Fantasia 2016--The Eyes of My Mother--Nicolas Pesce (2016)

Kika Magalhaes gives a shattering performance as Francisca in Nicolas Pesce's debut feature The Eyes of My Mother (2016)

Making a black and white film these days is a very deliberate choice by a contemporary filmmaker.  Not only does this visual decision give a film a unique tone, but somewhat tempers its gore factor, denying us the reds, pinks, purples, and browns associated with hard-core guts and gore.  Nicolas Pesce's The Eyes of My Mother certainly has its share of "guts and gore," but reveals those moments in such a delicate and elegiac manner that the horror of the film slowly seeps into you until you are fairly drowning in its dreadful miasma.

The film opens with a trucker stopping on a desolate road at the sight of a woman collapsing into a fetal position far ahead.  The framing stays with the truck's cab as the trucker runs to assist her, as if the camera was a strange passenger.  Then an overhead aerial shot frames that fall from a different angle as the trucker stops to help the woman and then calls for help.  This scene is a flash to the future, as the film's timeline readjusts, and now it introduces us to young Francisca (Olivia Bond) and her Mother (Diana Agostini).  In what seems like a rural idyll, her mother tells Francisca the tale of St. Francis, living in the woods, who wakes one day to discover he has stigmata.  She drives home the point that "loneliness can do strange things," and indeed that very idea forms the core subtext for the entire film, for without her mother, Francisca would be very lonely.  Her father seems entirely absent, and she appears to be home schooled and duly isolated.

Perchance, a visitor breaks into their quiet existence, and Charlie (Will Brill) is a giggling mass of bad intentions.  When he forces his way into their house--first to use the phone, and then the bathroom--events deteriorate and Francisca's life is forever transformed.  That trauma haunts her from her childhood, to her teen years and beyond.  Upon her father's return (from wherever he might work), they bury her mother and lock Charlie (who is still alive) in the barn to live out his days.  At one point, she asks him why he murdered her mother, and he enthusiastically explains that "it felt amazing."  Those words will come back to haunt him.  One of Francisca's skills, taught to her by her mother, is eye and throat surgery, as she soon renders Charlie unable to see or speak.  It's a fitting bit of revenge, but becomes a rather cruel form of torturous living when other victims ensue.  After Francisca loses her father (although it's not clear exactly when that occurs), she finds other ways to fill the void of loneliness, and eventually forms her own makeshift family by brutal means.

Francisca's father "bathing" in The Eyes of My Mother

While the film gradually clues the viewer in, bit by bit, to Francisca's perverse understanding of both reality and family, the adult Francisca (Kika Magalhaes) creates a compelling sympathy toward her through her soulful performance.  Her isolation, and her early brush with violence, profoundly shape her future and her interactions with others.  Some plot holes emerge (how exactly did she learn how to drive), but this minimalist psycho horror show leaves just enough unanswered for spectators to fill in the holes with their own imagination.  While we are (thankfully) not privy to many violent events (because they happen offscreen), the subtle hits of horror shown contribute beautifully to the film's deeply unsettling nature.  One of the film's more fascinating approaches is how it oscillates between an almost claustrophobic intimacy and a very purposeful visual distancing.  The film also takes its time--scenes of horror unfold incrementally, sometimes testing our patience as we sit in dread worrying over what will come next.  I described the film to a friend as if Antonioni had made a low-budget indie horror film, and I still think the film is the perfect marriage of horror tropes and art cinema mood and style.  A stunning piece of work, The Eyes of My Mother is a triumphant, gorgeous first feature from Nicolas Pesce.

A voyeur dominates the film's spatial world in Jacob Nizzola's Agravoy (2015)

One of the best things about the Fantasia Film Festival is the creative pairings of shorts with features that the Fantasia team masterfully programs.  Jacob Nizzola's Agravoy beautifully complimented the feature's dreadful atmosphere, as we watch a voyeur (Barrington de la Roche--who looks a lot like latter day Iggy Pop) hungrily peek at the mysterious woman (Orion Ben) living across the hall.  She invites a handsome guy over (Adam Nash), and things take a pretty violent turn as the voyeur's jealousy bubbles over.  Stylishly shot and beautiful oblique, Nizzola's short playfully explores the cinematic possibilities of the peephole while cautioning viewers to not judge people by appearance alone.

Observance--Joseph Sims-Dennett (2015)

Tenneal (Stephanie King) does not realize that she's being watched in Observance--Joseph Sims-Dennett (2015)

Two amazing things frequently happen at the Fantasia Film Festival.  First, you often get to see the World Premieres of films--screening a film before any other audience has seen it.  And during those premieres, you get to meet the people behind the vision--directors, producers, cinematographers and other cast and crew.  With Joseph Sims-Dennett's Observance, I got to experience the best of all things.  Not only did the film premiere at Fantasia, but the director and producer were in attendance even in my little afternoon screening (since the big shindig was the previous night).  I feel pretty bad about kind of dissing this film in my summary from a couple of weeks ago.  I pigeon-holed the film as a voyeur gone bad, Dad needs dough, mourning his dead kid, kind of picture.  I'm not saying that those elements are not a part of the film.  They are.  Nevertheless, this film is so much more complex than my summary suggests.  I was confused and questioning for a great deal of the film, and I mean that in the best possible way.  Observance was a majorly wonderful surprise!

Parker's haunted grief over his son takes on an increasingly nightmarish tone

The film follows Parker (Lindsay Ferris), who returns to a work at a surveillance job far too soon after the tragic loss of his son in order to pay for some extremely steep medical bills (in the six digit range).  He receives his instructions from a voice on the phone (Brendan Cowell) and he's told to stay put, watch Tenneal (Stephanie King), and report on her actions at the end of every day.  Parker has some concerns regarding the ethics of watching Tenneal, fearing that something violent will occur and that he is meant to watch and "observe."  While the job is only supposed to be for a few days, Parker is asked to stay longer.  At that point though, strange things have started to occur, and Parker really, really is not feeling well.  Since the film is almost entirely from his perspective, spectators can create virtually no distance between themselves and the grieving Parker, and as for Parker, the line between what's happening, and what he thinks is happening, becomes increasingly hard to discern.

Has Tenneal come to ask Parker to "stop looking?"

Observance is definitely a slow burn until Parker starts to seriously unravel both physically and mentally.  The film raised so many intriguing questions for me, that I think I can list some of them without remotely spoiling the film.  Did I see something swimming in Parker's milk glass?  What is this mysterious institute where Tenneal works?  What is up with that bottle of ink in Parker's bedroom?  What exactly happens to him in the shower?  Why is this apartment such a broken down mess compared to Tenneal's cozy home?  What does Tenneal's boyfriend, Brett, have to do with any of these events, and how is he linked to his father's sordid past?  Why does he warn Parker, or does he?  And finally, who is exactly watching whom in this film??

Who Are They??

After hearing Joseph Sims-Dennett speak on this unique (and slighly confounding) film, I think he would be delighted that these questions are what the film provoked in me.  Sims-Dennett regaled the crowd with tales of his days making KFC ads (sounds bloody awful), and how he shot the film in 11 days in the midst of a horrible heat wave in Sydney in 2013.  It's incredible what he and his producer, Josh Zammit, accomplished with a tiny budget in such a small amount of time.  The film is frequently gorgeous, even at its most grungy moments.  The gore is actually pretty subtle, even though there are some good ICK moments in there. The score is not overpowering; in fact, Observance masterfully uses silence to ratchet up the dread.  And there were just enough moments where I asked myself, while viewing, "what am I seeing here?"  This film retains a level of ambiguity and mystery that I find very rewarding.  I was quite impressed by Observance, and I eagerly look forward to Sims-Dennett's next film.