THE STARRY SKY ABOVE MY HEAD, a gentle madness – a Critique

Funny, clever, kitschy and so much draft, The Starry Sky Above My Head, Ilan Klipper is a real surprise bag.

This first fiction feature film is a sweet madness which denotes with its kind, and tale the sweet madness of Bruno (Laurent Poitrenaux), the author of the first successful novel that looks for twenty years to write a second one. In his inner world, head-to-head with himself, Bruno seeks inspiration, constructs theories about everything and anything and telling stories from morning to night without moving from him, slip or kimono flower. Wacky ? Without a doubt, but brilliant too, and little wonder when one learns that The Starry Sky Above My Head comes close to a sort of triptych of the director on the wandering psychic, the creation and vendor lock-in ” which includes a documentary (Sainte-Anne) and a short film (Juke-Box).No other similar, this feature requires, however, to appreciate it, not to give in to the temptation to leave the room during the first quarter of an hour. Eight-ended disjointed and stuffy in the editing incomprehensible, difficult to understand at first in what sense (proper or a figurative) understanding of the scenes awkward, or incomplete, which follow one another. Is it a flashback or the continuity of the previous scene ? Is this a dream of the protagonist or his reality atypical ? Where sum we ? Where are we going ? Mystery… And to add to this table, apocalyptic and surreal, a beautiful activist FEMEN fully lit who lives in a shared flat with Bruno makes a few appearances…and Then the day dawns, and while we hope a change of scenery and leave this lair of madness, an extraordinary event takes place within this apartment and we seize with delight, for the rest of the film.Revealing a perfect analysis of the pitfalls of the creative process, The Starry Sky Above My Head is a exciting journey in the brain of an author. Through dialogues also funny that incisive between Bruno and his entourage, we find alternately the free interpretation and idealistic as Bruno gives his acts, and the way in cartesian and standard with which they are judged by the outside world. To each his own truth, everyone is of good faith and good intention, but nobody, except her roommate disconnected from reality, and the character played by Camille Chamoux, only manage to grab the side of poetic and inevitable behaviour of Bruno.

“Ilan Klipper offers a film whose form is akin to a UFO, but whose background reveals an artistic sensibility, deep and a true reflection of psychological and philosophical on the creation..”

A stroke of metaphors and discourse psychological that are quite subtle so as not to fall into clichés, one sees clearly the difficulty and the risk arising from the necessary isolation required by the writing process. Inevitably, if one stays too long in a dialogue with oneself, to wander in the meanders of his thoughts to find the inspiration, without a face, from time to time at least, in the eyes of the Other, without realizing anything, the social isolation sets in. From this disconnect that is not wolf, may arise gradually the misunderstanding, the fear, the paranoia, etc… It is precisely this marginalization is unintentional, this slip unconscious, which is perceived differently by the one and the other. For Bruno, his mode of life reflects a total freedom to live as he intends, in the service of his art, without any social constraints or physiological (day and night make no difference), he considers as an idealistic, rebellious, whose only master is called love. For their part, the relatives of Bruno perceive this “freedom” with arrogance, it is a foot of nose to their little lives of the “ordinary” that they are deeply unjust, but also abnormal.It is without judgment thatIlan Klipper offers us to enter into this paradox, of empathy towards each of his tender characters alternately moving, hilarious, hysterical or brilliant. Never go where one expects it, the director for the unusual and creative features a film whose form is akin to a UFO, but whose background reveals an artistic sensibility, deep and a true reflection of psychological and philosophical creation. But The Starry Sky Above My Head has also the quality to Laurent Poitrenaux – a strange cross between Nicolas Bedos and Alain Chabat, as little academic as the director who directs it, and simply perfect in this role which seems tailor-made to reveal the extent of his talent…

Stephanie Ayache

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