[CRITICAL] THE CAMERA TO CLEAR

Filmed during the Cannes film Festival in 2016, “The Camera’s Clear,” continues the logical HSS of the épurement sentimental in a short film (1: 05) with medicinal virtues. With his favorite actress, Kim Min Hee, and Isabelle Huppert, radiant.

Considered one of the greatest film directors in activity, Hong Sang-soo has been working a lot, at the rate of two films per year. While The Day after talked about the difficulties of a man caught between two women and Only one on the beach at night , extended the experience of the melancholy of love, The Camera Clearly focuses on the invisible display of these torments. The face, the surface of love, what one does not perceive when one is in love, but that the others are watching.Claire, a teacher on leave, goes down to Cannes to accompany his friend (a filmmaker). Forlorn, she enjoys her days to walk around and take a picture of the people she meets. On his way, Manhee, an employee of the production company dismissed, and So Wansoo, a director. A couple in the making. If the camera’s Clear their will, following a game of luck, curious to find a meaning to their love, the unknown French, it, will have nothing, will go back as she came, with smile and joy, such a presence, volatile, half-human, half-divine. A free electron with no purpose other than to take a picture of the people that deserve it. “After taking the photo, people are different “, she says So. In fact, the invariable retention of the lovers of this world being a flat surface, you must dig gently, what better idea than to use the polaroid ? In unveiling, the pictures reveal the intentions of each and plan to deal with their own emotions. As always with Hong Sang-soo, there is an effective way to capture the minds in the doubt and to alleviate the disorders invisible.

Alone on the beach the day

On the other side of the croisette, at the corner of a flash, the melancholy of Manhee substitute for the pleasure of strolling and wandering. The city, passers-by, the sea, create a place of calming, beautifully staged. It is the simplicity of the static (fixed like an old lady, sitting on a bench) specific to the direction of the director and the sweetness of the music of the south Korean Dalpalan. The marivaudage usual becomes tenderness. The severity gives way to the deaf despair happy and shy to be among those who come to losing everything.

Passion denied, or resignation, regardless, Claire is never far away, with his pile of photos, ready to share the banalities of the most life-saving. It is, at the time the headlight, the neon and the guardian of hope and hypothetical. Thanks to it, the film discovers a reflection on the mourning. How to act after a loss ? What decisions to make ? We let you the pleasure of the responses.

If the potential healer will never be disturbed by pretexts heated, Hong Sang-soo will be held in the off-field tension born of the unfulfilled that will explode in a final thundering, vacillating between the profession of faith and the rostrum of the male eruption.

“The cinema is the art of the imponderable “

This quote ofIsabelle Huppert at the premiere of the film in Paris is indicative and gives the keys to understanding. It is easier for we, the viewers, to imagine a shoot limited to the performance of scenes accurate while some, such as HSS, opt for the possibility to regulate a shoot with the mood of the day. What do we need other than to people living in every shot, playing the text that they are willing to receive it ? The ponderable is relayed to the ranks of the enemy, opposite of ” the accident “, a miracle that occurs in the unexpected and in travail of tables the most beautiful, of the photographs of the most unusual, and movies (in full competition) the most sweet festival wild.

Sina Regnault

Your opinion ?