Have you ever wondered how would you react if you hit a traffic cone? What would you do if the visual inspection revealed the victim’s suffering? And what if the injuries were not that serious and only a few brush strokes and a silicone paint would be enough to bring our casualty back to life, but any local construction company wouldn’t accept an unmarked Swiss cone. As if getting precise measurements of white and orange area would be enough to define its nationality, right?
The adventures of Michel appear to be extremely strange. Michel is a quiet, caring man we do not know much about. We can only guess what is he like on the basis of an analysis of his bedroom’s walls. The moment when an inconspicuous road sign lands under the protagonist’s car doesn’t seem to be of high importance. Nonetheless, this episode leaves an imprint on the character who has to go head-to-head with himself.
This French story keeps viewers in constant suspense. The tension is additionally boosted by the musical elements and the great performance of the actors. Both the soundtrack and the actors seems more like a story of a boy who seeks solutions to a childish riddle, not a journey of the suffering man going through the labyrinth of his psyche. In this interesting mixture of genres, unusual convention and dynamic action, the camera doesn’t lose pace for a minute, serving us a real aesthetic feast. Additionally, each screen shot captures an unobvious kind of fear.
Sebastian Auger, the director of the film, combines terror with abstraction in masterly fashion. The usage of metaphors enables viewers to see the tragedy of the protagonist. To sum up, that is why the film made a big impression on me.
Karolina Nurzyńska
Translation: Magdalena Nikiel