An AGAT Films & Cie (France)/ Versus Production (Belgium) production, in association with Rhone-Alpes Cinema. (International sales: Films Distribution, Paris.) Produced by Dominique Barneaud, Robert Guediguian. Directed by Laurent Achard. Screenplay, Achard, Nathalie Najem, based on a novel by Timothy Findley.
With: Julien Cochelin, Pascal Cervo, Annie Cordy, Fettouma Bouamari, Jean-Yves Chatelais, Dominique Reymond, Florence Giorgetti.
(French dialogue)
A family's madness and despair are seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy in the bleak French-Belgian gothic drama "Demented." Gallic helmer Laurent Achard ("More Than Yesterday"), who won a best director gong at the recent Locarno fest for this, opts for a corrosively austere, score-free aesthetic that spotlights the intense perfs at its heart, especially from deadpan Julien Cochelin in the lead. However, despite its bravura qualities, plot trajectory may prove too much of a major downer for most auds. Pic will need fest exposure, critical support and further kudos to break out of niche asylums.
Adapted from 1967 novel "The Last of the Crazy People" by Canadian scribe Timothy Findley, script by Achard and Nathalie Najem seamlessly transposes action from mid-'60s small-town Canada to contempo rural France.
Book flows out of internal monologues from its young protagonist, but in the screen version, young Martin (Cochelin), rarely speaks. Still, his point-of-view almost entirely structures the action as he watches from the sidelines or listens from another room as his family falls apart.
In a large, dilapidated farmhouse that the brood clearly can't afford to keep up, Martin's semi-catatonic mother Nadege (Dominique Reymond, another memorably suffering mom in "Will It Snow for Christmas?") has locked herself in her room and won't even speak to her bewildered husband Jean (Jean-Yves Chatelais).
Unsympathetic to Nadege's plight, Jean's mother Rose (veteran Annie Cordy) has taken on the role of the lady of the house.
Meanwhile, Martin overhears the sound of kissing in the barn where his older brother Didier (Pascal Cervo, from "More Than Yesterday") has been having an affair with a neighbor boy, who is now planning to marry a local girl. News of the nuptials sends Didier into an alcoholic tailspin of despair.
Only Malika (Fettouma Bouamari), the family's Arab housekeeper, and occasionally Didier pay attention to the watchful, too-still Martin.
The discovery of a handgun in a neighbor's house lays the way for a last-act tragedy, but the tone is more akin to William Faulkner or Racine than a sermon on the evils of firearms from Michael Moore. Climax may prove either too harrowingly brutal or over-the-top for some auds' taste, but last scene's use of sound is nevertheless impressively expressionistic in itself. Before this, occasional stabs of welcome humor lighten the atmosphere.
Using mostly medium and long shots to create a detached sense of emotional distance, Achard ratchets up the tension with chilling control as the traumas pile up on Martin's head.
Only once does pic diverge from his viewpoint, for an unnecessary scene in which Didier burns his journals, but Cervo's acting is so strong here that the digression is forgivable. Cochelin -- with his wide-spaced eyes, one lid always slightly droopy -- has a mesmeric, otherworldly presence.
Camera (color), Philippe Van Leeuw, Georges Diane; editor, Jean-Christophe Hym; production designer, Eric Barboza; costumes, Marick Copins, Ricardo Munoz; sound (Dolby DTS), Philippe Grivel, Mathieu Cox. Reviewed at Locarno Film Festival (competing), Aug. 9, 2006. Running time: 102 MIN.
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Date in print: Mon., Sep. 4, 2006