mercedes, talking incessantly even when no one is listening. He takes equal interest in the doings of possible intelligence agents, military figures, political agitators, and nightclub dancers. His ravings seem increasingly paranoid and nonsensical until it turns out he might actually have been right all along.
These long scenes of monologue/dialogue are alternated with exquisitely gorgeous shots of the local scenery and shots of Magimel wandering around vast, empty spaces like a football stadium, outdoor arena, and the grounds of a dilapidated house. Four scenes really stood out for me: a scene of boats, jet skis, and surfers bouncing over huge waves which was so intense I was certain someone was going to be killed. Another scene which intercuts a dance representing a cockfight intercut with actual cockfighting is so precisely cut it might have come out of Raging Bull. And two hypnotic late scenes set in nightclubs that are just kind of impossible to describe in words.
This is probably one of the best films (for my tastes) that I’ve seen over the last few years, the slow cinema equivalent of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning in the way it sets a tone and rhythm at the start that it maintains throughout its extended runtime without flagging. I had to watch it over two nights, which is usually not a problem for me with most films that have clear act breaks, but it was definitely not appropriate for this film, which just steadily climbs up its narrative hill until the very end. I look forward to watching it again without such a break.
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Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Re: The Films of 2022
Excellent interview with cinematographer and editor Artur Tort in Sabzian about the making of Pacifiction.