a demanding fantasy film, a parable on violence against women

Alex Garland is one of the few filmmakers to make science fiction films (Ex Machina, Annihilation) and today fantastic, of which he is the initiator and the scriptwriter. A love for these genres that is found in Men, screened at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. Introduced in a pure classicism, the film switches to a metaphorical denunciation of violence against women, the subject of which is in the news.

After the suicide of her violent husband, Harper moves into an isolated house in the English forest. When she visits the nearby village, she encounters only men: its recalcitrant landlord, a bar prop, an inactive policeman, and a vindictive vicar. A mysterious presence in the woods seems to be stalking her. A multifaceted man gets closer and closer to her home, going so far as to attack her, like the drama she experienced with her late husband.

Men begins like a haunted house film: moving into a vast neo-Gothic house, isolated universe, strange noises… The film is tinged with new strangeness with a male presence whose aggressiveness gradually rises to a violent and bloody traumatic incarnation. Alex Garland assumes the extreme codes of fantasy, in an adult form, to the delight of fans.

If hemoglobin is omnipresent, the atmospheres are not neglected. The staging plays with suggestive frames and lights that exude fear. Of all shots, Jessie Buckley plays the worry, fear and redemptive violence inspired by Harper’s Marian trauma. A psychological and very physical role. In the continuity of Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polansky, 1968), Men plays on the ambiguity between the reality of paranormal phenomena and the mental balance of the victim.

The tone of the film reconnects with that of the fantastic of the 70s, where the supernatural covers a societal or political subject (The Exorcist, The curse). The haunted aesthetic evokes The Infernal Circle Where The House of the Damned. Men is loaded: all the misfortunes of the world fall on Harper, isolated in a hostile environment, which may seem too much. But, favoring a real staging over the accumulation of effects, Men is part of an aesthetic tradition of fantastic cinema, brought up to date by a contemporary statement.

Gender : Fantastic
Director: Alex Garland
Actors: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu
Country : UK
Duration : 1h40
Exit : June 8, 2022
Distributer : Metropolitan FilmExport