Le confessionnal

Robert LePage is, in my opinion, a film-making genius. "Le Confessionel" has some of the best photography I have ever seen on film. The plot, the characters, the pacing, and the editing all come together perfectly to make a compelling and visually stunning film. I know Mr. Lepage has done a lot of work in the theater, as well as acting in film (e.g. "Jesus of Montreal"). He is multi-talented and truly gifted.

A complicated family past haunts two brothers in search of the truth. Via flashbacks we meet the family in turmoil, coincided with the making of Alfred Hitchcock's I CONFESS. With the creative use of past and present interweaved, we slowly find the truth that has been sitting under our noses at all times. Very clever and a very effective piece of cinema story telling.

Strange, gray and power. Chain of stories. Puzzle in cruel colors. A mother. Twoo priests. A movie. A great director. A taxi driver. Twoo brothers. A hotel. And a sick boy. Slices of universes and feeling of a rain circle. A museum with very old objects. A labyrinth with a lot of mirrors. A flavor of lost carnations. A piano song in a very deep room. The story is not very important. The point are emotions. Searches. Slices of hope. And the warm expectation. A film in which the spectator is part. Not another actor but a small bone of show. A show who exists in himself. So, it is not possible to be the outsider. Beautiful in a form without words,"Le confessional" is a interesting lesson about appearances and masks. About the cruelty of past and the red of present. About run and the Japanese refuge. About the death like huge shadow and the truth as oil drop.

"Le Confessionnal" is nothing if not ambitious: playing out in 2 time zones about 40 years apart simultaneously, AND going to the extra trouble of recreating a faux "making-of" feature for Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 drama "I Confess", which was set and (partly) shot in Quebec. The film has an intriguing plot but loses momentum after a while and at times becomes exceedingly muddled, though it mostly clears up by the end. The best thing about it are the transitions between the present and the past, which are smooth and sometimes purely magical. The actor who plays Hitchcock bears an almost uncanny physical resemblance to the real man, the only thing he doesn't get quite right is the voice. **1/2 out of 4.

Visually, this is one of the best films ever made. There are 3 elements, one in 1952 Quebec, one in 1989 Quebec and one actually from Alfred Hitchcocks "I Confess", of which this movie seems to be a realy loose remake of.

The way the film moves seamlessly between 1952 and 1989, and the odd dreamlike sequences that occur a couple of times, and the continous sequence of brilliant images is the best things of the film. The plot, however, does take a bit of a back seat,although the ending is excellent, and the Kristen Scott Thomas character is unneccesary.