One of the last films of le French May 2013 I saw was in a class of its own. Derrière les murs.(Behind the walls), is the first feature film co-written and co-directed by Julien Lacombe and Pascal Sid, starring Laetitia Casta as Suzanne, a 1923 Parisian novelist seeking a refuge and a little breathing space in an isolated house in Auverne shortly after the death of her daughter who died of a fever because she did'nt return home soon enough on account of her busy writing and social schedule.
Susanne arrived all alone at that house, settled down to write another novel but could not find sufficient inspiration until she discovered Valentine a little girl of more or less the age of the daughter she lost, wearing a dress too large for her little body, being ill-treated by her mother, one of the rustic domestic maids. She offered to give her private lessons and treated her as if she were her own daughter and slowly an emotional bond developed. But one day, she thought she heard some noises in the night and when she got up to explore the source of the sound, she discovered, to her surprise in the cellar of the house, a hole in wall sealed with brick with a cat in there. When she removed the bricks, she discovered that it was a secret room, bare, dark and spacious. She began to move her writing desk and typewriter down there and inspiration poured out from her brain like a flood. Instead of writing her usual romantic novel, as she did on the two previous occasion, it was a tale of mystery. She sent the manuscript of the first chapter to her publisher. He liked it and gave her an advance to tide her over her removal and living expenses. The mayor of the city, who ran the town grocery store, a married man with a daughter Catherine, a close friend of Valentine, who offered to let her have her purchases on credit and kept, kissed and held to his breast a handkerchief she she accidentally dropped on the floor and shortly thereafter began to spy on her and visited during the night and visited her during the day on some pretext or other. Then some strange things began to happen around the house: she began to see mices coming out in hordes from a well in that cellar and on two occasion under her bed and in the bathroom she began to hear strange noises in the night and when she took a lamp to explore what it was, she discovered nothing. Before long, Valentine mysteriously disappeared and shortly after that, Catherine, too. A huge search party was organized around the countryside, all to no avail. Some towns people thought that she was a bad omen such things only began happening shortly after she arrived. She made some enquiries and discovered that years ago, two girls had also mysteriously disappeared whilst in the vicinity of that house and had never ever been seen again. Then one day, a man arrived (Thierry Neuv) from Paris, the nephew of the owner of her house, to take care of some affairs related to estate of his uncle. He began seeing her from time to time, a fact which did not escape the jealous eyes of the major, who began spying upon her. The town priest also was concerned and paid her a visit because she appeared obviously under stress. She began to have hallucinations because since the death of her daughter, she had been taking a prescribed psychotic drug who helped her imagination. Then mysteriously, Valentine and Catherine appeared in her house. They told her that Valentine went into hiding because she was ill-treated by her mom again and she was soon joined by Catherine. Did this happen? Was it a hallucination? Eventually, she set fire to the house and killed herself. Was the cave in that isolated house the crucible of her soul, the womb of her creation, the secret chamber of certain dark desires of self-destructive forces within herself? Or was it a just an ordinary cellar? All kinds of interpretations are possible. One doesn't necessarily exclude the other. Was it a love story? Was it a horror story? Was it a mystery story? All kinds of hints had been dropped. Was it a spoof on the horror movie genre: perhaps an embodiment of the way a director creates suspense with certain elements of the traditional "horror" movie? It's not a case of "either/or" but perhaps a Deleuzian "both" and a case of "and, and and and" .Whatever the intentions of the directors were, there is little doubt that they succeeded admirably in keeping us guessing until the very end of the film.
It's a very strange film, done in 3-D, but Nicolas Massart, the cineaste didn't make any exaggerated use of its effects and it's obvious that a lot of work had been done in the composition of the screen images. Some original music by David Reyes had been written and specially recorded for this film which added quite considerably to its effects. The acting by Laetetia Casta as the posh, daring, independent writer afflicted by the guilt she felt for the death of her daugther and her inexplicable affection and generosity for Valentine, her secret fears etc.and her eventual break down whilst living alone in that eerie house were excellently portrayed by her. Not a bad effort at all for a first feature film by the writer-directors.
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