Le déserteur

The kind of film I crave for but only from time to time; not always. A weird, bizarre movie, not destined for all audiences. A definitely anti war feature, with awesome settings of Canada and some French actors, as Romain Duris in a very rare role for him: a disgusting, nasty villain, some kind of torturer. Actually, the middle of the movie is, for me, the most interesting part of the whole. Not the beginning nor the end. Unusual scheme of our lead meeting a very beautiful lady who happens to be herself a torturer, but not a hysterical torturer, no, on the contrary, a very "cool" torturer, which shows her in a more terrific way. It's such a shame that the ending doesn't please me, not my taste at all. A film that deserves to be seen. Definitely.

In a timeless, parched and depressed landscape, the people who encourage happiness are usually trying to sell something. Philippe is an actor playing Charlie Chaplin who assumes the role in real life. It is a surreal and narcissistic dog eat dog world where misery, addiction and entitlement are rampant. Philippe may be lost, alone and troubled, but he is still hopeful. "You are the ones who are weak," he tells those who would use him for a bit of gold. "you are cowards afraid of doing good." Phillipe is lost and wants to find his way back to something meaningful and good.

Chilling, stylish and dark, The Great Darkened Days is a profoundly personal film for the director who struggled to tell a story true to his vision and as independently as possible from the material world. The film setting is in a fantastic ghost town of Nevada. The Great Darkened Days is a little forced and awkward, but it tells an essential story with parallels to modern times. Seen at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.