2015 ‘Évolution’ Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic
11-year-old Nicolas lives with his mother in a seaside housing estate. The only place that ever sees any activity is the hospital. It is there that all the boys from the village are forced to undergo strange medical trials that attempt to disrupt the phases of evolution.
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Second watch cements that not only is this one of the best films ever made, but it's actually a perfect hybrid between narrative & experimental/affective/gestural/whatever filmmaking. Endlessly beautiful, the sound design is perfect, there is nowhere I want to visit/live/exist/die more than Lanzarote, the Mediterranean Sea is literally the home that I ache for, the elliptical experimental medical facility narrative + bodies in touch with the sea + an unknowable need for escape is literally everything. I am so so so so so glad I can revisit this one regularly now.
There are many films that I've seen throughout my life that are perhaps "better" than this, even within the confines of my personal canon, but I can't think of another…
Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s unforgettably unsettling Evolution is set on a rustic island somewhere off the coast of France, perhaps in the stretch of azure sea between the YA dystopia of The Giver and the chilly urban streets of Under the Skin. It's a place where single women with white brows and black pupils raise a generation of young boys without fathers (nowhere to be seen).
During the days, the youths go swimming amongst the coral. At night, their mothers feed their kids a mush of curdled squid ink and inject their skinny arms with a vile sleep-inducing goop they refer to as “medicine.” One evening, a curious little boy named Nicolas (Max Brebant) manages to resist his dose, slipping out of the spartan house he shares with his mom (Julie-Marie Parmentier). He follows her to the shore, and that’s when things start to get weird.
Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Evolution is mystifying & Manuel Dacosse's cinematography was devastating, the two of them came together to create a breathtaking work of art that will haunt me for weeks to come.
On an even less sophisticated & spoilerish note, I have always been super into the idea of humans evolving from the sea & vaguely Lovecraftian fish people with bleached eyebrows, so, this was an easy 5-stars.
Under The Sign Of The Starfish (Or Sea-Star)
Where Did We Come From? Where Are We Now? Where Are We Going?
How Are We Who We Are? Our We Our Antecedents? To What Extent Are We What Comes From Us But Leaves Us Behind?
Many times there have been where I wish I could leave this body or have it be changed so radically it is no longer this or something better, something different. We may not survive ourselves. We may not survive the conditions which we have brought upon us. How do we adapt to a world shaped by our own ignorance of the world?
The Future Is Transhuman Or Not At All, At Least Not For Us.
Us…
Another film that ended up on my rental list that I knew nothing about, I can't even remember where I heard of it.
But that's often the best way to discover a film - especially something like this that turns out to be like nothing (well, very little) I've seen before.
The one thing it does remind me of is Under The Skin - it's a strange, creepy tale told with a bleak visual flare and beauty that leaves much up to the viewer. I won't say any more, it's best you discover it for yourself.
An unnerving, beautiful, shimmering nightmare. In a perfect world Lucile Hadžihalilović would have made Annihilation
Black/White, Sea/Land, Woman/Boy and Silence. A pretty film, but so up its own ass that it loses all purpose.
Der Nachfolger zu "Innocence" von Lucile Hadzihalilovic. Erneut eine grausame/verstörende Kindheitsgeschichte in berückenden Bildern (Kamera: Manuel Dacosse, u.a. "Amer" und "The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun"), diesmal aus Sicht der Jungen. Strukturell sehr ähnlich zu "Innocence" (abgeschlossene Welt - diesmal ein heruntergekommenes Krankenhaus, Wasser), Geschichte in symbolischen Andeutungen.
The symbiosis between human and nature that this movie created is one of the most impressive things ever done on film.
Vanessa 3,758 films
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Just a list of some pretty cool movie posters on the LB database. I haven't seen most of these movies.…
