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| A Girl (Iva Gocheva) and Guy (Jason Ritter) try to recall intimacies in Claire Carre's brilliant Embers (2016) |
Memories are what define us and ground us in space and time--they are our personal histories. Certainly they are susceptible to manipulation and faulty recall, but they are also essential to the ways in which we interact with others. The memories that we share are the building blocks of our intimate relationships. The memories of our families give us warmth and comfort, or send us straight to therapy. Memories of pain and suffering give us the strength to endure, but also protect us from danger (and from making the same mistakes). So imagine a world, our world, devastated by a contagious neurological event that causes us to no longer have access to our past (retrograde amnesia), nor to be able to create and retain new memories for longer than short periods of time (anterograde amnesia). This everpresent "now" is powerfully evoked in Claire
Carré’s provocative and deeply moving feature film,
Embers (2015).
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| A couple repeatedly experience the spark of new love |
With lyrical imagery, and very little dialogue,
Embers follows a group of survivors as they attempt to make sense of a world that continually slips from their grasp. A couple (Iva Gocheva and Jason Ritter) wake together on a mattress, strangers to each other and to themselves. The blue bandannas tied to their wrists suggest a connection, but it is one that they cannot recall, and they fear falling asleep only to wake with all their shared time forever lost. One of the film's more haunting images is the Girl's gaze into a mirror, only to see an unfamiliar face, her own, staring back at her. Another scene has the two characters standing in the light of stained glass windows in an abandoned church; this ethereal moment is simultaneously deeply romantic and heartbreaking. The two repeatedly feel the burgeoning excitement of a "new love" while never having memories on which to build their relationship.
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| A boy wanders, momentarily tethered, yet unburdened by the past |
A young boy (Silvan Friedman) wanders the ruins and the woods, humming to himself. He connects with a Guardian (Matthew Goulish) who tries to help him, but who promptly forgets him shortly after they meet. He next bumps into a lithe free spirit (Dominique Swain!!) whose arrested development is signified by her hair littered with children's barrettes, and a bed liberally coated with stuffed animals. The boy then encounters a Teacher (Tucker Smallwood), whose home, nestled in the woods, is a refuge where he studies the epidemic. One of my favorite moments has the man exclaiming at an interesting book, only to discover that he is its author.
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| Chaos (Karl Glusman) barely clings to humanity |
One of the film's most provocative narratives follows loose cannon Chaos (Karl Glusman) as he travels through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic urban landscape, bubbling with confusion and rage. He seems to respond to almost all stimuli with a fierce hostility, yet is still awed by the appearance of a white horse amongst the debris. When he suddenly becomes the brutal
victim of this tangled web of violent acts, our sympathies shift; where once I viewed Chaos with fear and suspicion, I came to regard him with the greatest empathy as his loneliness and confusion become as visceral as a kick to the stomach. The scene where Chaos is victimized is also shot sensitively and without a hint of sensationalism, displaying
Carré’s masterful ability to wring emotions from a scene with subtlety and grace. Chaos also illustrates the actual positive aspects of "forgetting," for trauma cannot cling to you like a shroud if you forget painful events mere moments later.
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| The lonely Miranda (Greta Fernandez) craves freedom, even if it means losing everything that she has |
Not all of the film's "survivors" are infected, and lonely Miranda (Greta Fernandez) chafes against the gilded cage in which she lives, knowing nothing for almost a decade of the world outside (when the global epidemic supposedly first took place). She is safe within her isolated and sterile white bunker, but pushes against this life, wondering if her sheltered existence could actually be considered "living." She also must realize that her adventurous desires come at a price.
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| The Boy and the Guardian wander the ruins |
Frankly, my review cannot really do
Embers justice; you just have to see this quiet masterpiece. This cinematically daring and intellectually sophisticated film transports the viewer into a realm full of beauty amidst the debris and decay. The images dazzled my eyes, and the narrative provoked much discussion afterward. I'm eager to see more from this talented woman director, and there's a rumor that
Carré's and Charles Strong's (the film's co-writer and producer) next project might be for television. Fingers crossed!
Luckily,
Embers will be screening at Fantasia a second time, on August 1st at 12:45pm...and if you unfortunately do not get to engage with this film on the big screen (a tragedy), it will be available On Demand on August 2nd.
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| Jules gazes at a swirling black hole floating above the Scottish countryside in Josefa Celestin's Event Horizon (2016) |
As I've said before, one of the pleasures of the Fantasia Film Festival is the shorts programming that the festival organizers so carefully construct. Josefa Celestin's absolutely gorgeous
Event Horizon was just the perfect short to screen before
Embers. This brief visual feast follows a group of kids mesmerized by what appears to be a "cosmic event" hovering over their heads. Jules, on the cusp of growing up and following her STEM field dreams, is convinced that this black cloud of stuff is both stunning and dangerous, and the only one of her gaggle of friends to take the apparition seriously. She asks, "What would [Fox] Mulder do?" Indeed, she ultimately would make such a believer proud. Check out the
trailer for a taste, and hopefully the film will be released for you to experience in all its glorious wonder. These two films illustrate what women directors can show us if given the chance!
