It’s an almost immersive experience at the heart of dementia that Canadian director Ryan McKenna offers us (The heart of Madame Sabali), without the word ever being spoken on screen. We also come away a little stunned. Definitely shaken.
There is very little dialogue in this short experimental film, winner of the Quebecor broadcast prize at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (2022), but plenty of sensations. Think: deafening background noise, an increasingly blurred image, at times downright doubled (detripled?), and often blinding contrasts of light. The viewer does not always understand what is happening, and that is intentional: Ethel (strikingly realistic Marie Brassard), too, clearly does not understand everything. And less and less.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Night walksa feature film by Ryan McKenna, offers an almost immersive experience at the heart of dementia.
The film begins with images of this lady, from behind, facing a stream. She walks on a path at night, comes across three people, sort of chemists in the middle of a field. Who are they ? One thing is certain, these increasingly strange visions will multiply. Here, a burglar, there, light beams, finally, a farm and a number of animals.
The film alternates between these wanderings, as mysterious as they are improbable, and various scenes of daily life. A young woman (tender Sarianne Cormier), who we understand to be her daughter, comes to take care of her, carry her shopping, sort out her rotten fruit, then little by little, helps her get dressed. . No, the pants don’t fit on your arms, mom, no, Henri is no longer here…
If the viewer knows very well that all this can only end badly, the image and sounds, like the confusion, also gradually gain in intensity, to the limit of bearable. Fortunately, the director does not overdo the exercise, and concludes very modestly, although abruptly, of course, but just in time.
Experimental
Night walks
Ryan McKenna
With Marie Brassard, Sarianne Cormier, Martin Dubreuil, Hamadou Savadogo
1:03 a.m.
Indoors