I have
to admit right up front that my recollections of Clair Denis’s “Bastards” are
going to be seriously flawed. Even though
this was a film that I was looking forward to, my viewing of the film was less
than ideal. It was the last film of the
night and I was absolutely exhausted while watching it, so I actually found the
film to be very confusing. How confusing
you may ask? Well, let’s just say that there was one character that I thought
was someone else entirely until the very end of the film, so that should give
you some indication of my reliability in regards to reviewing “Bastards”.
The MIFF
guide describes “Bastards” like so: “when wealthy patriarch Jacques commits
suicide in suspicious circumstances, his family must come together to try to
pick up the pieces – and to apportion blame.
However as the long-estranged kin unpick the layers of secrecy forced upon
them by their father, the stage is set for a showdown that could destroy them
all”.
Wow!
Reading that just doesn’t ring a bell for me at all. What I do remember about the film was its
intense mood and atmosphere that was prevalent from the opening frame, as well
as its gorgeous and quite dark cinematography.
The film opens with a disturbing image of a young teenage girl wondering
aimlessly through the streets totally naked.
As the film goes on, this image is returned to and expanded, as the full
impact of it gets more revealed. Suffice
to say, the story behind this image of the naked girl is a sad and seedy one,
and is the main cause behind Jacques suicide.
In my
regards to my confusion between two characters, here is what happened. The wife of Jacques asks her brother (who
works for the navy) to return home and help her get revenge on the mega-wealthy
businessman she believes forced her husband to commit suicide. The brother ends up starting a relationship
with the businessman’s wife (as well as spending time with his son) in an
attempt to gather evidence and get revenge from within. Through my intense tiredness, I actually
confused the sister and the businessman’s wife as being the same person, so for
the majority of the film I thought the guy was sleeping with his sister, which
I thought was very perverse (yet bold at the same time). It wasn’t until the final five minutes of the
film that I realized that the two women were completely different characters,
which made me also realize that everything that I thought I had witnessed
earlier was completely different in actuality.
From all
reports “Bastards” is meant to be an excellent film although it deals with some
incredibly dark themes and has a number of disturbing scenes within it. Much has been talked about the film’s
controversial and shocking final sequence, although personally I found it not
to be. I actually found the scene, no
matter how disturbing it is, to be the only logical conclusion and a fitting
end. I suppose I may not have been hit
with the enormity of the perversion in regards to this scene while I was
watching it because at the time I was still coming to terms with the fact that
I had confused two characters into one.
Overall,
I really cannot give an accurate representation of what “Bastards” was like as
a film. Every now and then when you
attend a film festival and see numerous films a day, your brain will just shut
off sometimes due to extreme tiredness.
Sadly this is what happened to me during Clair Denis’s “Bastards”. While I remember that I was impressed with
the film’s look and atmosphere, sadly any other details are lacking from my
memory. I will definitely try to catch
up with this film again at a later date and will attempt to review it properly. Although I cannot remember much about “Bastards”
looking at my notes I made in my film festival guide after the screening, I see
that I gave the film…..
3 Stars.
………..but
take that with a grain of salt.
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