Who By Fire (Comme le feu)

 

Director Philippe Lesage

WHO BY FIRE (Comme le feu)        B                                                                              Canada  France  (161 mi)  2024  ‘Scope  d: Philippe Lesage

Allegedly inspired by the Leonard Cohen song by the same name, Leonard Cohen - Who By Fire (Official Live in London 2008) YouTube (6:26), with its links to the Jewish Yom Kippur prayer Unetanneh Tokef and its references to death, but it is also a song about our life journey and how our experiences, good and bad, welcome and unwelcome, shape the person we become.  With many believing he is the heir apparent to Québécois filmmaker Denys Arcand, Lesage is a Canadian director, screenwriter, producer, photographer, and actor who got his start directing documentary films before transitioning to autobiographical-inspired fictional films, winner of the Generation 14plus Grand Prix at Berlinale 2024, which explores youth perspectives, often with challenging, authentic, and unconventional storytelling, carving out the psychological contours of teenagers finding their paths through treacherous emotional landscapes.  While there are many good things about this film, it’s still a bit confusing and off-putting, as some of the characters exist, but are nearly invisible, fading into the woodworks, which matches the darkened palette with an almost Rembrandt looking framing, where things easily disappear into the darkness.  Also the backstory, whatever it may be, is entirely absent, so whatever history these characters have remains a mystery.  For instance, there is the presence of legendary French actress Irène Jacob, a fixture in Kieślowski’s THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE (1991) and THREE COLORS TRILOGY: RED (1994), yet she is barely utilized, appearing only briefly in a role with little consequence.  Instead the focus is on the fragility of the male ego, mostly explored through long, tense shots set against the unforgiving Canadian wilderness, highlighting how nature reflects and dismantles the characters’ fragile mindset, whether it be an adult or child perspective.  Exploring complex, messy relationships and shifting power dynamics during a secluded wilderness retreat, the film centers on teenage filmmaker wannabe Jeff (Noah Parker), who is clearly trying to find himself, searching for approval from adult role models, but instead encounters a disoriented and unhinged world of adult insecurities, artistic ego, and failed mentorship while visiting an acclaimed director he greatly admires.  With a predominance of atmosphere and mood setting the stage, there’s an interesting use of interior dream sequences, where it’s not always recognizable just whose dream we are seeing.  17-year-old Jeff accompanies the family of his best friend, Max (Antoine Marchand Gagnon), his intellectually neurotic screenwriting father Albert (Paul Ahmarani), and Max’s self-asserting, college-aged older sister, Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré in her first feature role), an aspiring writer he has a secret crush on, named after the saintly youngest brother from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, heading to the secluded home of well-known filmmaker and avid outdoorsman Blake Cadieux (Arieh Worthalter) in what is meant to be a happy reunion between two longtime friends and collaborators, but instead of a welcoming occasion, things spin out of control in suffocating fashion, as it dissolves into tension-filled confrontations of vanity and masculinity, where you see the grownups through the eyes and the sensitivity of the young protagonists who are struggling to figure out who they are in the face of outrageous misbehavior on the part of their “role models.”  

Opening in a car traveling down the highway sequence that resembles the opening of Christian Petzold’s Afire (Roter Himmel) (2023), or the opening of Gus van Sant’s GERRY, Gerry [2002] Gus Van Sant YouTube (4:27), where it’s even the same car, an old Mercedes, set to the ambient electronic track of The House in the Woods’ Grounded YouTube (9:38), a darkly moody and haunting piece fraught with sensual tension that offers a sense of dread, while also having a hypnotically calming influence, as if breaking the monotony of the journey with the anticipation of an ominous danger that awaits them, capturing a lingering shot of a boy and girl’s hands in the car coming close together without touching, an homage to the opening of the Bresson film A Man Escaped (Un Condamné à Mort s'est échappé) (1956), and a reflection of a growing sense of longing, setting the tone for the film’s meticulous exploration of the changing dynamic of relationships.  Bush pilot Blake is there waiting for them in his hydroplane, flying them to one of those northern Canadian lakes that would be impossible to reach otherwise, as there are no roads, yet he plays a prank right from the outset, a practical joke with cruel undertones, Exclusive Clip: Who by Fire - Philippe Lesage (2025) YouTube (1:32), a foreshadowing of what’s to come.  As they arrive to this woodland retreat, which is used mostly as a hunting and fishing lodge, what’s immediately apparent is the force of the great outdoors, as they are literally engulfed in nature, where it’s easy to get lost in the woods, yet there’s also a claustrophobic feel of being trapped.  Almost immediately, Jeff’s attention focuses on Aliocha, with Max fading into the background, so much so that he’s almost written out of the story entirely, becoming an invisible presence, yet he’s always there, just no longer noticed by Jeff who is fixated on his sister.  At an opportune moment, he tries to kiss her, but is flatly rejected, running away in shame afterwards, thoroughly humiliated, spending a harrowing night alone in the woods, completely enveloped in the darkness, taking shelter in another abandoned hunting cabin, eventually rescued the next morning by the searching plane of Blake flying overhead, who also picks up two new guests visiting from Paris, Hélène (Irène Jacob) and her partner, Eddy (Laurent Lucas), representing the educated and elitist elements of society, yet beneath the surface lies a profound dysfunction, reflections of the broader malaise within bourgeois society.  Their arrival culminates with another festive dinner, Who by Fire | Clip | Opens March 14 YouTube (1:48), but it takes an ugly turn, with alpha male Blake tormenting the more melodramatic Albert again, this time switching Albert’s prized vintage wine to a cheaper version, which he immediately recognizes, though it’s been poured into the same bottle, leaving him stunned and flabbergasted before sending him into an emotional tailspin, mirroring Jeff’s outburst, building on a similar dynamic that copies the correlation between Jeff and Aliocha with Albert and Blake.  Relationships are viewed with themes of exposed vulnerability and acts of deception, erupting in a feverish after dinner sequence of comical and wildly exaggerated dancing to The B-52's - Rock Lobster (Official Music Video) YouTube (7:06), a joyous, anxiety-relieving counterpart to the cruel embarrassment of the earlier sequence, yet happiness feels more like a mirage than any positive development.

Jeff is in for another radical surprise, as he discovers evidence of Blake and Aliocha’s secret affair in the form of witnessing Blake taking naked photographs of Aliocha as he peers from the outside into the cabin window, which immediately changes his perception of both of them.  No longer envious, they each become the object of his scorn, calling her a slut who will put out for anyone else but him, even revealing to Albert that he watched Blake drink his prized wine afterwards while joking about the incident, having a good laugh at his expense.  It’s a stunning turn of events, as hero-worshipping turns to hatred and scorn, even having thoughts of killing Blake, which plays out like a sick revenge fantasy in his head, evolving into a study of male patriarchy gone wrong.  The coup de grâce, however, is an extended ten-minute dinner scene that grows more uncomfortable by the second, with the table serving as a verbal battleground for voicing grievances, laced with mean-spirited insults and humiliation, as Albert expresses unfiltered venom for his old friend, voicing his displeasure about the wine incident, but taking things much further, as old resentments and petty jealousies erupt.  With an unsettling tone, combustible tensions soon boil over between the two creative male egos, initially reminiscing over their youthful endeavors, but the mood shifts significantly, as playful bickering leads to brazen insults and hurtful comments, going way over the top in terms of drunken outbursts, taking a slide into the wretchedly vile and repugnant, adding an obnoxious stench into the air. The following morning, hoping a little fresh mountain air might ease the pent-up tension from the night before, they set out in canoes down the river, peaceful at first before the scenes of the group canoeing down the rapids in the middle of the deep woods resembles the ominous danger that awaits them in John Boorman’s DELIVERANCE (1972), as it explodes into a catastrophe on multiple fronts, with several boats capsizing, leading to a horrible tragedy, while a hunt into the mountains shows Jeff eyeing Blake through the scoped sights of his rifle, like an internalized death fantasy, where clearly they have crossed a line of no return.  There’s a switch that takes place, as the more the film goes on, the more we’re getting inside Aliocha’s head.  No one comes out unscathed in what is essentially a coming-of-age story where innocence veers into the horror-in-the-woods genre, shot in ‘Scope by Balthazar Lab, growing significantly darker and more disturbing, taking its own sweet time at more than two and a half hours, where a good deal of it is staring at a near completely dark screen, with very little outline of anything visible, a visual tactic that definitely tries one’s patience and can get wearying, while the director also has a tendency to interrupt music scenes abruptly, ultimately feeling underwhelming, with not nearly enough dramatic tension, though it is told in a uniquely distinct style.  Set in a time before anyone had cell phones or social media accounts, the film is essentially a series of extended conversations that steadily build into heated arguments, reflecting the disillusionment of youth, the failure of adult role models, the effects of toxic masculinity, and the longing for artistic/personal intimacy, as Lesage blends a combination of slowly building naturalism and dread in this lengthy exposé of a wilderness retreat that goes off the rails, spiraling into the depths of the unknown, like an existential venture into the heart of darkness. 

While this train wreck of a film has a darker, more psychologically complex edge, featuring really insufferable characters for a prolonged period of time, presenting episodes of aggression and simmering tensions without offering even the slightest satisfaction of closure, it just doesn’t have the character depth or emotional complexity of some of the best movies made about adolescence, like François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) (1959), Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian) (1991), Olivier Assayas’s  Cold Water (L’eau Froide) (1994), André Téchiné’s Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux Sauvages) (1994), Richard Kelly’s DONNIE DARKO (2001), Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001), Andrea Arnold’s FISH TANK (2009), Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now (2013), or Richard Linklater’s 2014 Top Ten List #1 Boyhood, to name a few. 

Girl

 

Director Lukas Dhont

Dhont with Victor Polster

Victor Polster

Dhont with Victor Polster

Angelo Tijssens, Victor Polster, and Lukas Dhont

GIRL              B+                                                                                                                      Belgium  Netherlands  (105 mi)  2018  d: Lukas Dhont                             

I don’t want to be an example.  I want to be a girl.                                                                          —Lara (Victor Polster)

A somewhat radical work inspired by the life of trans dancer Nora Monsecour, born male with aspirations of becoming a ballerina, it initially screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival with Monsecour in attendance, where it received a standing ovation that lasted through the entirety of the credits, winning the Camera d’Or award for best first feature film, also winning the Queer Palm, while 15-year-old actor Victor Polster won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award for Best Performance.  This is a deeply moving and in-your-face portrait of the travails associated with gender conversion, where hormone therapy and the anticipation of gender reassignment surgery accentuate not only the physical challenges, but the existential duress of having to wait, which becomes overly suffocating, underscored by the overly restrained performance of Polster, perfectly capturing her repressed inner thoughts and feelings, where she even gets bullied by the other girls, who have an advantage, as they’ve always been a girl, so they feel comfortable in their self-identity, while a woman in transition is flooded by anxiety and self-doubt, where nothing ever feels right, forever waiting to just feel comfortable in your own body.  The film has faced some heavy criticism because the main character isn’t played by an actual transgender, fueled by trans critic Oliver Whitney’s alarmist guest essay from The Hollywood Reporter, describing the film as a “danger to the transgender community,” claiming the film has a “disturbing fascination with trans bodies,” focusing on a dramatically impactful scene near the end, describing it as sadistic exploitation, basically trans trauma porn for uneducated audiences, echoed by Northwestern Gender & Sexual Studies professor Nick Davis in Film Comment, who believes the film is part of a long history of cruel, transphobic storytelling, Short Take: Girl, finding the voyeuristic finale unforgiving, Nick-Davis.com: Girl, Cathy Brennan from BFI Sight and Sound thinks it accentuates fears, (It's winning awards, but Girl is no victory for trans ...), Caden Mark Gardner from Reverse Shot (Girl) thinks the film is potentially harmful in its “abhorrent irresponsibility,” Tre’vell Anderson from Out magazine claims it’s a missed opportunity to properly contextualize the experience, (Netflix's 'Girl' is Dangerous and Doesn't Deserve an Oscar), while further skepticism is voiced by K. Austin Collins from Vanity Fair (There's No Good Reason to Watch Belgium's Controversial ...), expressing outright anger in the reckless way the trans experience is overly traumatized, with a collective view finding it dangerously self-destructive while bordering on transphobic.  Clearly the film has polarized the gay and trans community on which it focuses, yet Dhont has weathered the criticism and steadfastly defended his “right” to tell the story, where there’s nothing erotic or fetishized in his style, while Monsecour responded to Whitney with her own guest essay (Belgium Oscar Submission 'Girl' Is a “Message of Courage”), writing that “those criticizing Girl are preventing another trans story from being shared in the world, and are also attempting to silence me and my trans identity.”  While the criticisms are valid and should not be overlooked, they feel like a distinctly American reaction, excessively harsh, fixated on rendering judgment, as if there’s a “right way” to contextualize the trans experience, yet there are more benefits to this film than is suggested.  This film does not attempt to speak for everyone, but provides an authentic character–driven narrative that’s applicable to one person’s search for identity, which is beautifully realized, serving as an example to a young director, courageously believing a trans story deserved to be heard, offering a unique window into an experience that viewers would not otherwise have, which couldn’t be more relevant.   Despite having a loving and supporting family, encountering difficulties is the norm, with nearly half of transgender and nonbinary youth in America considering suicide in 2022, and just under one in five attempting suicide (the numbers are higher for people of color), which is exacerbated by anti-trans laws that outlaw literature, art, histories, and even health care, a sentiment raging through the Republican Party in America at the moment, introducing more than 400 anti-trans bills already this year in an attempt to legislate them out of existence. Republican legislative leaders in Montana, in a strictly party-line vote, just voted to banish Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr (ZoAndBehold - Rep. Zooey Zephyr), the state’s first transgender legislator, from participating in the legislative session on the House floor, barred from all debates, prohibited from entering the chambers until the end of the legislative session, relegated to a bench in the hallway and will only be allowed to vote remotely, Montana Republicans bar transgender lawmaker from House floor for rest of session.  There is no sense that this film in any way shapes that political argument, which is motivated purely by transphobic hatred, yet this deeply humane film does offer an immersive psychological perspective that may help lead to a more educated and openly empathetic viewpoint, shedding light on a subject that has long been ignored. 

It should be noted that Lukas Dhont is an openly gay filmmaker who embraces LGBTQ themes, having worked as a costume design assistant on film and television sets when he was a teenager while his mother works as a fashion teacher at an art school.  Still in the closet when he entered film school, with a younger brother Michiel who’s also gay, he had his own experiences making that transition into being himself, describing that period in his life, “Not only about my sexuality, I was just also not myself.  I think I had created this armor to protect me.  One of my teachers said, ‘You don’t seem to have a personality.’  She was so right.  I had become this collage of other people’s personalities.”  Discovering his own identity after watching Belgium filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce,1080 Bruxelles (1975), he immersed himself into the works of gay filmmakers Céline Sciamma, Xavier Dolan, and Pedro Almodóvar, and there is an intimacy to the film that evokes the near documentary style of Sciamma’s Tomboy (2011), with an original score by Valentin Hadjadj, 22D Prod / Valentin Hadjadj - Flying (From "GIRL" Original ... YouTube (3:17).  Written in collaboration with theater director Angelo Tijssens, taking ten years before bringing this work into fruition, their real objective was to make a film about gender dysphoria that transgenders could identify with, as there are so few films they can connect with, one of the few being Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) (2018), which features a remarkable performance from a transgender actress.  It should also be pointed out that Nora Monsecour, who worked closely with both Dhont and Polster on the film, was “really offended” by Whitney’s comments, especially those that invalidate her experience with suggestions that Dhont made the film out of his cisgender perspective.  In an interview with indieWIRE (Girl: Netflix Film Stirs Controversy Over Who Owns Trans ...), she clarified that “My story is not a fantasy of the cis director.  Lara’s story is my story,” and while it isn’t a biography, “the essence of the story is the same.”  According to Monsecour, she was similarly bullied, and had teachers who “didn’t believe that transgender was something that existed in the world,” eventually moving away from ballet into contemporary dance.  She has enthusiastically endorsed Polster’s performance, acknowledging, “In one of our first conversations, I said to Lukas that I didn’t care at all if the actor was male, female, transgender, lesbian, gay.  For me, it was very important that Lara… be played by someone who had a lot of love and empathy for the character, [and] was also a very good dancer.  When I saw pictures of Victor, I thought to myself, ‘this is it, he is it.’ ”  The film follows Lara (Victor Polster), a 15-year old trans girl and aspiring ballet dancer who is frustrated that her hormone therapy isn’t working fast enough and that her body is different from the other girls in her class, constantly checking herself in the mirror, becoming an intensive exposé of her inner conflict and her struggle for self-acceptance.  To dance as a woman requires en pointe skills (Pointe technique), only taught to girls, so Lara is years behind, yet to dance professionally she needs to be accepted into a highly competitive girls’ class at the prestigious Royal Ballet School in Antwerp, with additional one-on-one time needed from a private instructor, played by the real-life Belgian choreographer Marie-Louise Wilderijckx.  Featuring extensive footage of physically demanding classes, Lara is both in her element and out of it at the same time, blending in beautifully with a group of extremely talented young dancers, yet the meticulous steps she takes to tape her male genitals to her body has its costs, placing her body through additional stress, enduring more pain than the others, which accumulates with each session, preferring to use a private restroom afterwards, remaining isolated as she removes the tape, leaving behind nasty red marks.  Interspered are regular visits with a team of sex reassignment doctors, including psychiatrist Dr. Pascal (Valentijn Dhaenens) and surgeon Dr. Naert (Katelijne Damen), who evaluate her readiness for the procedure, requiring multiple evaluations, always accompanied by her father (Arieh Worthalter), and while consistently offering encouragement, she’s obviously frustrated at the length of time it takes before scheduling the surgery.  Making matters worse, she refuses to discuss her feelings with her father, always indicating everything’s fine, though she’s rapidly losing weight from the grueling rehearsals and enveloping anxiety.  

Lara never conveys the emotions bubbling under the surface and struggles to maintain an even disposition, but there are moments where a line is crossed.  She has an affectionate relationship with her younger brother Milo (Olivar Bodart), often falling asleep in her arms, and while there’s an absent mother, there are indications this is a loving and supportive family.  Rushing to get Milo ready for school one morning, her little brother is uncooperative, forcing Lara to dress him, but he rebuffs her attempts, angrily calling her Victor, the male name she was born with, creating a deafening pause that seems to last an eternity.  Never one to overreact, she keeps her emotions in check, but she’s devastated by the cruel intent coming from such a loving source.  Complicating matters, Lara is going through adolescent puberty, encouraged by her psychiatrist to explore her romantic inclinations, as that’s something she needn’t put on hold, suggesting she’s just like anyone else in this regard.  There’s a neighbor in her building that interests her, Lewis (Tijmen Govaerts), so she cleverly choreographs chance meetings, hoping her attraction will open up new opportunities, yet as things get intimate, she hesitates, terrified about being exposed, and ends up bolting out of fear.  While she’s led to believe she already is a woman, and who she wants to be, she’s just not there yet.  While she is surprisingly accepted at school (reflective of Belgium’s progressive social tolerance), allowed to use the woman’s restroom with no issue, not really standing out, the same can’t be said for how she’s viewed by the other female dancers, who are more than a little curious about her male anatomy, and while the girls shower together after class, Lara always disappears, which only heightens their growing suspicions.  One of the dancers openly confronts her, handing her a towel, leaving her no avenues of escape, so she joins the other girls while wearing shorts in the communal shower, yet it clearly pains her to be there, choosing to be off to the side, while the others joke around and talk amongst themselves like teenage girls.  This leads to a sleepover, where she’s led to believe she’s been accepted as one of the girls, yet she’s offered separate living quarters away from the other girls, an ominous sign, but then she’s cornered by a dozen women and bullied into exposing her male anatomy, causing great distress, fleeing in embarrassment afterwards, arriving home unexpectedly, surprising her father who’s with another woman on an apparent date, which just elevates the awkwardness of the moment.  The tension only escalates, as her doctors are concerned by the breakdown of body tissue from her continual taping during dance rehearsals, something they don’t recommend, as the possibility for infection increases over time, which will further delay her plans for surgery.  The emotional trauma is really exposed in this film, as Lara feels more and more like a stranger in someone else’s body.  When she takes her doctor’s advice and dances without the tape, the anxiety it causes is overwhelming, which affects her ability to dance, losing her balance and sense of self, where it’s a struggle to make it through the lesson, sweating profusely, something she never does.  This becomes an excruciating ordeal that borders on psychological horror, veering into the grotesque, a metaphor for the disturbing territory of suicidal impulses that are taking over, becoming a calamity of epic proportions, reflecting the reality of the experience where so many have lost their lives because they could not accept themselves.  While it is never an issue whether a trans women is able to perform with her biological counterparts, the psychological toll it takes is simply overwhelming, exposing her darkest thoughts, where it can become insufferable after a while.  Filming by Frank van den Eeden is mostly done with hand-held cameras, often shot in close quarters, emphasizing a feeling of being cramped and claustrophobic.  It’s a moving and highly accomplished portrait of the difficulties associated with any transgender realignment, told through a social realist lens, where the obsession with the human anatomy is especially applicable in the world of ballet, as the human form expresses the artistic vision in a relentless pursuit of perfection, with the film offering a real sense of the physicality of ballet and the toll it takes on Lara’s body.  The isolation she experiences is accentuated by what’s uniquely different about her, where the harrowing journey is about struggling to find acceptance, learning to love yourself, offering hope for those struggling through similar circumstances, with the director meticulously taking viewers through the depths of the experience.    

watch dancer Nora Monsecour perform YouTube (2:24)