Customer Reviews

Carnage

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CARNAGE is a stunning film - though from the outset it should be made clear that it is not a film for all audiences. For those who cringe at gore, those who are frustrated by nonlinear storyline, and those who feel uncomfortable with magical realism - beware. This is a two-hour plus journey that demands concentration and suspension of belief to glean all of the multilayered meanings it holds.

Stylishly opening with the elegant dressing and preparation of a handsome young bullfighter discussing his incipient time in the ring with his father, the film moves into a the bull ring in Spain and while the young bullfighter is gored, a young girl watches in horror on a television in France. Thus the sequence of coincidences begins. The dead bull is dragged from the ring, butchered, and his various parts (meat to restaurants, horns to a taxidermist, testicles, eyes, etc) are sent to unrelated places in Spain, Belgium and France. Along the way we meet the child who observed the goring on television and discover she is epileptic and draws pictures where dogs are larger than humans (because her's is!), an actress searching for her center, a therapy group bonding and yielding primal screams while nude in a pool, a taxidermist who lives with his mother (the wondrous Esther Gorintin of 'Since Otar Left') and his estranged anatomist brother married to a woman pregnant with quintuplets (neither brother speaks to their damaged father), and so many more. Each of these characters encounters one form or other of the dead bull as food, souvenirs, gifts, etc: each time the consequences of these coincidences add greatly to the story.

Meanwhile our gored bullfighter lies in coma in need of a liver transplant and it is one of the various women touched by the bull's demise in some way that dies in an accident and becomes the saving liver donor to the young bullfighter. The manner in which all of these myriad coincidental effects of the original bullfight mesh (altered relationships, rejoined parent/child schisms, deaths, altered lives) are sewn tightly together by the end of this apparent conundrum of a story.

The cast is uniformly exceptional. The camera work and pacing are mesmerizing, making the willing eye of the viewer see far more than previously thought possible. Writer/Director Delphine Gleize is truly a talent to closely observe. The audience for this artwork may not be large, but for those souls seeking unique films this one is Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, September 05

Carnage (Delphine Gleize, 2002)

The last thing I expected from Carnage was that it would be such an amusing little movie. Gleize's conceit is a now-familiar one-- take one item and show the lives through which it passes-- but instead of taking one item and passing it whole (as in Robert Altman's famous series Gun), Gleize takes a bullfight from the movie's opening scenes, in which the bull himself is killed and the enthusiastic young toreador is horribly gored, winding up comatose and needing a new liver in the hospital. The bull is rendered, and the movie follows various pieces of the bull's remains, and the intertwining stories of the characters who end up with some of them.

Much has been made of the initial bullfighting scene, which is choreographed and shot in a beautiful, almost dreamlike manner. And while all the praise of that scene is justified, it eclipses the scene of the rendering a bit farther into the film. It has the same qualities, but they are applied to a much more mundane setting, and they are almost intensified in the application. It's an utterly fascinating, if short, scene, that gives some insight into Gleize's talent as a director.

As for the rest of the film, it's almost on, but not quite. It never seems to get a handle on what it wants to be, and thus pinballs from tragedy to silliness, with hefty doses of cleverness and with thrown in for good measure, as well as more than a modicum of coincidence (one can explain this away by the sort of magic-realism trope that seems inherent to this subgenre); while watching Carnage, you get the idea that there's a great film buried somewhere close to the surface, but that it is never quite realized. Still, what's here is usually fun; it's not a failure by any means. ** ½

With this film, I had to work through it, but the reward is well worth the effort. Magical coincidences connect people that seem so distant from each other, characters so different, and yet so similar. The film is full of symbolism. I especially liked the scene when the mother in the trailer dies and the captured animals escape, the trailer is bursting with life that the mother had freed by her death. The film is full of misterious connections, and it is well worth exploring these connections.

The style is not continuous, but still descriptive. I can only compare it with CODE UNKNOWN by Michael Haneke. If you liked CODE UNKNOWN there is a big chance you will like this one as well.

Great entertainment. But the DVD also has two enjoyable short early films of Director Delphine Gleize on it: "Sale Battars" which received the César for Best Short Film in 2000, and "Un Château en Espagne" which was chosen for the Directors Fortnight.

Sadly, no effort to get a live filmed interview with Gleize...

Carnage is a film that is set into motion, at the very beginning, when a young bullfighter is gored in the arena. The bullfighter and the bull exchange penetrations in this dance to the death. The bull is killed in the arena by the final sword wound while the young man falls into a coma. The bull is processed, as most bulls are, and his body moves out into the world in pieces.

The story then illustrates how we consume these animals. People come into contact with the bull's various body parts at a restaurant, at the grocery store, a taxidermist's workshop and a research lab. Each person's life seems to be `touched' by some sort of unexpected, seemingly miraculous event that brings change and transformation. The changes we see are at times brutal and inspirational.

The film was brilliant in the way that it handled classical subjects of mytho-poetics in an understated subtext. For those looking to understand the film on this level I would bring your attention to a young girl named Winnie who has an epileptic seizure early in the film; This can be read as the initiation of a Shaman who undergoes a symbolic "death and resurrection." It parallels the coma of the young bullfighter that was gored at the beginning.

After a series of amusing, disturbing and tragic events, in the lives of those who were touched by the bull, a final miracle resolves the crisis that initiated this story wheel. The bullfighter is resurrected by events put into motion by the bull's death and subsequent consumption. Thus the dance continues, made possible by an unspoken covenant between man and beast to do battle, die and then live again. As a witness to the magic in this dance, Winnie assimilates the bull's power in the end with a child's toy; she wears a pair of glowing, flashing horns as an audience member in the arena. She is a fountain of bliss and a function of nature's wonder.

Sage choices in editing and music along with a strong cast of actors brought this story to life. Delphine Gleize is a talented filmmaker right out of the gate. I would repeat the observation made earlier that this is not a film for everyone. It's a film in multiple languages and carved into different connected stories. If you enjoy straying off of the beaten path from time to time and enjoy foreign films, I highly recommend this.

Others are writing that this movie has no plot, and yes there are little plot that intertangle without any kind overall climax (but each ending will surprise you). This movie is about humanity, pure and simple. Laugh, cringe, and do a double take. Recommended for fans of Memento, 21 grams, and He Loves Me He Loves Me not.

A bull is used as a tool uniting the different people of different countries to tackle their individual problems while dismantling environments surrounding.

Carnage, Delphine Glieze's first foray into full length film making, is notable for winning a number of minor european film festival awards, and though its dutiful, esoteric artiness may impress film festival judges, Carnage will likely leave something to be desired for the rest of the hoi poloi. Other reviews will give you the bare bones plot synopsis (though there is little plot to speak of), so I'll simply mention the striking opacity of the film's narrative quality and emotionality. The puzzle-like structure of the film requires the viewer pay particular attention to repetitions of images and themes which re-echo throughout the multiple, vaguely associated storylines, yet even after two hours of focused attention, it isn't at all clear what, if anything, the bits and pieces add up to. The viewer, who simply strings along while the film lurches in multiple directions, becomes more of calculating observer, trying on and discarding possible meanings like so many hats. Impatience soon sets in, and by film's end, if one is dissatisfied with the possible meanings one they've come up with, the question becomes "have I failed the film, or has the film failed me?"

I had no idea that "Carnage" was a couple of years old. I just caught the afternoon matinee showing of the film at my local landmark theater. I was expecting to be entertained but instead what I got was a surreal yet pretentious film with no plot. The *alleged* plot revolves the remains of a bull that was killed after he gores a young toreador. The bull's remains is sent to Spain, France, and Belgium. From that point on there are 5 different stories taking place, well if you want to call them stories. I thought they were nothing more than a bunch of incoherant ramblings poorly pieced together and with no point what so ever. In some eery way, two of the 5 stories had some sort of connection with each other. What really bothered me the most about this film was that there was no point in the film other than the death of a bull and where its remains goes. The film was very surreal but not in a good way. There is good surrealism in films (see "Muholland Drive") and then there is bad surrealism (see "Carnage"). There are only two things I like about this movie...the first is the music. The latin music sounded like it would be perfect for the Barlotti compilation, very mellow yet not too mellow. And the second were the actors involved in the film. All the actors gave fine performances. It's too bad the script was terrible. Normally I do enjoy a good foreign film but "Carnage" ain't one of them. If you like pretentious art flicks, "Carnage is for you but if you prefer quality, substance and a plot that makes sense then I strongly suggest to look somewhere else.

I love watching foreign films therefore I've been looking forward to watching CARNAGE since it was released in DVD. But now that I've seen it I regret my initial anticipations. In short, this film was a big disappointment. The premise is interesting but the execution is flawed and well...boring. At the center of CARNAGE is a bull named Romero that was killed after fighting in a bullfight in Spain. Afterwards each individual who comes into contact with Romero's remains are affected, and sometimes in drastic terms. This film is full of eccentric characters that sometimes border on the absurd, such as a mother and son who live in a remote trailer who acquires the bull's horns and the young child who has an extra-perceptual "gift" who feeds a bone from the bull to her overgrown dog. This film is also graphic. There are many scenes that made me squirm such as the slaughtering of the bull and the odd man who studied the bull's eyeballs (what was his story anyway?). There is so much substance that either doesn't make sense or are so peculiar that it befuddles the mind, and coincidences are abundant and relied upon. With a running time of over two hours I couldn't wait for the ending and kept stealing glances at the clock. Not recommended.