EARWIG - MIFF 2022

Somewhere in Europe, mid-20th century. Albert is employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice. Mia never leaves their apartment, where the shutters are always closed. The telephone rings regularly and the Master enquires after Mia's well being. Until the day Albert is instructed that he must prepare the child to leave.

When the MIFF program was finally announced, the first title I checked for it's inclusion was Lucile Hadzihalilovic's “Earwig”. Thankfully I was not disappointed, instead I was pleasantly surprised as not only was “Earwig” included in this years MIFF, but they were also doing a complete retrospective of Hadzihalilovic's entire career so far. As you can no doubt tell from the plot synopsis above, “Earwig” is a very strange film and one that has niche audience appeal, but it ticks all the boxes of what I love in cinema and ever since I read of the girl with teeth of ice about a year ago, I have been dying to see it.

The first thing you notice about “Earwig” is how quiet a film it is and just how impeccably designed it has been. It is a details-oriented world, both in terms of look and in plot. Hadzihalilovic goes to great lengths to show the daily routine of Albert and Mia, the young girl he is assigned to look after. We see every step, in glorious detail, of him changing her teeth of ice, from removing the contraption from her mouth, filling the mould with her saliva, closing it up and freezing it in preparation for the next change. Albert then takes the already prepared and frozen ice teeth out of the mould and inserts it into Mia's mouth. Hadzihalilovic presents it almost in real time, but like the rest of the film, I found it entirely mesmerising. The two of them clearly live day to day in a highly structured routine, which you can tell benefits Albert more than the girl. This is proven when he receives a mysterious phone call telling him to ready the girl for the outside world. Suddenly his carefully constructed world falls apart, as the routine is now broken, and Albert struggles to function properly without it. He resists the change, and things really start to go downhill once Mia steps outside for the first time.

I mentioned that it is a quiet film and this is due to the fact that there is very limited dialogue in “Earwig” with the first spoken word not arriving until at least half an hour into the film. Hadzihalilovic lets her amazing visuals tell her modest and very strange story, coupled with an atmospheric sound design representing the hidden outside world via the sounds of distant trains, animals and the changing weather. The film has been beautifully shot by cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg in low light which gives “Earwig” a painterly look to it, which also helps define the period setting. Earthy colours such as yellow, browns, and de-saturated reds and greens are used to wonderful effect. In regards to the visual style, I was regularly reminded of David Cronenberg's “Spider” and particularly Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's “Delicatessen” (I got a nice surprise at the end of the film when I saw that Marc Caro was credited with designing Mia's very strange and involving teeth apparatus). Even if people dislike “Earwig”, they would still have to admit that it is a gorgeous looking film that has been impeccably designed (take a bow, Julien Dubourg and Julia Irribarria, the production designer and art directors of the film).

Lucile Hadzihalilovic is in total control of her film “Earwig” and her direction is flawless. I feel it is necessary to mention this because “Earwig” is a film that leaves you with more questions than answers and most people will leave the cinema at least a little confused. A lazy critique would be to think that Hadzihalilovic has no idea what she is doing but actually, the opposite is true. Her control of both the film's tone and pacing are expert and I never once doubted that what was onscreen was exactly what Hadzihalilovic wanted to show. Every frame is composed in such a way that it couldn't not be deliberate, as is the way the actors (slowly) move throughout that frame in unison with the pace of the film itself. Hadzihalilovic has created a stunningly beautiful fairy tale world filled with a thick, tactile atmosphere, while also employing the use of dream logic which gives “Earwig” the feeling of a beautiful nightmare. Just whose nightmare it is though is the big question.

As I said above, “Earwig” is a film that has a niche audience appeal (and as such I was not surprised by the limited numbers at my screening), and it is sure to be very divisive amongst viewers, which if I am being honest, I would expect most to be on the negative side. Audiences today prefer to have everything spoon fed to them, so they understand everything going on, but Lucile Hadzihalilovic isn't going to give audiences that with “Earwig”. It is a puzzle film in that she will leave clues and hints of ideas throughout the film, but she expects the audience to work a little to get meaning out of this elliptical story. I understand that most audience members react negatively towards this approach, and I did feel just that from most of the audience when my session of the film ended, but personally I love this stuff. I love when I know that the director has a definite idea about what has just happened, but has left it up to me to find the clues and work it all out. This is why I love David Lynch so much, and particularly his films “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Dr.”. Speaking of Lynch, I believe that there is a moment in “Earwig” that is a direct homage to a scene from “Lost Highway”; the very famous scene where Bill Pullman's character meets a mystery man at a party he is attending, who tells him that he is currently at his house, even though he is standing right in front of him. It is a very surreal moment, and Lucile Hadzihalilovic has repeated this scene in “Earwig” with Albert meeting his own mystery man at a tavern he is drinking in. The man questions Albert about his true identity, and asks if he has every dreamed of being someone else. Even stylistically Hadzihalilovic uses the same techniques as in the scene of “Lost Highway”, by drowning out all of the noise from within the tavern so we only hear these two men's voices and nothing else. This gives the sense that the conversation is happening outside of reality. The scene ends in a short, brutal act of violence that sees an unsuspecting barmaid injured; the significance of this barmaid increases as the film goes along and may be a key part of the puzzle being explained.

So what is it all about? What does it all mean? I will be honest and say that I am not quite sure, but Hadzihalilovic has definitely left clues for us to work it out. In a pre-recorded introduction played to us before the film, Hadzihalilovic let us know that Brian Catling, the author of the book that the film is based on, refused to explain its meaning, only saying that it came to him via a dream he had one night. Hadzihalilovic didn't want to explain anything either and suggested that we let the film just wash over us. However, there are definite clues there. A painting of a large mansion seems to hold some significance as a number of characters are seen staring intently at it, and it seems to trigger memories of the past within Albert, as do the reflections in his crystal glassware. Memories of a wife he may or may not have had enter into his subconscious from time to time, which appear to also be a key to the mystery. The time and location where “Earwig” takes place is never revealed, but the date seen on a birth certificate appears to indicate that the story takes place post World War II, somewhere in Europe. As such I kept feeling that a form of “war trauma” in regards to Albert may have some significance in this story. As I said from the beginning, this is a film that leaves you with more questions than answers: just who is Albert? Is Mia actually his daughter or is he really just her guardian? Why and how are Albert and Celeste (the barmaid) connected symbiotically? Are they different sides of the same person? Is Albert suffering from trauma after the war? Did Albert have a wife, and if so, did she die in childbirth? I am not sure of the answer to these questions, but I adore the mystery of it all.

Overall, “Earwig” lived up to my very high expectations and I loved every second of it. In saying that though, it is a film that I do not think I would recommend to anyone else, simply because it is such an enigmatic film and is definitely not for everyone. Lucile Hadzihalilovic has created a beautifully dark fairy tale combined with an atmosphere thick with Gothic vibes. Whilst I was initially attracted to “Earwig” due to the unusual image of a girl with ice teeth, I ended up being blown away by the stunning photography, exquisite production design and beautiful mystery of the finished film. It is a very odd film, but I fell in love with all of this oddness and for its originality; its a stunningly produced film.

4.5 Stars.