La grande noirceur (The Great Darkened Days)

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Director: Maxime Giroux
Written by: Simon Beaulieu, Maxime Giroux, and Alexandre Laferrière
Soko's role: Esther (aka Rosie)
With: Martin Dubreuil, Sarah Gadon, and Reda Kateb
Released: 21 August 2019 (France)
Length: 95 minutes
Genre: drama
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Soko as Rosie/Esther in La Grande Noirceur
Soko as Esther aka Rosie

Phillippe (Martin Dubreuil) makes his living as a Charlie Chaplin impersonator. He is from Montreal, and is travelling through the western United States in an effort to avoid returning to military duty. In this alternate history, a World War is happening. We hear part of General Patton's 31 May 1944 speech to his troops, but the car whose radio we hear it on is from the 1950s. A series of surreal encounters illuctrate the dog-eat-dog nature of American culture as Phillippe travels through the American west. He takes temprary shelter with Helen (Sarah Gadon), a woman who hold Esther (Soko) in involuntary bondage. Solo is forced to role-play as a dog named Rosie. His final encounter is with a cigarette salesman (Cody Fern), an encounter that leaves Phillippe possibly addicted to nicotene, but, at least subjectively, freer.

Charles-Henri Ramond, reviewed the film for Films du Quebec: "Chaque plan, chaque rebondissement et chaque personnage sont porteurs d’une signification cachée et de nombreuses métaphores. Elles évoquent tour à tour une allégorie de l’Amérique et de ses démons (l’esclavagisme, la cupidité, la perte d’innocence), tout en donnant l’illustration d’un pays où tout est envisageable, même lorsque l’on a touché le fond, comme le montre la scène finale, synonyme de départ vers de nouveaux horizons. On peut également y déceler une vision de cette bonhommie franco-canadienne dans une Amérique profondément cynique et violente qui se moque de ses voisins. On pourrait de plus trouver matière à une critique amère de la surpuissance et de l’ingérence des États-Unis."

Martin Dubreuil and Soko - La Grande Noirceur
Phillippe and Esther

Jordan Mintzer wrote in The Hollywood Reporter: "From one sequence to the next, Giroux reveals how the country has been transformed into one giant, surreal nightmare — a place where you’re either the hunter or the hunted, where people will do anything for a buck and where death seems to lurk behind each doorway or hilltop. It’s a bleak vision to say the least, although the director sets it against a magnficient backdrop that’s artfully captured by DP Sara Mishara (Tu dors Nicole), whose cinematography makes the film entirely watchable despite the weird, meandering narrative. Certain shots, such as a panorama of Philippe arriving in a snow-capped town, or another of a steam engine suddenly traversing the landscape, remain with you well after the movie ends."

La Grande Noirceur can be streamed on Fawesome TV, and is available on DVD.

CAST

TRAILER

La Grande Noirceur - trailer
La grande noirceur - poster