I was introduced to the works of
Eugene Green through a secret underground society, which may be a severe
exaggeration. Eugene Green, an American-born, French filmmaker, has managed to
strip down film to its barest elements of plot and photography, in the process
bringing out maximal levels of emotion. His films, made on miniscule budgets,
shun special effects, stylized costumes and other such excessive elements,
placing all focus on beautiful cinematography, realistic performances and some
of the most beautiful music ever placed on film. Green has made seven films
between 2001 and 2009. Unfortunately, I have only been able to view two of his
films so far, but I am already hooked.
Le Pont des Arts
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410466/
Le Pont des Arts tells a very simple love story between two university
students on their way to receiving their master’s degrees in subjects that they
do not care about, so that they may begin living. Adrien Michaux’s Pascale, for
example, is writing a paper on Andre Breton’s materialist transcendentalism,
which he admits he know nothing about. This relatable sense of ennui is carried
along throughout the rest of the film, with almost-expressionless performances,
simple, static shots and many cross-cut conversations in close-up. This sense
of futility, which is especially relatable to the modern university graduate,
is only occasionally broken for extended musical scenes, where Natacha
Regnier’s beautiful voice makes us all forget that we have no hope and that
life is ticking away while we are trying to begin living. This film also
contains outstanding performances from Dardenne veterans Olivier Gourmet and
Jeremie Renier. This film is a great introduction to the simple beauty of
Green’s filmic style. It is, however, his previous film which first caught my
eye and made me believe that there was still unexplored territory in cinema.
Le Monde
Vivant
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364526/
Le Monde Vivant is a film without equals. The film tells the story
of a brave knight and his trusty lion who fight to free a princess from an evil
ogre. Of course, with Green’s low-budget aesthetics, the knight wears jeans and
a shirt with no armour, the lion is a dog and the ogre is a guy in a suit,
taking the film back to the days of the creature feature. These small touches
are certainly played for laughs, but what makes this film so perplexing is the
fact that it somehow avoids devolving into farce. While the film is clearly very
different from the Arthurian films of the past or the present CGI-fest, dragon
films, it still somehow works. The heroics are there, the sense of adventure is
still visible and the viewer still gets dragged in, hoping that the guy in
jeans kills the rubber-suit-wearing fellow and spills his fake blood on the
ground. Mixed with Green’s signature style and beautiful cinematography, this
is a film that defies all odds and…works. This film, with its childish wonder
(after all, is it not simply a game of make-believe?), may make you believe in
fairy tales, but it will certainly make you believe that brilliant works can be
created with small budgets.
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