Don't say who you are!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Don't say who you are! |
| Original title | Tom à la ferme |
| Country of production |
Canada France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2013 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Xavier Dolan |
| script | Xavier Dolan, Michel Marc Bouchard |
| production | Xavier Dolan, Charles Gillibert , Nathanaël Karmitz |
| music | Gabriel Yared |
| camera | André Turpin |
| cut | Xavier Dolan |
| occupation | |
| |
Don't say who you are! (Original title: Tom à la ferme ) is a Canadian thriller by Xavier Dolan from 2013 . The film is based on the play of the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard . In Germany it started on August 21, 2014.
action
The young copywriter Tom from Montreal travels to the country for the funeral of his friend Guillaume, who died at the age of 25. Once there, he realizes that nobody knows about him, let alone Guillaume's relationship with a man. Only Guillaume's brother Francis makes it clear to Tom that he knows and does not believe in his appearance at the funeral. To protect his mother Agathe from another shock, he threatens Tom not to identify himself as Guillaume's partner. Agathe believes through a photo that Guillaume had a lover and is outraged that she did not show up for the funeral - the photo shows Sara, a friend of Tom and Guillaume.
Tom stays with the family even after the funeral and increasingly helps out with the farm work. The relationship between Francis and him becomes more and more intense, it fluctuates between friendliness and sudden, brutal outbursts from Francis, which remain as bruises and strangling marks on Tom. Tom becomes more and more dependent on Francis and endures the tortures, also because he feels reminded of Guillaume in Francis. When Francis disassembles his car so that he can't drive away, Tom doesn't complain. At Tom's request, Sara appears in the house one evening, which initially gives Agathe joy, but the mother is finally outraged that Sara hardly shows any sadness. Sara tells Tom that, like many others, she had an affair with Guillaume and that Guillaume was dissatisfied with his relationship with Tom. Francis is angry about Sara's visit, he threatens and harasses her.
When there are signs of sex between Francis and Sara in the car, Tom is thrown out of the car and is forced to seek shelter in the local bar. Through a conversation with the barman, he learns that Francis was banned from entering the bar. Nine years earlier, Francis and Guillaume had been in the bar with another man. When this other man danced with Guillaume and then wanted to talk to Francis, Francis got angry and ruined the man's face in the worst possible way. The next morning Tom, in a panic, decides to flee. Francis pursues him and asks at the same time, crying and threatening, that Tom should return to him. Tom steals Francis' car keys and drives back to Montreal. On the way, at a gas station, he observes a man with facial scars reminiscent of Francis's injury described by the bartender.
production
After completing his film Laurence Anyways in 2012, Dolan said he wanted to do something new, as the three previous films all dealt in some way with an unfulfilled love. After seeing a performance of Bouchard's play the year before, he approached him about a film adaptation. He was fascinated by the violence and brutality in the play and was of the opinion that these components could be explored further on the screen. He also liked the role of the exhausted mother as well as the mother-son theme.
Initially, Dolan didn't want to use music in the film, thinking the silence, as well as the sound of the wind and the creaking floor, would add to the tension. During the editing, however, his plan was discarded and Dolan asked Oscar winner Gabriel Yared for music for the film.
Reviews
“Despite all his virtuosity, Xavier Dolan doesn't dazzle with director antics. All means employed are at the service of history. He does not make a mysterious art cinema, but great cinema art. His passion for storytelling knows no bounds. With Dolan, the credits become the epilogue. He always has to keep telling. Literally to the last picture. "
“ Don't say who you are! (Original title Tom à la ferme ) is a clever little psychological thriller in which danger seems to lurk around every corner, without the specific danger always being named. [...] Don't say who you are! works as an obvious psycho -Hommage (Dolan says of course he had never seen a film of this Hitchcock saw) as well as the claustrophobic Ingmar Bergman -Kammerspiel. And luckily, Dolan cannot completely switch off his urge to excess. This time there are really no ultra-colorful slow-motion fantasies underlaid with ironic pop songs, but every now and then the colors and madness break out of the dark, dark world. [...] So nothing helps. You should have seen it."
“ Don't say who you are is no longer characterized by as much enthusiasm for experimentation as Dolan's previous films, because for his homage to the thriller genre he prescribed a great formal rigor and purification - no more pomp of the past. This also includes the fact that he almost completely dispenses with long shots and shows most of the scenes in close-up and close-up shots, in which small but concise details reveal the overall surroundings. But here, too, the now 25-year-old Dolan has an almost uncanny intuition when it comes to composing images, especially through the narrowing of the field of vision. "
“Life in the open country is rather rough; and so one thing above all else is suffered in Dolan's film. The small group of figures doesn't bother to divide into winners and losers: they are all losers. The fact that the film still has its somewhat weird moments is due to the way Dolan sets up his scenes. [...] and last but not least, old master Gabriel Yared gives the film a musical climax. "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b PDF with information on the film ( memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Interview by Matt Rorabeck with Xavier Dolan
- ↑ Hunt for an I in Die Zeit, August 19, 2014
- ↑ Noir film "Don't say who you are!": Psychos in the country on Spiegel Online on August 21, 2013
- ↑ Schizophrenia in the barn in Süddeutsche Zeitung of August 21, 2014
- ↑ Don't say who you are! (2013) | QUEERmdb film page in Queere Media Database accessed on May 3, 2015
