DVD Review - Jean-Claude Brisseau's A Brutal Game (1983) and The Sound and the Fury (1988)

Genre:
World Cinema, Drama
Distributor:
Axiom Films
DVD Release Date:
7th April 2014(UK)
Rating:18
Director:
Jean-Claude Brisseau
Cast:
Bruno Cremer, Emmanuelle Debever, María Luisa García
Buy:A Brutal Game (UN JEU BRUTAL) [DVD]

With A Brutal Game and The Sound and the Fury being my first two forays into the world of Jean-Claude Brisseau I really did not know what to expect. And now, having seen these two films, I am finding it difficult to comprehend what I have seen. Fortunately, both DVDs are accompanied by interviews with the director so we have his insight on the material but, unfortunately, all that listening to the man has done is confound and confuse.

The earlier of the two films is A Brutal Game, it focuses on the juxtaposing stories of a serial child killer and his young handicapped daughter. Tessier (Bruno Crémer) is a renowned biologist who decides to leave his job to take care of his rebellious daughter Isabelle (Emmanuelle Debever). The juxtaposition is observed through the paralleling of the formerly institutionalised Isabelle’s development from unruly teen to an increasingly more rounded and open young woman with Tessier’s simultaneous retreat from reality. For Brisseau the film is existential, the meaning of life and our reason for being here is central to his theme. The film as a whole is disappointing. The most fascinating aspect being how an understanding of nature helps Isabelle develop while her father’s new found belief in God’s existence leads to his descent, spurred on by the conviction that he is killing in His name.

The Sound and the Fury is the film that Brisseau first became known by. Premiering in Cannes, where it won the Special Youth Jury Prize, the film was a critical and box-office success. Inspired by the real-life experiences of the director, he being a former teacher, The Sound and the Fury is said to be the first French film that depicted the gang culture that was
Genre:
World Cinema, Drama
Distributor:
Axiom Films
Release Date:
7th April 2014 (UK)
Rating: 18
Director:
Jean-Claude Brisseau
Cast:
Bruno Cremer, François Négret, Vincent Gasperitsch
Buy:The Sound And The Fury (DE BRUIT ET DE FUREUR) [DVD]emerging among the youth living in the Paris projects. The film follows Bruno (Vincent Gasperitsch), a 14-year-old boy, fending for himself in a jungle of high-rises while his mother, who is never home, is off earning a meagre living that barely supports them. He befriends Jean-Roger (François Négret), a streetwise kid with a troubled background, pigeonholed by the director as a delinquent. The film marked Brisseau out as a socially conscious filmmaker committed to revealing the violence and exclusionary politics at play in society, tackling a problem the media and politicians ignored.

The problem is that Brisseau too often turns to the surreal and the ridiculous. Incorporating fantasy elements that lessen the impact of the social reality. An issue Brisseau acknowledges but explains away by insisting that those scenes have a purpose and the films meaning lies in an understanding of them. But in his crypticness towards the sequences he constantly contradicts himself, at one point reducing them to dream elements that allow for moments of escapism. The most frustrating thing about the film though is Brisseau’s own politics. It is admirable that he wanted to tackle an issue brushed aside by those with power but undermines his ambitions with a skewered view of the situation faced by those living in the projects, saying that people break the law because they want to, leaving no room for necessity. The answer to the problem in Brisseau’s eyes is education but the problem is deeper than that. I wanted to like The Sound and the Fury more than I did but I remain unconvinced by it.

★★½☆☆
A Brutal Game

★★★☆☆
The Sound and the Fury

Shane James