| Delphine Gleize`s startling first feature, CARNAGE, adroitly turns random moments into pieces of a tight-fitting puzzle, creating a thick multidimensional plot filled with unexpected parallels and delicately unfolding secrets. The film centers on the connection between a gored bullfighter and a young girl who watches the incident on television. The bull is destroyed, dismembered, and dispersed to markets in Spain, France, and Belgium. While the young girl, Winnie (Raphaelle Molinier), grapples with her understanding of death and personal identity, her parents buy a bull bone for their dog at a gourmet market. The salesclerk, Carlotta (Chiara Mastroianni), is a struggling actor trying to experience rebirth through aquatic exercises and primal screaming. Elsewhere, the university researcher Jacques (Jacques Gamblin), who has retained the eyes of the bull for his studies, finds himself emotionally distanced from his pregnant wife Betty (Lio). His brother, a taxidermist named Luc (Bernard Sens), covets the bull`s horns which their mother (Esther Gorintin) gave him as a gift. In CARNAGE, the brave Gleize is on a complex cinematic storytelling mission. The subject matter is at times tragic, but moments of quirky comic relief show the rich contrasts in this discourse of life, love, and survival. |
