MIFF NOTES: Slack Bay (2016, Dir. Bruno Dumont)

Wow. Bruno Dumont takes the nudging quirk that made his entrée into rural mystery so intriguing in Li'l Quinquin and smothers it on so thick that it makes his latest, Slack Bay, near unwatchable.

I can only imagine the rehearsals for this. His fine actors arrive. He says, "Make your character stand out. Find a defining trait physical trait and exaggerate it till it is amusing."

"Now give me more."

"And more..."

"AND MOOOORE!!!"

And mon dieu do they deliver! Every single actor up on screen here fills it to the very edges. There is no room for anyone else. The problem is there are others up there. Many others. There's no space left.  No air. Everyone is pressing their way in front to show off their silly walk or their funny falls or their grotesque speech or their piercing laughter.

It is an assault.

And one wonders why so much effort has gone into the production. Why the turn of the century costumes by Alexandra Charles are so elegant. Why the visuals, shot by Li'l Quinquin cinematographer Guillaume Deffontaines are so arresting. Why the grotesquerie of its subject matter so interestingly jarring.

But one only wonders so long before Juliette Binoche forces her way to the middle of the frame to bludgeon the film to death. At Dumont's direction, of course.

A period slapstick horror. No, it doesn't work.

★★☆

Trailer:

Slack Bay screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.