Pacifiction

Taking place on Tahiti, "Pacifiction" takes a long time to set the story in motion, though director Albert Serra gives us some images to think about. The images are beautiful and the camera dwells on many sets far too long. When I finally got to the end of the film I was tired and regretted that I could not feel as I should.

Well, here is the story: The High Commissioner of the Republic of France, De Roller, has little power but tries to keep peace on the island, when some native representatives inform him of a rumor, that nuclear testing is returning to the region.

Of course, everyone is upset by this idea, though no one seems to know anything in particular. But as De Roller starts to investigate, he finds a number of strange things going on, a group of sailors plus their captain, a Portuguese visitor who's passport has been stolen, foreign shady characters are popping up, a submarine has been sighted and so on.

The more De Roller pokes around, the less he can make any sense out of it but he begins to believe that there is truth in the rumor. In between he manages to coach a local dance group for their performance at his favorite night club, where he also chats with Shanna, a transsexual. Shanna has high hopes to become the secretary of the Commissioner, and De Roller certainly gives him reason to think so by taking him along on some of his visits. This relationship does not seem to be sexual, but the film gives no explanation to what it is that draws De Roller to Shanna.

I don't want to go into more details, but the film is certainly too long, I would say by an hour! Running 2:45 right now, there is no reason not to cut it down, some sidelines don't really advance the story. But despite the length, we hardly see any Tahitians who are not wearing costumes and perform for tourists. Which I don't think is close to reality.

There are some serious qualities there. First of all, who doesn't want a trip to Tahiti?? There are "beautiful shots", as they say: waves, skies, nature, Benoît Magimel pensive on the beach, sometimes on an absolutely magnificent music score. It's a film that can be just admired as is.

It's also a film that can be used to admire Magimel, to hear him speak, wavering, a little mushy, always on the verge of tripping over his feet... It's quite fascinating.

But his performance is not enough to compensate for a slow mise-en-scene by default, rigid, flat, desperately sterile. It is the disease of a certain European-Asian festival cinema which under-cuts its mise-en-scene out of ease and habit. Despite everything, there are some exciting ideas here and there, never to be forgotten, a woman framed in a certain way for no particular reason, that's something but that's not much.

And then what do Magimel and the others really have to say anyway? The story is of very questionable interest. He is a high commissioner of the French Republic who navigates between local councilors against a backdrop of rumours of a resumption of nuclear tests in the region... I've heard of more exciting stories.

One of those movies that has raving critic reviews but where the audience just doesn't seem to like it.

The movie didn't work for me. I enjoyed the beautful locations and the mood. The acting was good. But the plot just didn't go anywhere. Some scenes seemed to go on forever without adding anything to the movie. I kept up for about an hour and then I just started daydreaming.

When I left the cinema, someone was complaining to me in the bathroom that it was such a bad movie. Another movie-goer put it nicely when walking out the doors: "well, this was 3 hours of my life I'm never getting back".

Great contemplative film that carries something from Apocalypse Now without apocalypse (unless it's the ghostly presence of Marlon Brando playing tricks on me) and Below the Volcano. A port, a nightclub, the sea, sailors, dancers, receptions - all elements linked by Benoît Magimel. It's a poisonous film whose motives (a submarine, a rumour, political and social relations, violence, colonization, etc.) initiated do not give any tension to the film (it's not a thriller as it has been written), the film is on the contrary a sort of stable state, stirred by waves. The photography is sublime. A magnificent film.

Benoît Magimel is the easy going French High Commissioner "De Roller". Charged with representing the French Government on it's Polynesian outpost of Tahiti where he travels the island in his chauffeur driven Mercedes glad-handing and pretty much going from party to party. The arrival of an admiral (Marc Susini) and some rather hunky sailors on his island soon has tongues wagging, though. Before he knows it, his placid existence is being disturbed by increasingly popular - and disturbing - rumours that the French are to restart nuclear weapons testing nearby. Of course he is assured not, and makes similar assurances to the population himself, but when local girls start to go missing the presence of the military and a general sentiment amongst the locals seems to encourage a view that it's time to assert their own independence. This creates more problems that begin to cause our diplomatic quite an headache. Can he sort it all out? Is there even anything to sort out? The thing with this film is that it is far, far too long. The story could easily lose an hour and no harm would be done. The plot, political mischief and island intrigues, would benefit from that tightening up too - perhaps sparing us from the many shots of his car! Magimel delivers an efficient characterisation here, but he is largely left to his own devices as the supporting cast struggle to build upon a rather thin storyline that needed a bit more shoring up to sustain the interest as it rambled on. It has it's moments, but sadly just not enough of them. Oh, and it's pretty wet down there!