Le seuil du vide

With her romance on the rocks, Wanda Leibowitz heads for Paris to fulfill her dreams of becoming an artist. Alone in the big city except for her brother's friend Dr. Liancourt, Wanda's happy to make the acquaintance of old Mrs. Galois who offers to rent her a room at a price that's too good to be true. There's one proviso, however -Wanda's told never to open a locked door in her room but, of course, she opens it and finds a black void where no light penetrates. She enters the void and finds she can now paint with a talent she never had before but she's also being sapped of life and becomes convinced Dr. Liancourt and Mrs. Galois aren't who they say they are...

THRESHOLD OF THE VOID is kind of like a '70s version of ROSEMARY'S BABY meets SHE by way of "Alice In Wonderland" and luckily the slow-burn story leads to a satisfying payoff. Dreamily directed by Jean-François Davy whose background in porn could have turned this into another XXX THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS but, alas, it's not that kind of movie. Not bad, tho.

After an aborted affair with a married diplomat (Michel Lemoine), Vanda is distraught and decides to try her luck in Paris. As soon as she arrives to the train station, an old stunted woman offers her a triangle-shaped room for a very cheap price, a godsend on which Vanda throws herself immediately. She's told she'll be able to paint in peace as long as she does not open this condemned mysterious door. But curiosity is a pretty ugly defect...

Adapted from a Kurt Steiner novel, published at Fleuve Noir editor, LE SEUIL DU VIDE constitutes a beautiful homage to the disturbing and fascinating world of the author. Supernatural and onirism are skillfully mixed, helped by a body of very good actors; Michel Lemoine always has a strong and fascinating presence, that is unfortunately here underexploited.

Torn between DORIAN GRAY and a less celebrated Raphaël Delpard effort, LA NUIT DE LA MORT, the narrative exploits the hantise of ageing and the worship of the eternal youth cult. The employed means border on cannibalism but remain in the occult domain; one does not seize all that's happening very well, and the metaphysical torments of the heroin lack a little veracity. Davy really innovates in some delirium scenes. The special effects are very impressive for the time the movie was shot...

Davy's pornographic roots are absent here, and he shoots the female bodies with an icy sobriety. Michel Caputo, another famous pornograph, signs the artistic direction and even allows himself an auto reference; the poster that Vanda sticks on the "forbidden" door is the one of "L'ATTENTAT", a play Caputo directed some time before shooting began. Davy does a cameo in a bar scene, discussing about some philosophical ideas of his era, and then leaves the screen for the rest of the movie. One will not forget, nevertheless, the disconcerting atmosphere of his work and the beautiful hour of enchantment that LE SEUIL will have given us.

Jean-François Davy is more renowned in his native France for his pornographic movies than for his foray into the fantastic genre.In 1971,fantasy and horror movies were completely unusual in France and the last important work the country had produced in the field takes us back to the early sixties ("les yeux sans visages",Georges Franju).

Although based on a Kurt Steiner novel,a trendy writer at the time ,now almost forgotten,"le seuil du vide" mainly borrows from Polanski ,essentially "Rosemary's baby"(1968) :the old nice lady;the door which leads to another world ;the "good" doctor calling the bad one when the heroine tries to escape;the costume ball which recalls the Castevetes "parties" and sabbath.It owes a lot to "invasion of the body snatchers" (1956)too.To Davy's credit ,we can mention a rather impressive ending.Not enough to get up in the night though.