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Naturally, as luck would have it, a particularly alleged gross-out scene gained this some notoriety, and therefore the tale of a vampire — just married, though not yet consummated — searching for a cure to his “urge” is not merely the description or synopsis of the movie, but the whole thing in total, sans minor details along the way. (The occasional line of dialogue, time for feasting, a little travel, et al.) In knowing this, it isn’t so much that it sets up a false expectation (except for the gross-out scene), but that it leaves nothing for you to discover or learn over the duration of the movie. Although the movie’s lack of structure and unhurried pace sprinkles it with excitement of the unknown, eventually, that feeling gives way to a lengthening tedium. Director Claire Denis doesn’t bother to bulk the movie with any additional back-story, future-story, or even a linear, followable present-story. None of the questions that the movie projects are answered by Denis, who takes a back seat and pacifistic approach in her storytelling logic. Where she gains her points is in the mood; a classy melancholic atmosphere invades the proceedings (helped through the score by the Tindersticks) almost as dominantly as the vampyric transmogrifications and barely-resistible urges take over Vincent Gallo. The images are smooth and glassy, creating a bond between that and the melancholy, which only makes the surface too polished and slippery, thereby allowing the depthless-ness of the “plot” to skid and slip into monotony.

With Béatrice Dalle, Tricia Vessey, Alex Descas, Florence Loiret, and Aurore Clément.

[Worth-seeing.]

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=5776&reviewer=172
originally posted: 12/22/03 16:56:43
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