Le Greek Yorgos Lanthimos has made it known to the public thanks to Canine, his first feature film, presented at Cannes in the section un Certain Regard in 2009. Like many others before him, he went through a selection parallel in the first to, today, to integrate with their 3rd film, THE LOBSTER, the prestigious and much desired part of the Official Competition.
Speaking of THE LOBSTER, is not possible without some reference to its pitch, which is absolutely crazy : In the near future… Any single person is arrested, transferred to the Hotel and has 45 days to find a soul sister. After this period, it will be transformed into the animal of his choice. To escape this fate, a man runs away and joins in the wood a group of resistance fighters called the Loners.
Pick on an original idea laid down on paper, you know, and it’s easy. But then when, once in images, the film is at the height of its premise, it gives a slap in the face as THE LOBSTER. We live in a world full of grotesque, but for which the coherence and treatment adherence from the first minutes without flinching. Beyond the strangeness deployed, we realize that everything is done with intelligence. At the bottom of what is the film about ? A society where love is located at via points in common, that it is qualities such as defects, without that feelings – is the most important ! – enter the game. The coldness that emanates from this universe tucks the character of Colin Farrell (in a role close to that of Joaquin Phoenix in Her, up to the moustache) in a vise suffocating where he is constantly put in the face of the urgency of the situation : to find a wife, or become a lobster. Each alarm sounds announcing the number of days remaining, the ceremonies to celebrate the formation of a couple linked together, as are the small productions of the Hotel tends propagandist on the usefulness of being in a couple. So we learn that two people can not die suffocated if it swallows it through, or we don’t violate if you take a walk with her companion. And these are examples among many others that constitute a world where the viewer is asked very often whether he should laugh or be uncomfortable. Because it must be said, THE LOBSTER is a very funny film.
Lanthimos objects in a first time the members of the Hotel and the Solitary parts of hunts for us do we realize, when Colin Farrell will go in the Solitary, that none of the two sides offers ideals to live on love. And this is welcome. In the end, the true conflict rather puts in opposition two different clans : the sentimental love against love, shaped by criteria. It was feared that in spite of the virtuosity formal, the film is struggling to create emotion. This is the case a good time in the first part. There are moments of cinema sumptuous of which a significant part of hunting at idle. It’s Impossible to deny the ability of Lanthimos to be a formidable composer of plans. The second part remains in the same your stylistic while arriving to take us in a love story touching. It is known from the outset, as of their meeting, that the two characters are made to go together. The way built their relationship makes all the beauty of the film. A first stage sounds the beginning of a double-game delicious : Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz are to play a fake couple on a visit “in Town”, in order not to arouse suspicion. In this role play, what is supposed to be the fake sounds like the true. The big statements of Farrell about his so-called wife is in fact a nice first declaration of love from which the schemes will multiply to live this relationship in front of all the others, while being hidden. A double language is established, via the bodily and the grotesque no longer serves as the foundation of a bizarre world but becomes a means of communication.
“Pack on an original idea laid down on paper, it is easy. But then when, once in images, the film is at the height of its premise, it gives a slap in the face as THE LOBSTER.”
What about that first kiss in the middle of the forest ? Without a doubt, the most beautiful moment of the film. At the bend of a shared dance in osmosis, the two lovers embrace each other under the watchful eye of a fixed camera placed at a distance to create a space of rare privacy they deserve. Point fireworks or search for the plan that is going to flatter the retina. The moment lasts, the moment is beautiful. Difficult to say much about the film without spoiling the beautiful things the filmmaker’s Greek. It is not the desire that is lacking in the light of our enthusiasm to the output of the projection. It would not be surprising, at the time of the awards ceremony, to see them leave with a little something. Bets are made. In the meantime, we may say, therefore, that THE LOBSTER is worn by players great, including a Colin Farrell in one of his best roles, with Rachel Weisz as compelling as she is beautiful. And he takes his foot during 1 hour and 50 minutes in front of the inventiveness of the film, his flamboyant showmanship and its gone amazing. Until the end of cruel, reconfiguring of a sudden our whole perception of the main character. Magic.
THE LOBSTER is presented in the official selection of the Cannes film Festival edition 2015 !