Between Franju and Cronenberg, the third feature film by Lucile Hadzihalilovic follows the daily life of a teeth without teeth and a man, reclusive in an old house.
by Clarisse Fabre
The bizarre universe of Lucile Hadzihalilovic is populated by children living away from the world, in “out-lines” more oppressive than protective. Girls with the body disciplined by dance grow up in a boarding school surrounded by a huge wall (Innocence, 2004); Prepuberal boys receive a mysterious treatment in a hospital overlooking the sea, in an anticipation film, Evolution (2015), which resonates today with the crimes of the future (2022), by David Cronenberg.
Each time, a handful of adults ensures compliance with cycles and constraints, in order to “deliver” safely, when adolescents. Will they go into real life, in a changing universe? The sensory cinema of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, also producer, who founded, with Gaspar Noé, the cinemas of the area, leaves all the slopes open, until most disturbing.
Earwig, his third feature film, adapted from the novel of the same name (Coronet, 2019, not translated) by Brian Catling (1948-2022), offers an even more troubled experience. Mia (Romane Hemelaers) lives in a home with closed shutters, sad and stripped, as in the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershoi. She takes care of herself, knows nothing outside. We discover the monotony of its existence during the first twenty minutes of the film, hypnotic.
fabulous monsters
The life of the girl, which is located in the aftermath of the Second World War, is punctuated by a strange ritual that Albert (Paul Hilton), a tormented but benevolent man, scrupulously accomplished. The pretty face of Mia is indeed holes by a mouthless mouth, like a variation of the heroine (Edith SCOB) of the masterpiece of Franju, the faceless eyes (1960): the little girl wears an extraordinary device , which collects its saliva in two small bottles located at the ends of its mouth. Every day, Albert takes the precious liquid which, once refrigerated, will be used to make the teeth. The protocol is thus repeated, until the day when the mia jaw must be equipped with glass teeth.
The glasses, precisely, which fill the shelves of the living room, are the gateway to dreams. After around thirty minutes, Earwig changes in another dimension and immerses us in an acoustic bath: the camera approaches the surface of the crystal, which returns a fabulous set of lights, as well as images of the past. There is this missing loved woman (Anastasia Robin), who will later re -emerge in Albert’s hallucinated brain. Another heroine (Romola Garai) will also light sparks, before being brutally disfigured, the reinventing filmmaker of fabulous monsters on the screen.
You have 36.08% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.