Nothing can prepare the viewer for what he is about to witness in this film. Not Koen Mortier's first feature Ex Drummer (one of my absolute favorites and probably the most politically incorrect film ever made). Not the multitude of recent horror and crime themed arthouse films that spawned in Belgium recently. Not even taking a look at the obvious influences of 22nd of May - films like Persona, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or The Wrestler. 22nd of May is a unique, singular event that unravels in the midst of a european wave of fantastic films outside of genre conventions and pictorial regulations.The film opens with roughly around 10 minutes of semi-documentary footage of a man waking up, eating breakfast, getting ready and making his way to his day job. There is little to nothing to distract us from the dry routine our protagonist goes through - a guitar strikes some notes in an attempt to generate a slight melody but ultimately looses itself in the sounds of footsteps and passing cars, the camera only concentrates on the man's back of his head, dialogue is almost completely absent.
As the man takes his position (he works as a security guard in front of a mall), we witness another five minutes of his day job, until finally, with eardrum shattering brutality, the glass entry behind him turns into a pile of dust and rubble, humans turned into torches, chatter into screams of agony as a bomb tears the building to shreds.
From this moment on, Mortier concentrates almost exclusively on the inner realm of this man, his imagination and his attempt at making sense of what just happened, overcoming his trauma, piecing together a puzzle that makes no sense - a story lacking context and clearance. Mortier calls back the spirits of those deceased in the bombing, the passers by and regulars, all of them guilty of some form of humane cruelty, all of them stopped in their pace of life to confront an uncertain destiny (it is never revealed with complete certainty who actually dies and who survives). He calls back the man who committed this crime, unravels the past of the unlucky protagonist and the life situations of all of them to show is a broader context of what havoc this crime actually wreaked.
Visually, Mortier takes his influences from a wide range of what could be labeled cinema's greatest - there are some shots that are clearly indicative of Ingmar Bergman's 60s period, some of the inner-realm-scenes are dark reflections of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the early scenes are reminiscent of Darren Aronofsky's latest forays into social realism, Tarkovsky's silent poetry seems to infuse other shots etc. But Mortier never fails to bring enough of his own dark aesthetic along to elevate the film above a bland homage. The vast, empty cityscapes of Belguim adding as much to the tone as the lost and often perverted characters who struggle to find meaning in life.
22nd of May is - yes - a difficult film, even one some may feel alienated and disturbed by. It doesn't look for comfort or to provide an answer for all its complex questions, yet it is proof that Mortier has joined the ranks of current directors who are among the best there ever were, that Ex Drummer was not just a one-off - and yet, ironically, proves to be so much different from the work that preceded it. Existentialistic fireworks - or nihilistic cherry-bombs.
Rating - 10/10
No comments:
Post a Comment