Director: Christophe Honore.
Cast: Amira Akili, Sebastian Hirel, Melodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, George Babluani.
Running Time: 102 minutes.
Synopsis: A young girl, Europe (Akili), is seduced by the God Jupiter (Hirel), who takes her on a journey through modern day France and tells her tales of the Gods.
When you’ve already made a film about incest with one’s mother, you hardly have to shy away from controversy. Honore’s latest film, METAMORPHOSES, takes the classic epic poem by Ovid and translates it into an erotic tale of sexual awakening in modern day France. The nudity and violence is blunt, almost to the point where they fail to shock in the blasé way in which they are represented on screen.
The idea of transposing Greek myth into a contemporary setting is both fascinating and perplexing. Hearing tales of the Gods and their constant rapery and toying with mere mortals is all very well and good when presenting in a quick folktale narrative, but to see them used in a familiar setting is another feeling altogether. Despite humans being transformed into animals, the film is surprisingly grounded. The transformations happen off screen and all the God’s, minus one with many eyes covering his body, look no different than your average human, That’s not to say the film doesn’t contain a magical quality, as its journeys into surrealism are all the more disturbing and dreamlike thanks to their setting and execution.
Speaking of setting, the whole of METAMORPHOSES is set in a world where nature and industrial city life constantly collide. We get beautiful vistas of large buildings, often framed by green trees in the foreground. The opening scene sends us on a hunt in the woods, before a deer stumbles towards a gated roadside. These visual oxymorons add character, but also merge the past with the present with stunning cinematography. All the colours seem as delicately placed as one would expect from a landscape painter, and the actors are often surrounded and overtaken by nature.
Snipping and cutting together as much of Ovid’s poem as can fit into a 2 hour movie, Honore does a decent job at representing a vast array of ideas and themes, with the three main stories also containing tales within themselves. It can become a tad frustrating at times, as we are carelessly snapped from one story just as things were spicing up, and there are sections that could perhaps have been left to one side. But, as a modern day retelling of such a classic piece, this is remarkably engaging and never boring.
The natural and subtle visuals teamed with magical story elements will keep dialogue about METAMORPHOSES sustained for some time to come. It’s both welcoming and esoteric. Like a poem, the film translation will encompass many meanings and feelings for each individual viewer. The most amazing thing about Honore’s latest though, is the fact that the tales don’t feel over 2000 years old. Timeless, but also bizarre, this is one to split audiences right down the middle.
[usr=3] METAMORPHOSES is also screening on the 11th and 13th October at the London Film Festival. Tickets available here!
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