Sombre
Screening on Film
Directed by Philippe Grandrieux .
With Marc Barbé, Elina Löwensohn, Géraldine Voillat.
France, 1998, 35mm, color, 112 min.
French with English subtitles.
With Marc Barbé, Elina Löwensohn, Géraldine Voillat.
France, 1998, 35mm, color, 112 min.
French with English subtitles.
A daring stylistic experiment on a familiar theme, Sombre tells the story of a monster abroad in France, lugging puppets and a wolf disguise, leaving a trail of brutally murdered women behind him. His existence is gray, banal, and meaningless until this horribly isolated soul meets a virgin who loves him. Blending avant-garde techniques and imagery within a narrative film, director Grandrieux draws us into a hypnotic nightmare, where the conventions of the serial-killer genre are transcended so as to propel us into even more complex and disturbing territory. As the angst-ridden murderer, Marc Barbé is superb, but Elina Löwensohn, familiar as a self-contained Hal Hartley heroine, steals the show entirely.