A Lake

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Audience Member Grandrieux makes ample use of darkness, fog, and a blurred camera, effects which create a palpable sense of mystery around what is at its heart a very simple story. The mystery in turn diminishes the importance of the narrative as Grandrieux instead aims to uncover feelings associated with deep familial attachment and loss. The film's setting, on an island in the middle of a lake, seems primordial and thereby universalizes the tale beyond its immediate context. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Hapuilevalla käsivarakameralla kuvattu draama sijoittuu synkkiin järvimaisemiin. Odotin näkeväni syviin metsiin kuvatun trillerin, mutta tuloksena oli ylitaiteellista paskaa! Ranskalainen dialogi oli minimaalista. Ehkä sen takia kun näyttelijät olivat venäläisiä? Olin nukahtaa tylsyyteen. Puolikas tähti tulee upeista maisemista. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member I had no clue of the plot before, during or after the, erm, experience. This virtually silent film supposedly takes a look into the mind of a serial killer. In reality, it looks like it's more or less from a modern art exhibition. The movie is not long but it's very hard to concentrate on it. There were about 20 people in the screening and I counted that some 12 eventually walked out. And as if it wasn't awkward enough, there had to be a sex scene. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Slow, quiet. Hypnotic. Less reliant on drone soundtrack than Grandrieux's other films, this one is cold, distant. The delicate sounds of snow compressed under weight. Rocks crumbling under boots. The heavy breathing of the people living in this isolated environment. The camera is shaky, unstable. Sometimes we get too close to the characters of the story, sometimes too far away. Sometimes it seems we are given too little insight to the thoughts of the characters, sometimes too much all at once. This is a film that comes in subtle waves; little tremors of the subconscious that amount to quite a lot when all is said and done. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Philippe Grandieux continues to just blow me the fuck away. Much like Sombre and La Vie Nouvelle, Grandieux's latest film uses visual and audio storytelling over dialogue. Grandieux attacks the viewers senses submerging him in this isolated wintry country side. The plot is very minimalistic but may in fact be his most accessible film. Grandieux is the consummate artist, always pushing the medium forward in an attempt to completely submerge the viewer in this desolate world. A film that must be experienced in total darkness. The films pacing seems to bother some people, but for me it just flew by. Every frame of this film is absolutely gorgeous, featuring some of the best imagery I have ever seen. I swear I started to feel the cold in my skin. I don't even want to say anything more about this film because I just don't think I can do it justice. I will say, Its funny how in a day an age when 3D is supposed to save the industry by submerging the viewer more into the film, Grandieux succeeds on a level which 3D never could. Grandrieux is quickly becoming one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member The film challenges our usualy practice of seeing film so visually. Not until near the end of the film I realized that I was feeling the director's capture of human experience, about being closed with the one you are connected with. In connecting with one I love I don't focus visually like camera, nor talk a lot to make me understood, nor realize the backdrop, these are just hollywood or TV soup series to make message so clear, information so overwhelmingly redundant. Somehow such explicit communication disconnects, wastes more effort to interpret the meaning, and builds more distance between people. It is a sinking-in process. The director said the Lake is the containment of deep feelings, no one can escape by going on the surface crossing. To get out of the lake is to first sink in it, then grasp the energy flow deep down and the moment comes when you can finally control when hold it or leave it. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews

A Lake

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