Sombre

Jean drives through France without any luggage apart from his marionettes and his wolf disguise. He overpowers the women he meets – a whore, two call girls, even a lonely woman at a bar – and he rages against their bodies, leaving them behind, lifeless. Jean is clumsy and barely able to communicate; it’s as if he is imprisoned in a block of granite living on the fringes of society, pursued by memories of his youth. One day he meets Claire, who had a car crash in a cloudburst. Jean and Claire feel attracted to each other. Claire is a virgin. Maybe she sees something of herself in this man, in his awkwardness and violence. In any case, she sees in Jean a way out and to a certain extent a source of vitality. Their love is doomed to be of short duration, but it will live on in both of them for a long time.This hypnotic and mysterious film avoids every trace of psychological realism and emphasises Jean’s sensory perceptions. Through a film language all of his own hand-held shots, long exposures, low light levels, imperfect continuity and visual texture the protagonists are placed in vertical (mountains) and horizontal (the sea) landscapes, against leaden grey skies, dark rooms and the night.’One of the most audacious, inventive and disturbing films of the year, a nightmarish vision instilled with beauty.’ (Piers Handling, Toronto Film Festival)