Maelstrom

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Movie
German title Maelstrom
Original title Maelstrom
Country of production Canada
original language French , English , Norwegian
Publishing year 2000
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Denis Villeneuve
script Denis Villeneuve
production Luc Vandal ,
Roger Frappier
music Pierre Desrochers
camera André Turpin
cut Richard Comeau
occupation

Maelström is a Canadian film released in 2000 . Denis Villeneuve directed and wrote the script. Marie-Josée Croze and Jean-Nicolas Verreault played the leading roles .

Despite favorable reviews, Villeneuve withdrew into private life for several years after the filming was completed, and it wasn't until 2009 that he created his next work, Polytechnique .

action

A carp begins to tell the following story shortly before its death by a butcher's knife:

25-year-old Canadian Bibiane Champagne has an abortion and the embryo is cremated. On the way to the fashion boutique, which is run by Bibiane, she drives over a fish that has fallen out of a van. Her friend Claire, who has already had three abortions, supports Bibiane mentally. They discuss the sentence of a Norwegian writer: “Every human act is a manifestation against death.” Bibiane takes a shower and forgets everything around her.

Bibiane's brother Philippe, who runs the boutique, fires her because of a failed deal. Depressed and drunk, she goes home from a party at night and runs into an older man. She drives on. - The carp says: "And the one who killed will be killed."

The older man of Norwegian origin who was run over processed fish in a cold store before the accident. After the accident, he drags himself into his apartment with the last of his strength and mumbles something. The next morning Bibiane wakes up at home and vomits. Since Bibiane is the daughter of a female star, she is approached by a journalist and immediately interviewed and then photographed for a magazine. She suffers both from her mother's burden and from the accident that she finds difficult to deal with.

She discovers a piece of fish fin on her car, to which she reacts as if allergic and takes a shower. Claire visits her and talks to her about her dissertation, then they drive away in Bibiane's car. Because Bibiane has the impression that her car smells like fish, she drives it through the car wash. Claire interprets Bibiane's desperation as a result of her abortion. At night Bibiane goes to a disco and takes ecstasy. She gets to know a man and sleeps with him. Later she goes to an Asian restaurant with Claire, where Claire complains about the squid because it is tough. The waiter passes the complaint on to the cook, who in turn calls the fish shop, where the old man worked.

When Bibiane learns that the police have found the old man dead, she explains her dilemma to a stranger in the subway station, who promises not to tell any more. To cover up tracks, Bibiane tries to sink her car in the harbor water, but she fails. - The carp says: "So life gives her a second chance: if she survives, she acquires the right to live." - Bibiane gets into the car, steers it into the water and accepts her death. Meanwhile, Evian, the son of the deceased, flies from his workplace in Norway to Canada to receive the ashes of his deceased father.

Bibiane can escape from the harbor basin. She goes to the funeral home to say goodbye to the dead man again and meets Evian there. He persuades her to go out for coffee with him. Then they drive together to see the deceased father's colleagues, and they all drink to the fact that the murderer is dying miserably. From the bowels of a fish, the boss reads: “He will die as it is written.” Later Bibiane Evian helps clear the old man's apartment. Evian tells of the early death of his mother who drowned in the sea. Eventually she gets him to postpone his departure, and the two sleep together. The next morning Evian learns that the plane he was supposed to fly home on has crashed. He sees Bibiane as his guardian angel until she confesses to him that she killed his father.

At first he is disturbed, drinks to his father in a bar and explains his dilemma to the same stranger Bibiane spoke to in the subway. He is about to flush the ashes in the toilet, but then suddenly they scatter over Bibiane. They suck up the ashes again and eventually scatter them in the Norwegian sea.

The carp, which is about to reveal the “secret of our existence”, has its head cut off.

Reviews

Jason Anderson described the film in the weekly Toronto city newspaper Eye Weekly as "absolutely beautiful" and "highly imaginative".

Stephen Holden wrote in the New York Times that Maelström was a deliberately insecure mixture of stylistic devices. Ann Hornaday, in the Washington Post , said that mindful intelligence competed with arrogance in the film.

Awards

Maelström won a total of 23 prizes. The film received a FIPRESCI award from the International Film Critics at the Berlinale for "its innovative, dramatic structure, its playfulness and its contemporary sensitivity."

Villeneuve's film was particularly successful at Canadian film awards. At the Genie Awards , he received five awards for ten nominations. In addition, Maelström was the big winner of the 2001 Prix ​​Jutra with eight awards . The film has also received nominations at several international film festivals.

Maelström was Canada's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2001 Academy Awards , but was not nominated.

Background information

Songs by Charles Aznavour and Tom Waits and the song "Good Morning Starshine" form part of the soundtrack.

Web links