You have to have a strong stomach to get through this Melta bold proposal from Simon Lavoie, undoubtedly his most radical since Laurentiea drama about the identity crisis of a young French-speaking person, written and directed with Mathieu Denis. Unless you’re fond of Cronenberg-style body horror, and even then.
Camped in the near future, Melt presents a Quebec that has merged into Canada, where English is spoken that is closer to an Orwellian Newspeak than to that of Shakespeare. Refusing to allow this language to contaminate our cinema, everything said in English, with the exception of one sentence, appears on cardboard as in the days of silent films. The effect turns out to be rather comical, then redundant.
In a decrepit prison, Matricule 973 (Jean-François Casabonne, totally invested in his role) is serving a life sentence because of his nationalist ideas. With the complicity of a cleaning technician (Monique Gosselin), the man shares a giant tapeworm with other political prisoners (Louise Laprade, Guy Thauvette, Luc Morissette, Fayolle Jean and Pierre Curzi), which has the effect of killing them one by one.
Bearer of the memory of the Quebec martyrs, Matricule 973 obtains conditional release from a judge (Jean Marchand). Then the leader of the resistance (Pascale Bussières) and her right-hand man (Sébastien Ricard) arrive.
Filmed in 16mm format, the filmmaker abhorring the homogeneous aesthetic of digital platforms, Melt has great qualities. The grainy appearance of the photo of Simran Dewan, who had signed the sublime black and white images of No traceSimon Lavoie’s previous film, gives the whole thing the appearance of a documentary that has been forgotten in a warehouse since the 1970s.
Filmed in the same prison as Ordersby Michel Brault, Melt conveys the memory of the prison dramas of Pierre Falardeau (The party, February 15, 1839), whose spirit literally haunts the film. Simon Lavoie even allows himself a heartfelt homage to For the rest of the world, by Perrault, Brault and Carrière. Flirting with anticipation drama, political drama and horror cinema, it also borrows from the essay – notably through the numerous extracts from texts by Anne Hébert, Hubert Aquin and Fernand Dumont that the actors declaim fervently in front of the camera.
But he who kisses too badly hugs. By wanting too urgently to translate his visceral fear of the loss of Quebec identity, its culture and its language, Simon Lavoie delivers a convoluted story with an ambiguous finale. The result is a hodgepodge of outdated political ideas, more indigestible than unusual, in the form of a psychotronic film, whose poor special effects will make some people laugh and others flee.
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Drama
Melt
Simon Lavoie
Jean-François Casabonne, Monique Gosselin, Jean Marchand
1:52 a.m.
Indoors