After loving Renate Reinsve so much in 2021's “The Worst Person in the World”, I convinced myself to see director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's “Armand” thanks to her headlining the cast of this new film. I will admit that the fact that Tøndel also won the Camera d'Or, for best first film, at this year's Cannes Film Festival also worked in the film's favour, as did the sound of its plot which made it seem like “Armand” was going to be an intense examination of a moral question or drama regarding the truth of an incident involving two six-year-old boys, with no adult witness to corroborate either child's version of events; who do you believe? To be honest, I was expecting an intense drama similar to the excellent German film “The Teacher's Lounge” which came out last year. Unfortunately, I did not get close to getting that. Personally, I thought “Armand” was a terrible, terrible film....so much so that it was the worst film I saw this year at MIFF.
I will admit that the idea of the meeting at the school between the parents of each boy was a brilliant idea and set-up for a great psychological drama, and the first few scenes were actually very good when the young teacher was in control of the group, where it highlighted the balancing act she had in taking the incident seriously enough to appease the parents involved, while being careful not to implicate the school itself as having anything to do with the incident in question. We are witness to the poor teacher regularly having to change her language as she is representing the school, so her own personal feelings on the matter cannot be reflected in the way she speaks, in case it damages the school's reputation or makes them liable. This is great stuff, and what I was expecting out of “Armand”, as were the scenes where Elisabeth (Armand's mother), and Sarah and Anders (Jon's parents) attempt to work out exactly what has happened between the boys, who is to blame and how to move forward from this incident. This is made complicated by the fact that there is no one to corroborate either of the boy's statements, just that Jon was found with his pants off. When Elisabeth starts to suspect that she and her son are being pre-judged, that her son is being blamed due to Armand's past transgressions rather than any proof, she needs to step outside to take a break and calm herself, and from here on out, the film nosedives rapidly as director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel seems to make bad decision after bad decision in trying to tell his story (which up until this point has been pretty good).
Once the principal and school nurse join the meeting, (and the seating arrangements in the room are changed), the film becomes an utter debacle as it becomes less about the children, the truth of what happened and finding a way to move forward, and starts to become about the history these two families have together, grudges they may have, and ploys these adults have to hurt each other. Not only does it come out that these three adults all used to be great friends, but that Elisabeth was married to Sarah's brother, who has since passed via an automobile accident (which may or may not have been suicide), so that they are actually family. Sarah inexplicably believes that Elisabeth had something to do with her brother's death, simply because he had driven that road multiple times a day, so how could he lose control and crash one time? You start to wonder if the accusation about Armand has any truth to it, or it is a way to get back at Elisabeth. The whole plot gets more and more convoluted as it goes along, throwing up more questions and answering none. One aspect that, to me, didn't make any sense at all was when the principal felt he had to act on an allegation towards Elisabeth, all because he knew and taught her husband fifteen years ago, and his death was a shock to him. Um, excuse me?!? So what? Butt out, that has nothing to do with you! The film really lost me at this point however it was about to get much, much worse.
My issue with “Armand” is that while the original kernel of an idea is great, the film itself is full of missteps and woefully executed scenes. The first major one is Elisabeth's extended hysterical laughing fit which happens due to what she feels is the ridiculousness of her situation. Her laughter lasts forever and just comes across as disrespectful, and not as something she cannot control. It feels really stupid and the moment feels false. However, the worst misstep of them all is director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's inexplicable idea to suddenly include two dance sequences into his film. Out of nowhere, during another break from the meeting, Elisabeth passes the school janitor and the two of them suddenly start dancing together, with his broom integrated into the dance. I am sorry, but this was the worst decision I have seen in a movie in ages! There was no way this was ever going to work unless dance was always a part of the film from the beginning, not starting past the halfway mark. The tone of this film is just not conducive to include a whimsical dance number. The second dance number is an interpretive dance number, and whilst it works slightly better than the first, I maintain that their inclusion was a severely misjudged directorial indulgence. In fact my issues with “Armand” all have to do with Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, both his direction and his writing. The way the film is written is frustrating because it never follows through with any of his subplots; we get no answers to the questions he raises, and some of these things aren't philosophical questions, but things that should have concrete answers. The fact that by the end, there is no real conclusion to the meeting, or a sense of what happened or will happen going forward, that frustrated me no end. Everyone walks away unsatisfied, none the wiser, and the audience wasted two hours of their lives. Tøndel's direction also changes as the film goes along as he leans more into the surreal and the symbolic, which again was so frustrating, because it makes his story much more clouded. “Armand” is also a very ugly film to look at, with Tøndel relying on some very poor handheld camera work, but it has also been under-lit so the film looks flat and dull. This might be a cynical view, but Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's win of the Camera d'Or surely had to do with him being the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman (who are obviously cinematic royalty), rather than any talent he showed in the making of “Armand”, which I found genuinely terrible.
Overall, if you couldn't tell already, I absolutely hated Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's “Armand”, which despite having a great central idea, was then full of so many directorial missteps that he got nothing out of this idea. Whilst the acting itself is pretty good, it felt totally wasted and in need of a better film. Out of the forty six films I saw at MIFF this year, “Armand” was my least favourite of them all. Avoid at all costs.
1.5 Stars.
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