Skip to content

Philippe Grandrieux

Un Lac * Philippe Grandrieux (2008)

At the DVD rental my eye fell on another Grandrieux. Strange that they do not have “La Vie Nouvelle“, the (I think) better (known) film of Grandrieux. “Un Lac” is by far no “La Vie Nouvelle” or “Sombre“. It is a very minimalistic and slow film, but not dark or disturbing. “Un Lac” reminds more of “Winterstilte” or perhaps of some scenes of “Calvaire“.
A family lives in a remote house in a wintery mountain landscape, near a lake and a forest. The only occupation of Alexi (the ‘main character’) seems to be cutting trees. Alexi suffers a rising number of epileptic seizures. Slowly we get to know other family members. There are hardly any conversations, the filming is of the shaky handheld kind, nothing much happens and Grandrieux uses very long shots. When a stranger arrives, something of a story unfolds.
Yep, this is one of those films only for people who enjoy slow, experimental dramas without much of a story. The atmosphere is alright, but I personally prefer Grandrieux’ darker films.

Sombre * Philippe Grandrieux (1998)

This film has been on my wishlist for a while, but I did not know (or realise) that it is of the same director as “La Vie Nouvelle”. Knowing that, I can say that the films are quite similar. Dark, shaky handheld filming, underlighted and out-of-focus images, sex and violence. Yep, also “Sombre” is a dark, filmographic experience, my kind of film. It might not be brilliant, but there are not a whole lot of such films available (perhaps for the better too), so it is alway nice to run into one. We follow Jean, a puppeteer (the film opens with an extremely dark Lynchian scene with children watching his show) who follows the route of the Tour de France during which he picks up hitchhikers, but more often prostitutes, to live out his weird sexual preferences. The women usually end up dead. Then Jean meets the sisters Claire (an introvert virgin) and Christine (quite the opposite) and for a while Jean’s good side seems to take over. A roadtrip starts that can only end in one way, or not?

La Vie Nouvelle * Philippe Grandrieux (2002)

“La Vie Nouvelle” is somewhat of a cultfilm. It is almost impossible to find outside French-speaking countries and there seems to be no version with subtitles, not even French for the parts that are spoken in (I think) Bulgarian. There is not that much talking in the film, but it would have been nice to know what the Bulgarians say and the French parts are not very easy to follow either. In a David Lynch style and with quite a few ‘Lynchian’ elements, “La Vie Nouvelle” seems to give fragments of a story that plays in the dark underworld of Bulgarian organised crime. Out-of-focus and shaky camera work for the more shocking parts, a very minimalistic style with a dark rumbling soundtrack for most of the other. Grandrieux has created an interesting film that will mostly appeal to people who like David Lynch and not to people who enjoy a straightforward story and flashy action scenes. The film is dark, sometimes disturbing, but not really as shocking as some seem to find this film. The term “drame sentimental” that appears on the back of the box is a vast underrating too of course. There is some violence, a lot of nudity, beautiful images and strange camera and montage experimentations; not as good as Lynch, but a nice film to search for of you like this style. Try French and for example Canadian sources to find this film.