Le bûcheron des mots

There was a 1984 feel to this film that frankly starts to bore me. OK, so the world is a cruel place, and words, which mean knowledge, free thinking, are hunted down by some unknown, undefined, uninteresting bad guys. Those who still long for freedom and are willing to live it, are similarly hunted down, and constantly risk their lives. Someone coming from inside the system starts as a hunter, a word tree wood cutter. Than he starts to be fascinated with the beauty of the word world, and eventually crosses the line, and moves to the other side, and becomes a fugitive, one of those he used to hunt. This is one in a huge branch of films derived from the literature of Orwell, Bradbury and others. Something might be invented over this... I mean, Children of Men worked the decadence of a future unpleasant world in a much more interesting way.

The thing that works in this film is the over layering of images to create something visually coherent and attractive. Words are taken literally here, they are a visual layer, over some pleasantly undefined shadows of characters, themselves layered on a yellow/brown tone last plan. It works, as a plastic piece of work, it works on the purely visual aspect. This is not cinematic at root, the theme is rooted on literature (on words, beyond their physical expression), but the film is pretty enough for us to follow.

My opinion: 3/5

Cinanima 2009

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