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Potentially brilliant >> Un 32 août sur Terre is an ode to the Euromasters by MATTHEW HAYS
Un 32 août sur Terre is a beautiful, minimalist, elegant--if difficult--two-hander which stars Pascale Bussières and Alexis Martin. The film opens with a jarring car accident; the camera lingers on Bussières as she falls asleep at the wheel. After the credit sequence, she awakens to find she is trapped in the overturned car, ultimately kicking her way out of the back windshield. From the film's opening moments, Bussières establishes herself as one of the strongest performers in Quebec's considerable thespian talent pool. This scene, entirely without dialogue, illustrates her keen ability to convey a broad range of emotion clearly and with a brutal economy. As film logic would have it, the life-threatening accident leads to an epiphany for our protagonist. Waiting to hitch a lift at the roadside, she sits on the ground, her fingers running through the grass. In one of the film's too-frequent literal-minded moments, we are supposed to see Bussières' new sense of attachment to the earth, her reminder of her own mortality and all things profound. Bussières is soon quitting her job as a model, giving up her next gig in Italy. In a droll if unsubtle scene, her boss remains cooped up in a tanning bed as Bussiéres announces her departure from the company. The cliché is back for the umpteenth time this season: urban life is vapid and meaningless (get out while you can!). Our heroine is soon hitting up her best friend (Martin) for his sperm. Her brush with death has convinced her that creating life is imperative; she's asking Martin to make love to her so she can have their child. A clearly uncomfortable Martin says yes, but on one condition: they make love in the desert. In a pleasing plot twist, the two head off for a 24-hour stint to the desert of Utah. With its occasional jump cut, dialogue-light script and wide-open desert setting, 32 août is Villeneuve's ode to Euromasters like Godard and Antonioni. His script is successful in illuminating the plight of the modern urban animal; Martin's and Bussières' foray into the desert ends with them spending the night in a confining Tokyo-style hotel-room cubicle ("The Space Hotel"). Martin must tell Bussière he cannot agree to the impregnation (aside from having to explain all of this to his girlfriend, he's simply downright uncomfortable with the proposition). Villeneuve's obvious debt to Antonioni and Godard isn't a deterrent here, though some of the references are ridiculously heavy-handed (jump-cut sequences are joined by the camera moving over a "Breathless" poster in Martin's apartment and lingering there). But 32 août begins to disintegrate in its final act. Villeneuve has placed God firmly in the machine, in a plot twist that reeks too heavily of symbolism and cruel poetic justice. The most maddening thing here is the way Villeneuve approaches greatness but then pulls away in the film's final moments. But 32 août remains well worth seeing: Bussières' and Martin's performances are layered and intelligent and André Turpin's cinematography is undeniably beautiful. Villeneuve's first full-length feature can perhaps best be described as a formidable work from a potentially brilliant director. Un 32 août sur Terre opens in its original French version Friday, October 23
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Un 32 août sur Terre is perhaps the most eagerly anticipated Quebec film this year. Its director-writer, Denis Villeneuve, is one of Roger Frappier's brat pack--six young directors who collaborated on the celebrated anthology film Cosmos two years ago. After the film netted an award at Cannes last year, it was announced that Villeneuve would be among the first to go it alone with his own feature project.