Coolestmovies

ELSE is a French-Belgian body-horror chamber film with a massive evolutionary bent, about a recent hook-up-turned-couple - introvert Matthieu Sampeur and flighty one-night-stand Edith Proust - forced to cohabitate in his small apartment when a strange virus forces the world population into lockdown.

At first, it seems like just another disease the planet will eventually recover from - a group of neighbours are heard joyously counting down to the quarantine and the end of their freedom - until it becomes apparent that people (and basically all lifeforms) are merging into their surroundings if they stay sedentary and the entire planet and everything on it is undergoing a seismic evolution.

This was made on a modest budget but the practical and digital effects are both abundant and exceptional as the film goes on (and possibly trippy, if that is your thing). It is almost entirely filmed within the confines of the couple's apartment as the world outside and inside permanently evolves with brief but increasingly opaque views out the windows, communication through the vents with unseen neighbours (whose vocal cadences change ominously through subsequent interactions), snippets of newscasts and internet articles before the power runs out, a brief appearance by some military men at the door, and a couple of drones seen late in the film after characters venture out to escape the warping confines of the building.

Basically, this is an apocalyptic tale told from a personal, romantic perspective of two people who only have each other for however long that lasts.

Director and co-writer Thibault Emin made three short films between 2006 and 2008 and the middle one, also called ELSE, is the basis for this version 17 years later, and it is an impressive feature debut, one of those arthouse science-fiction movies where you sense the director's influences vaguely because they're not plastered verbatim on the screen, and he delivers something largely unique and self-contained with a big idea at its core.

At the TIFF festival premiere in 2024 (after which Infirst submitted this review only to have IMDb inexplicably REJECT it), Emin acknowledged some of the films and filmmakers who inspired him. Shinya Tsukamoto was one who crossed my mind by the conclusion (though not entirely in the way one might expect from seeing his name mentioned) and he confirmed that along with some other picks both surprising and not, but again there is little direct appropriation beyond some vibes and ELSE unfolds at its own pace and builds its own unique world, literally. In fact, the only aspect I personally did not fully latch onto was the relationship between the couple (both played by actors apparently known more for their stage work than film roles), but that was largely because their relationship - while really well-played in all of its awkwardness - is not one that I would find appealing in real life, but that's on me and your mileage will obviously vary.

This felt like the kind of tale you might have read, sans dialogue; in a magazine like Heavy Metal back in the day, and I am seriously keen to see what this guy can do with a larger budget if he goes that route, or if he decides to revisits the bizarro world he leaves behind here.

This review was written and published in a weekly Canadian newspaper (remember those?) on September 14, 1989:

LET IT RIDE has all the makings of a wonderful movie; an energetic cast, a talented new director Joe Pytka), an authentic milieu, and a feel-good ending but somehow the filmmakers don't quite pull it off.

The screenplay by 'Edward Morton' - reputedly SLAP SHOT writer Nancy Dowd under a pseudonym - and based on the Jay Cronley novel Good Vibes (Cronley's 1985 novel 'Funny Farm' was adapted into a similarly lackluster movie last year), seems to be the main culprit. If you're not a person who frequents the race track, then you may find the first half hour or so a little confusing. There's a lot of "track jargon" left completely unexplained.

Richard Dreyfuss plays Jake Trotter, a jumpy, compulsive man who develops a new theory about horse betting when his original $50 bet turns in to a six-figure cache over the course of a single day. Along the way Dreyfuss estranges his wife (Teri Garr) as well as many of his rag-tag track buddies including David Johannsen (a.k.a. Buster Poindexter), who often double crosses him simply because he wins too much. In one of his many prayers to God, Jake expresses his wish to hang out with the Jockey Club crowd, until he finds out they're no better than his original friends.

He finally realizes the only man on his side is the ticket window operator (Robbie Coltrane). When he places his final bet, $69,000 on the longshot, you just know there's going to be a happy ending. There is, but it's still something of a letdown.

The score by Giorgio Moroder plays like a retread of some Danny Elfman cues from other films. If you saw the TV commercials for LET IT RIDE you actually heard a bouncy selection from Danny Elfman's MIDNIGHT RUN (1988) soundtrack and not this movie.

All in all, LET IT RIDE is a modestly favourable timekiller, and little more. Not since STAKEOUT (1987) has there been a really memorable or financially successful Richard Dreyfuss movie, and I doubt this will change that at the box office. The comedy is scarce (though funny when it lands), the characters are underdeveloped, and Dreyfuss' career gets taken for a pleasant but forgettable ride.

It was once said that when you were considered successful in China, you drove a German car, wore a Swiss watch and drank French wine. This documentary was release 13 years ago as I write this. It's now 2025. For China's then nouveau riche - who very likely remembered suffering through the brutal and austere decades of the Chinese Communist Party's 30-ish years of great leaps backward - the sudden and comparative (though far from total) freedom starting in the 1980's to get 'gloriously' rich resulted in the belief that there were no higher status symbols, no greater signifiers to the teeming masses of 'great unwashed' from which you sprang but far exceeded, than the luxury European products many Chinese could only dream about for decades, if they were even allowed to know they existed at all.

Their love of wine, long term, was to be the undoing of a great many of them and to that I can only say "Good!". That has nothing to do with the mainland Chinese as a people, and much more to do with Mainland China as an unstable political construct that often backtracks on what few real freedoms it gives its people. This has become all the more apparent in the decade leading up to this year, 2025.

The arrogance of then-contemporary (2011-ish) mainland Chinese elites participating in this documentary is both honest and off the charts, but this was probably much less apparent at the time of the film's release because China was indeed on an upward trajectory. Until it wasn't.

Now, in 2025, many of the film's subjects have been reminded of the major difference between China (and now once-free Hong Kong, sadly) and longstanding western democratic cultures: when the Chinese Communist Party decides the good times are over, they're over for everyone. Period. Full stop.

When the lust in China for French wine was at its peak, Chinese entrepreneurs bought over 200 French chateaus because their undisguised greed convinced them that the best way to supply what they wrongly predicted would be the exploding China market for authentic French wine was to buy the wineries themselves and ship the bulk of the product to China from there. One such sucker, Richard Shen, claims in the film that the wines from his Bordeaux estate were only getting better because "all the best people work for me." Another Chinese interview subject says that in a few decades (after 2012), the entire world's production will not meet the demands of China. Narrator Russell Crowe - presumably hired because of his role in Ridley Scott's 2006 French vineyard-set drama A GOOD YEAR - even says at one point that in the next four decades, "China is set to become the world's largest producer of wine." On that note, another entrepreneur, who's never been to France, claims that the soil in the China's barren, isolated northwestern region of Ningxia can cultivate grapes equal to Bordeaux because then soil is apparently similar. He believes if the French can succeed over centuries, the Chinese can parrot that success in a few years through sheer willpower. Moments later we see stewards at another winery in the region explaining how much harsher the environment is there, and how difficultly the vines must be handled. One brief upside: a Chinese wine is shown winning the prestigious 2011 Decanter Award for the first time.

To say that virtually nothing predicted in this film came to pass is an understatement, but one cannot blame the filmmakers. RED OBSESSION actually does end on a down note, circa 2012, when the bloom was just beginning to come off the rose after a decade-long boom in steamroller Chinese affluence (and the accompanying attitude) that many assumed culminate with China taking over the world.

Alas, it was all downhill to this day. The wine situation is just the tip of the iceberg.

---------

From a 2025 article on Luxuo:

---------

"As China loses its love for imported wine, hundreds of Chinese-owned vineyards are sold at knockdown prices. For many investors based in Beijing and Shanghai, the prospect of making a significant profit has turned sour. Several causes are driving the sell-off. Tighter capital controls make it harder for the Chinese to spend money overseas, and a domestic crackdown on corruption has reduced demand for pricey presents.

Nine châteaux near Bordeaux - valued at around EUR 35.5 million - were seized by France in May from a Chinese entrepreneur who had been found guilty of misappropriating Chinese state funds and money laundering."

---------

And here's a snippet of a 2025 article on The Drinks Business website:

---------

"Michael Baynes of Vineyards Bordeaux, who sold 12 wineries last year, said cultural misunderstandings contributed to many of the struggles. In China, he said, seeking advice is often seen as a sign of weakness, leading some buyers to make poorly informed decisions.

With the market now saturated, vineyard prices have plummeted. Vineyards Bordeaux reports that average prices per hectare have fallen from around 55,000 euros in 2000 to as little as 10,000 euros today.

Additional pressures, including Chinese currency controls limiting overseas transfers and French banks tightening loans to small vineyards, have led to what Baynes described as a "fire sale". He said that by the end of 2024, around 400 Bordeaux vineyards were on the market - double the usual number - with about 70% classified as distressed sales needing urgent maintenance."

---------

And from the Swiss finance site Finews, also in 2025, which piggybacks on reporting from Luxuo quoted above:

---------

"The acquisition spree began in the late 2000s, as affluent Chinese buyers sought to capitalize on the booming demand for Bordeaux wine in their home market. Over 200 vineyards were purchased, often rebranded with auspicious names like «Gold Rabbit.» Investors, driven by China's growing appetite for red wine, hoped to secure both financial returns and social prestige.

However, this enthusiasm has faded dramatically. The austerity measures introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinpingin 2013 curbed extravagant spending, and subsequent capital controls further restricted outbound investments. By 2017, Beijing's tighter regulations had crippled many Chinese-owned vineyards' operations.

Meanwhile, China's wine consumption has steadily declined, dropping by 25 percent in 2023 alone, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine.

Many of these estates are now returning to the market. Château Latour-Laguens, one of the first Bordeaux properties bought by Chinese investors in 2008, exemplifies the downturn. Initially purchased for 2 million euros, the estate is now listed for just 150,000 euros, its vines abandoned and buildings in disrepair, as «LUXUO» notes.

French Investors Reclaiming Territory Other properties face similar challenges. Labor disputes, cultural clashes, and absentee ownership have plagued operations, leading to unpaid wages and management controversies. A local union representative noted that Chinese proprietors often lacked the trust needed to work effectively with French employees, compounding operational difficulties."

---------

Back to me . . .

So here we are, in 2025, and we can see that the boom has been going bust in China for years now. And honestly, it's probably for the best because of the effects of the disastrous culture clash illustrated in the quoted material above. The cultures are simply too far apart. As one French expert notes in the film, for the French winemakers the goal is PLEASING those who would drink their wares, regardless of the price (even though that's obviously a nice bonus). For the mainland Chinese, the explosion in interest in wine was only ever about status - just like those Ferraris and Swiss watches - and IMPRESSING those around you with your 'western' tastes and pretensions. The CCP put paid to that kind of ambition, affluence, and influence in relatively short order, as it was bound to do. That's the harsh reality learned by the vast majority of 'wine entrepreneurs' for whom status was everything, and whose high-minded adventures depicted in this documentary turned into folly in the years since its release.