Genre: Dark Comedy
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Dominic Wilkins
Based on the novel by Albert Camus
Cast: Colin Farrell, Marion Cotillard, Alessandro Nivola, Tim Blake Nelson, Bill Camp, Nazanin Boniadi, Alexander Siddig, Max von Sydow, Mark Rylance, Brian Cox, Conleth Hill
Plot:
1955
George (Colin Farrell), a middle-aged man, living in Marseille, France gets up in the morning and puts his slippers on and bathrobe on. He goes outside, on the balcony of his apartment and he stretches. He waters his single plant while talking to it, unemotionally. He read somewhere that when you talk to your plants, they grow faster, or something like that. He goes back inside and eats two bland toasts and drinks a glass of ice cold water, just like every other morning. He goes in the bathroom and brushes his teeth, but this morning, he decides not to shave. He realises he breaks his morning routine, so he goes back and he shaves. His strict, almost religious routine is broken by a phone call. The phone hardly ever rings in his house. He picks up the phone. On the other end, is the director of the retired people home, where his mother was staying. She’s dead. He wants to meet with George. George just acknowledges it, clearly not emotional. He calls his boss and asks him for two days off, his mother died. He’s incredibly sorry for his loss, to which George responds by a simple, “it’s ok.”
He doesn’t seem to shaken up by the news. He leaves his apartment complex walks a block to the Celeste, a restaurant he likes. The same waitress comes up to him and asks him if anything’s alright and he answers positively. She asks him if there’s anything new in his life and he says his mother died, but he says it’s alright. He orders a newspaper and a coffee. He sits there, silently and drinks his coffee, while reading the news.
Two hours later, he’s in a bus, travelling to the house where his mother lived. He sleeps during the entire ride. When he gets there, he asks the secretary at the entrance to talk with the director. When asked why, he says his mother died. The secretary is incredibly sorry, but George doesn’t seem to care. He meets with the director (Bill Camp), who tell him that there’s something organised tonight with residents of the house. He gives the details about how her mother died, her last wishes and some other things, but George doesn’t listen, instead he wonders which team will win the next rugby championship, or if he should change the brand of his toothpaste. He reaches the conclusion that he shouldn’t, the one he currently has the most perfect balance of mint taste, a balance he never found with another brand. The director says that it’s time for him to take a look at his mother.
They go down in a morgue, where the director leaves George with the concierge (Tim Blake Nelson) who’s in charge of it. He wants to show his mother to him, but he declines. He doesn’t want to see her. The concierge is a loudmouth. He’s telling him his entire life story and George fakes an interest in the conversation and at one point, the concierge asks him if he wants to go somewhere else. George says yes and they go in his office, where they both drink a white coffee. The time goes on and on, as George fakes listening to the man. It is now time for the organized event with the resident, where his mother will be exposed. George doesn’t want to be there, but he goes anyway.
A lot of old people are down in the basement to take one last look at the woman and a lot of them cry. George takes a quick look at them. At first glance, he can’t even tell them apart, they all look so similar to him, old, crooked teeth, with red lipstick. Weird noises come out of their mouths as they go near the casket to look at her. George didn’t even bother to take a look, not even a quick one. He has the strange feeling that people are here just to judging and he thinks a lot of people who are crying are actually faking it. He can’t take anymore of this masquerade and he leaves before it’s over. The director gave him a room for the night. He sleeps well.
The funeral are held the next day. Tradition is that people follow, on foot, the hearse on the forty-five minutes long journey to the church. Both the asylum director and the concierge think this is inhuman to force old people do this, but tradition oblige. They are surprised to see George trailing behind, with a bland face, but someone else is trailing even more than George, Thomas (Max Von Sydow), an old man who struggles just to stand up. He tells George that his mother and him were really close and folks at the house were calling them husband and wife, just to tease them. George tells him he doesn’t care and he refuses to help him, irritated about how hot it is today. The concierge slows down a bit and helps Thomas reach the church. The funerals are long, way too long. George refuses to speak. The director notices that George didn’t cry during the entire weekend and so does the concierge. George didn’t want to fake a sadness he didn’t feel.
George comes back to work earlier than expected and his boss isn’t happy about it. He gives him another day off, extending his weekend. George doesn’t know what to do, so he stops by the beach, where he bumps into Marie (Marion Cotillard), his old flame. They swim together and sleep together at the beach. They put their clothes back on and Marie asks him if anything is wrong, as he’s dressed from head to toe in black, highly unusual of George. He tells her that he lost his mom, but it’s alright. He decides to go see a comedy, by Duvivier in the theater. During the film, he grabs Marie’s breasts. They will spend the night together.
The following morning, Marie is gone, she left before he woke up. He stays in bed, smoking cigarettes, until he’s interrupted by his neighbor, Raymond Sintes (Alessandro Nivola), who wants to go to the restaurant. George accepts, it’s better than staying in bed all day.
When they sit at the table, Raymond reveals that the only reason he invited George to the restaurant is because he has a problem and George could help him. Before he does anything, George asks Raymond, bluntly, if he’s a pimp like everyone thinks he is, but he says he wouldn’t call it that. Raymond’s problem is that one girl, an employee of him, is sleeping with someone else and Raymond doesn’t want her to. Of course, George understands his problem and he offers to write her a letter, so she can come back to him. He writes him a letter on a napkin. Now Raymond thinks George is a good guy and a true friend.
When he comes back to his apartment, Marie is there. They go back to the beach and swim together. Marie looks like she’s having fun and George is emotionless. They go back to George’s place and they make love again. When they are done, she asks him if he loves her and he says love is a meaningless word, but he doesn’t think so and he falls asleep. Marie thinks of leaving and she starts to cry, falling asleep in the process.
The following morning, George wakes up first. He starts his morning routine, not realising Marie is still there. He’s about to put his toasts in the toaster that he hears screams coming from Raymond’s house. It wakes up Marie and they decide to go over there to check if everything is alright. It is not. Raymond is beating up the girl (Nazanin Boniadi) and he stops when he sees George. A policeman arrives and the girl accuses Raymond of being a pimp. He arrests him and brings him back to the station. Before he leaves, Raymond asks George to come speak on his behalf, to certify that he’s not a pimp. He’s probably the first person ever to view him as a friend, so he accepts. Marie doesn’t like it and he knows it. She stays there to take care of the girl while George leaves and follows the police car.
They both leave the police station, George bailed him out. Raymond becomes agitated, he sees the brother of the girl, an Arab man (Alexander Siddig). They both run away, they don’t want to face him. When they are safe and sound, back at George’s, Raymond wants to thank George. He invites Marie and him to his cottage for the weekend. George accepts. All for of them get in the car, because of course Raymond brought the girl. As Raymond is driving , George notices a car following them, but he doesn’t say anything.
When they get there, Marie and the girl go on the beach, where Marie talks to her about George, quirkiness and overall weird behavior. She mentions he doesn’t care that her mother died and he doesn’t really have feelings. Marie wants to know if George is as weird as he seems to be. She will ask him to marry her tonight. She notices two Arab men on the beach and the girl starts to run away. When Marie asks her why, she says it’s her brother and Raymond can’t see him.
When they back in the cottage, they find the two men sitting in silence. Marie asks him if he wants to marry her, to which he responds that he doesn’t care, so they might as well do it. Marie and the girl fake being excited and Marie says the two Arabs on the beach could be their witnesses. Raymond adds one and one and asks for George to come with him. He grabs his revolver and gives it to George. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to hold back if they start a fight. As expected, Raymond confronts the brother of his girl and they come to blow. George grabs the gun and aims at the Arab. He shots him in the head. Raymond and the other Arab run away. George listens to the wind, breaking the silence of the afternoon. He shots four more times at the inert body of his victim.
George is arrested. They interrogate him, but he doesn’t really answer the question he’s asked. When they ask him if he wants a lawyer, George refuses, he doesn’t think he needs one. His case is fairly simple to be honest, but they give him one anyway (Mark Rylance). His lawyer asks him questions about his mother and the feelings he had for him. The brutally honest confessions of George trouble his lawyer. It seems like George doesn’t have feelings, or at least he doesn’t understand them. The cop who’s assigned to the case compares George to an antichrist, for his lack of empathy and emotion, balancing a crucifix in front of him, as George remains emotionless.
Eleven months later, the trial is about to start. He sits in his cell alone, while the other prisoners in his unit are all talking during rec time. He looks through a window and he can see the sea, which calms him and reminds him of good times he had with Marie, where he was… happy, he guesses so. He was never really good at emotions. He’s called to the visitation area, where Marie is there to see him. When Marie is asked by a fellow visitor why she comes to see him despite everything they said about him in the papers, she says she feels a weird connection with him, a connection she can’t really explain, but she just feels the need to see him sometimes. It is crowdy and noisy in the small room. George arrives, the same look on his face, a look Marie learned to like. She asks him questions, but he only answers with monosyllabic words, he can’t concentrate enough to really talk to her. He blames it on noise. Marie leaves, she caught him on a bad day. George looks sad as she walks away, he would like to hold her in her arms once again.
When he goes back to his cell, he notices a letter on his bed, addressed to him. It’s from Marie and it dates from a while back, it must have been lost in the mail or something. It’s funny that she didn’t mention it today. The letter says that she liked him but what he has done has forced her to think about their relationship and it is now up to him to prove he wants it to continue. George is unsure what it all means, so he shows it to his cellmate, the first time since he got there and he tells him that she will probably dump him. George throws the letter away and stares at the see through his window.
The next day, the trial is starting. George is escorted into the box of the accused. His lawyer nods at him as George looks the other way. The room is full, full of curious, full of people he doesn’t know. In all the chaos, he sees Marie, Raymond and the Arab girl that was with him. People talk loud, laugh and do everything except look at George, he feels excluded of the whole thing. The judge arrives and wants everyone to calm down. He starts by asking questions to George. He interrogates him about the day he killed the Arab, the day her mother died and the days that followed. George was unprepared and doesn’t really give satisfying answers.
Then, the witnesses are called. The director of the retired people’s home, the concierge and the old Thomas. They all signal the overall weirdness and peculiarity of George. The director say that he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral, the concierge adds that he refused to take a look at her one last time and Thomas says that George refused to help him and that he believes he’s a man without emotion and compassion. They also all say that George didn’t want to fake a sadness he didn’t feel at the funeral, which completely shocks the audience. The opposing council (Brian Cox), is satisfied about how the interrogations went.
After the break, Marie is on the stand. Of course, they question her about her relationship with George. She says they knew each other before, but they time went by and they lost contact, until they met again the day after his mother died. The same night, they went to see a comedy in the theater and they slept together. It seemed peculiar to Marie, but she felt happy for the first time in a long time, so she stayed with him. Then, Marie cracks and leaves, saying the lawyer is forcing her to say things that she doesn’t believe.
Then, the lawyer says Raymond is a pimp. He reveals that George is the author of the letter that started it all and they show the napkin to the audience. He also reads the testimony he gave the police officers and the bail he gave to have Raymond released, so, of course, it is revealed George lied under oath. He comes to the conclusion that Raymond and George were partners in crime and that the murder of the Arab was premeditated. He concludes his speech by saying that George buried his mother with the heart of a criminal. George’s lawyer is furious and tries to argue and the crowd is getting agitated. George starts to understand that it isn’t going well, he didn’t really listen to the testimonies. The judge sends everyone home and George is escorted back to his cell.
George writes a letter, but he doesn’t know who to send it to. It says he feels like a stranger at his own trial. Nobody is asking him how he feels, what he wants to say. Now, all George wants to do, is to get attention. He wants to get noticed and to not feel like a stranger anymore, he wants to be noticed.
The next day, the opposite council continues by comparing the murder he committed to the parricide that happened not long ago, because he thinks George is a cold-hearted monster that shouldn’t live in society, a monster that doesn’t know the most important rules of a society. He’s now all fired up and he says he wants to see George’s head rolling for the gratuitous murder he committed. The judge then asks George if he wants to say something to defend himself. His lawyer is discouraged. George is brutally unprepared, he recalls the numerous times he went to see George to talk about the trial and he refused to see him, so he has absolutely no idea what he will say. George gets on the stand. He comes alive, he doesn’t feel like a stranger anymore, he’s got the attention of everyone in the room. He says he didn’t want to kill the Arab and blames the whole thing on his eyes, because he was blinded by the sun. The crowd starts laughing at this and George doesn’t understand it, he’s telling the truth. George is mad because his lawyer gets him off the stand.
George’s lawyer pleads mitigating circumstances and he talks about George and his particularities. George stops listening, he’s thinking of the last few days and of the good moments he shared with Marie. He then associates this feeling to happiness, that’s what Marie says it felt like during those days. He’s dragged back to reality when the crowd gets agitated, his lawyer concluded his speech and people are congratulating him. Then, the jury leaves to deliberate. The lawyer comes up to him and he says to George that he believes they’ll get a favorable verdict, but the jury is immediately back. The judge reads the verdict, George will be beheaded in public in the name of the French Republic.
Three weeks have past and the execution is set for tomorrow. For the third time, he’s asked if he wants to see the priest (Conleth Hill). Just because he’s tired of being asked about it, he accepts. The priest is giving him messages of hope and he’s telling him to stay positive. He wants to tell him what’s going to happen in the afterlife, but George doesn’t want to hear about it. The priest insists and George tells him to shut up, but he doesn’t. George grabs him by the collar and guards come in and escort him away.
The day has come. Before he leaves his cell, George writes a letter to Marie. She never wrote to him again and she never came to see him again and he wanted to see her so much. He tells her about how lonely he was in his life before he met her. He says he saw the indifference of our world and he hopes that whatever is next, he won’t feel so lonely and neglected. He says he doesn’t want to feel alone anymore and he hopes that tomorrow there’s a lot of people, so he doesn’t want to alone. He was just a stranger in this world, so he hopes that tomorrow there’s a lot of people present to boo him, so can’t feel that way during his last moments.
George is escorted to the guillotine and he looks at the crowd. He sees Marie. The perception shifts to Marie’s side and she watches on, as George is placed on the guillotine. People boo him, expressing feelings they have towards a stranger they don’t even know and it upsets her. What she doesn’t know is that people booing was actually one of his last wishes. George’s head is placed on the guillotine and Marie flinches as the blade falls. George’s head roll on the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment