If Ne me quitte pas is a feature film, Bakker and Van Koevorden have captured two of the most naturalistic, nuanced, and committed representations of alcoholism ever captured on film.
I'm still not sure which side of the fence this Flemish evocation of Beckett falls. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps it is enough to luxuriate in the stumbling, rundown, ludicrous beauty of it all. Watching these two blackly humoured alcoholics battle with their day to day lives, wrestling with their petty dramas and pushing on despite them is strangely life affirming. It is good to know that you can get trolleyed every day and still function somewhere in the world.
For Bob and Marcel, that place is a small village in the farthest corner of Belgium. When they're not together, drinking themselves into a stupor, Marcel is trying to cope with the breakup of his marriage and his traumatised children (though he still subjects them to the town "fair"), and Bob roams the countryside looking for the tree he wants to kill himself under. They are the oddest of odd couples and make wonderful stand-ins for Vladimir and Estragon. Honestly, you can't make this shit up. Some of the lines they come out with are cringeworthy classics.
Ne me quitte pas is about as driven as Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot', which is to say not much. It is equal parts frustrating and mesmerising. What Bakker and Van Koevorden have created is a natural marvel but not one many will want to stick around staring at.
★★★
Trailer:
Ne me quitte pas screened at Sydney Film Festival 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment