The Realism of the Supernatural

Lemming

Dominik Moll

France

2005

A convergence of eroticism in both mundane and intimate moments, of surreptitious character driven behaviors, and of a plotline so staggering is what this sterling French psychological drama by Dominik Moll has achieved. Brimming with exquisite darkness and bludgeoning sensuality, “Lemming” (which refers to a rodent native to Scandinavia the main characters have found in their kitchen drainpipe) did not just emulate the American master of asphyxiating films of such genre—David Lynch, but even positioned itself to a pillar of ingenuity on its own. The apparent eschewing of sensationalized approach to a subject matter with a very extravagant potent of being sensational allows a cinematic irony—the strangeness in familiarity. All the physical actions of the plot are all but natural and raw like eating dinner, going to the local veterinarian, presenting a project, and making love; but what makes the film breathtaking is that sentience of a supernatural entity lurking underneath these commonplace human actions.

Laurent Lucas and Charlotte Gainsbourg play the roles of a young and modern couple--Alain and Benedicte. Their married life has never been in any trouble until Alice played by Charlotte Rampling, the neurotic wife of Alain’s boss, Richard, committed suicide on the young couple’s spare room in their house. The film is a full Monty of a subtle eerie atmosphere and extends that atmosphere into the acting philosophy of the three main characters. Lucas has the most consistent character among the 4 in terms of not being possessed by any supernatural and psychological inflictions, yet, he lays eyes on anything hauntingly and speaks with a very controlled voice and unnoticeable intonations. Rampling has the strongest character in a psychopathic wife devoured by a disdainful hatred to her husband and while I am dreaded by the thought of recognizing a subtle performance as superior to an axiomatic one and vise versa, I can say that Rampling delivered a very haunting presence on the Moll’s modern masterpiece. While I commend Rampling’s ostentatious character, Gainsbourg’s interpretation of her character obtruded me with a deeper and enigmatic energy. The inert facial expression and movements verging on irksomeness while still keeping that grace remind me somehow of Shelley Duvall in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. But Gainsbourg is not about irksomeness verging on grotesque, which was Duvall, but rather torpidity bordering into a merciful ballet.  The transition of her character from Benedicte, who is Alain’s wife, to the devastating host of Alice’s disturbed soul is just seamless.  

Absolutely a perfect storm of film form and content, this 2005 Cannes Film Festival Entry unravels a one-liner of an interesting story in a well-weaved interrelationship of plot points, character decisions, scene parallelism, functions, and metaphors. The coherence achieved by the well-edited and placed scenes in the film is probably one of the cleanest I can think of. Cleanliness of coherence in a suspense/thriller movie is not very usual because it has the tendency to deprive engagement easily achievable through intricate plots, complicated sequences, and flaunty revelations. The film is successful in producing a very sensual result through producing tension in subtlety inevitably appearing as simple and even boring. Though, I never got bored at the movie, not even a second, and I mean that. The filmic energy present in “Lemming” is abundant in its kinetic form and it continues to radiate in a controlled amount. What is even surprising is that even in scenes where big revelations are made, the energy remains the same; it is still that same clandestine reverberating from the start to finish which is just a tremendous marvel to be amazed at. Silence, scarce use of music, and the over-all attempt to control the audio elements to highlight a scene is probably one of the key in achieving this dreamy characteristic. Even the delivery of the dialogues by the characters apparently is also controlled. Dialogue overlaps are too rare. There are seconds allowed for a character to answer his co-character emphasizing this silence helping much in creating the mysterious atmosphere of the film. Rarely they also shout and most of the time they almost whisper.

The key revelation in the film--Alice possessing the body of Benedicte after the former committed suicide, is not a new story especially in the Philippines.  Big studios in the country produced “Matakot ka sa Kulam” and “Villa Estrella” which are both gravely colored in garish, overblown and outstretched storyline. “Lemming” on the other hand finds itself in a dungeon against the pitfall of pretentious prodigality over the less favored storytelling of a supernatural content in a less fantastic approach. This contemporary thriller masterpiece finds greatness in escalating the concept of focusing what will make a supernatural case exist in a realistically treated narrative into the foreground.  This is an awesome perfect thriller. Another celebrated director of such genre is Michael Haneke who created the “Cache” and the Cannes winning “The White Ribbon” which both unfortunately disappointed me. My problem with Haneke is that he never resolves his mystery. The pauperism of the director to his viewers through the non-disclosure of the reason why we are following his stories exaggerates the asymmetrical relationship of the filmmaker and his audience. I know this is not the way Haneke wants his films to be viewed and neither is my objective impression of him, what I am just trying to say is that there is nothing like being gratified by being a part of the resolution. “Lemming” obviously did it for me.