Un 32 août sur terre

This film was one of three movies at the Hyderabad Film Festival in January 1999 that caught my eye.

For a first feature film by a director, this effort is commendable. No doubt this Canadian was helped with the choice of a stunning actress, a good editor, and above average cinematography. The weakest point was the script.

I look forward to seeing more films by this director and the lead actress Pascale Bussières. Denis Villeneuve has talent, it only needs to be developed further through experience.

This film is a delignt! Pascale Bussières is, as always, seductive and enchanting. Alexis Martin is touching and funny. I hope a translation in English will bring out the subtle humor of Simone (Pascale Bussières)and her friend (Alexis Martin). Just for the love letter and the scene of Alexis in a Japanese-like room mimicing weightlessness, this film is a must! All about the problems of the X generation, "Un 32 août sur terre" also offers a broad reflection on sex relations and the meaning of life. The scenes in Salt Lake City are superb. The plot ? A woman crashes with her car in the night, her whole life will be upset. See the rest !

Simone (Pascale Bussières) is a young Canadian fashion model who is on the brink of a brilliant career. But this bright future could be thwarted due to a serious car accident of which she miraculously survives. In the aftermath, she decides to put an end to her professional life and becomes obsessed with the idea to have a baby. So, she persuades her best friend, Philippe (Alexis Martin) to act with and for her and the latter accepts provided they do it in the desert. A few days later, they are in this silent, eerie place...

"Un 32 Août Sur Terre" is a curious work that will puzzle a good proportion of viewers. It reminded me a lot of "Twentynine Palms" (2003) by Bruno Dumont although this film is posterior to Denis Villeneuve's film. This was also a film set in an ominous, desert place and in which evolved two tortured characters. They had (wild) sex there and they were surrounded by an unforgiving humanity. In a way, humanity isn't also very gentle to Simone and Philippe in this film: the taxi driver jettisons them in the desert, Alexis is bludgeoned by a gang of ruffians.

Simone's demeanor leaves the ground open for many interpretations: is it because she came close to death that she wants to have a baby? Does she want to discover a new way of life? And if so, where does it lead her? Apart from other many questions that will rise in the viewer's mind, Villeneuve deftly uses the desert landscapes to create majestic, entrancing images. It's even a sort of "in camera" that the director manages to create. A sensation that will come again later when the two friends are in the cramped hotel room. The sense of fantastic is palpable throughout the film: from this car accident to these extra days in August that don't exist to this irrational sequence during which the gang beat Philippe to death. In the end, Villeneuve shrouds his film with a philosophical dimension revolving around life and death.

In Philippe's house, there's a cover depicting Jean Seberg who saw her career taking off thanks to Jean-Luc "God Ard"'s "A Bout De Soufflé" (1959). Godard's detractors blame him for his intellectual pretensions which clutter his works. Many viewers will also deem this work as highbrow and elusive for understandable reasons. Keep it for a day during which you are prone to reflection and thought as it's not a work for the mainstream. And for French viewers, beware! As Quebec people speak with a very pronounced accent, it's sometimes difficult to decipher their words

I enjoy chronologically moving up the filmographies of directors I admire. I watched this about 5 or 6 years ago (when I was 17) and didn't think too much of it then but watched it again on a whim now and I feel as if certainly grown in the meantime to appreciate more than the boring superficialities I had unconciously learned through so many years of popular media consumption. I now change my rating from 5 to 9 stars, because for me, now, the definition of a good film is this magical creation of a mood and atmosphere where you can occupy the space with the characters. The story doesn't always matter. You crash your car, perhaps you die, perhaps you go into a coma or perhaps you really break your window and escape from your car, there's no telling. Perhaps it's all a dream and why not since it's August 32nd from the time after the crash (well at least until it's suddenly 5th september after 36th August sometime near the end of the film; could that be a hint towards a reality?). Who knows, really? Charred body of a stranger in the desert, a swindler cabbie who cheats you and gives you a nosebleed (just like when you got a nosebleed sometime after your crash) and more evil men who randomly drive up to people and beat them to coma in the middle of the night...it's certainly a strange and difficult world. A vast and white desert, a claustrophobic and white room for the night, will the characters ever mate with each other? Did anyone else notice how the shot of the cab driving into the road leading to the white desert had this very phallic imagery? Hah not sure how much I'm reading into it. The strange nature of these observations and hints dropped throughout the film will resurface later in Villeneuve's Enemy (which is brilliant imo). There is a quiet, realistic humour throughout which is mostly missing from Villeneuve's other works but works well here to sustain the "mood". It's a film about nothing which "hints" towards a "something". Perhaps the hint is based on nothing really...perhaps the director himself does not know...it doesn't matter. Would recommend, it's always good to watch stuff which makes you think...even about nothing.

I'm here just to say it's qualified to be among the best ones, deserves watching more than once,and the director is very promising, for it's his debut.

The reality is so ridiculous and unreasonable, we have to accept it as it is.Fortunately, we still have love to warm us and protect us from the coldness and cruelty.

which needs to be added,the leading actress Pascale is nearly perfect,I also got a glimpse of her in Five Senses.I hope I can see her in When Night is Falling someday.