the possibility of a good Houellebecq film
Update 13 August 2008: the chances of this film being worth watching are not good. In Guardian articles, the debut screening is described as a farce and the film itself as “ridiculous” and “catastrophic”. Only a month earlier the paper was suggesting it could be a masterpiece. The trailer looks great but that can be deceptive.
At the start of 2007 I wrote about my excitement at hearing that a film of French writer Michel Houellebecq’s novel Elementary Particles was being made. It never did get an Australian release, not even at MIFF of the Festival of German Films, and I was extremely disappointed. I had to see it, so I bought it online.
Sadly I was underwhelmed with the result. The lack of tension in the novel speaks of the banality of contemporary urban life; in a film this lack of tension or drama results in tedium, despite featuring my two favourite German actresses, Franka Potente and Martina Gedeck, who everyone now knows about thanks to The Lives of Others.
The new film Houellebecq is working on is an adaptation of his most recent novel The Possibility of an Island, which is a science fiction fantasy as well as a social commentary full of his more usual misanthropy. Like Hanif Kuresihi’s The Body, it is as if the author has been temporarily possessed by the mind of J.G. Ballard, and thus written a quite different kind of story from those they have created before. I really should read europeanfilms.net more often. There is a good review article about the novel from the Harvard Book Review.
The film has a website (French only) and unfortunately my French is so neglected I can barely understand it. It does look nice however.
I am again hopelessly optimistic about the film. Atmosphere and mood will be all important. If like recent speculative science fiction films Gattaca and Code 46 the appropriate psychological state of the characters can be effectively expressed, then it should be fascinating to watch. Coming to MIFF or the Festival of German Films in 2009 maybe?
Posts you may find relevant and interesting
- this film is trivial, 19 March 2008
- wild blue yonder, 3 August 2006
- Portable Film Festival launches at Bebida, 7 August 2008
- kiss me please, 9 August 2008
- Elementary Particles, 19 January 2007
