Christian Carion has become one of my favorite directors. His Joyeux Noel was a favorite of mine in 2005 and now L'affaire Farewell (2009) proves Carion to be full of abundant promise.
There's a moment early in the film when I knew I had already fallen in love with it. A teenage boy is ignoring his father and listening to Queen. Under Pressure.
And of course this cold war espionage tale is about a couple of men under enormous pressure.
"It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about"
The sound design, the score, and especially the use of Queen songs on the soundtrack mark Farewell as a notch above the rest. [I just looked it up. Clint Mansell who did the score for this film also was responsible for the amazing Moon score from last year. He's someone to watch/listen for!]
This film is the intelligent adult thriller that The Ghost Writer and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo are striving to be. The biggest difference between Farewell and these other two films is that Farewell never feels safe or familiar even while being a fairly straightforward narrative that stands solidly in a tradition. There is one scene in particular in which Carion intercuts footage of Freddie Mercury on stage with the Russian boy listening to Queen on his Walkman; that sequence is absolutely daring and refreshing and could be borderline laughable and stupid if handled wrongly. Instead, it is just right.
All of Farewell has a quiet and gentle humor that makes it human and humane. It feels alive in the best sense while the other two films mentioned above feel suffocatingly anti-life in their intentions.
Besides Queen's music as a touchstone, the film visually quotes The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence twice, having Ronald Reagan be a little obsessed with the film. I haven't seen Liberty Valence, so can't quite comment intelligently here, but I think that the obvious connection between Farewell and Valence is the idea of truths buried under official needs, a theme explored briefly here.
Finally, I think there's something going on in the film with the Cold War as metaphor for strained marriages or vice versa. The lies and mounting distrust are sure to end in either nuclear war (separation/divorce) or in peace talks leading to disarmament (reconciliation).
Really highly recommended.
Can you tell by all of the YouTube clips that I'm having fun with unlimited Internet access while on vacation?
No comments:
Post a Comment