La Captive
The World of Apichatpong Weerasethakul
May 4 - 16, 2023
Loosely inspired by the fifth volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, Chantal Akerman’s hypnotic exploration of erotic obsession circles around the very-strange-indeed relationship between the seemingly pliant Ariane (Sylvie Testud) and the disturbingly jealous Simon (Stanislas Merhar).
Chantal Akerman’s hypnotic exploration of erotic obsession plays like Vertigo filtered through the director’s visionary feminist formalism. Loosely inspired by the fifth volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, it circles around the very-strange-indeed relationship between the seemingly pliant Ariane (Sylvie Testud) and the disturbingly jealous Simon (Stanislas Merhar), whose need to possess her completely renders him hostage to his own destructive desires. The coolly contemplative camera style of Sabine Lancelin imparts an unbroken, trance-like tension, which finds release only in the thunderous roil of the operatic score. DCP courtesy of Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique.
I didn’t see a lot of Akerman’s movies. However, I consider her films to be an evolution of the suspense films I grew up watching. She stares at the human being’’s continually shifting feelings and desires with the intensity of a sharp sword. —Apichatpong Weerasethakul
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