Plot
Carnage, an example of what the French call un film chorale, tells several intertwining stories. In the central tale, a young second-generation bullfighter, Victor (Julien Lescarret), is gored, and is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. A little girl, Winnie (Raphaëlle Molinier), sits next to a massive Great Dane and watches the fateful bullfight on television, and becomes obsessed with the bull. A university researcher, Jacques (Jacques Gamblin of Safe Conduct), cheats on his massively pregnant wife, Betty (Lio), who hides a critical fact about her pregnancy from him. Jacques' brother, Luc (Bernard Sens), an amateur taxidermist, lives with their mother, Rosie (Esther Gorintin), who loves him, but withholds a family secret. Winnie's teacher, Jeanne (Lucia Sanchez), struggles to understand her neurotic mother, Alicia (Ángela Molina), when she visits. When her car is dented by a shopping cart, Carlotta (Chiara Mastroianni), a struggling actress, meets Alexis (Clovis Cornillac), a suicidal philosopher/skater who offers to lead her to the culprits. Carnage, the debut feature from writer/director Delphine Gleize, won the Sutherland Trophy at the 2002 London Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the 2002 Stockholm Film Festival. It was also shown at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and at Lincoln Center in New York as part of their 2003 Rendez-Vouz with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, RoviReview
Writer/director Delphine Gleize's acclaimed debut feature, Carnage, is a well-made, thoughtful, and superbly acted multi-tiered drama that doesn't quite add up to the epiphany it seems to be straining for. But it's consistently compelling. Gleize is a precise and clever filmmaker. She gets tremendous tension out of a simple shot of a little girl's eyes as she watches a bullfight on television, transfixed. The cast is uniformly excellent, bringing out depths in the characters that aren't present in the dialogue and plot. Raphaëlle Molinier, the aforementioned little girl, is wondrous as the spookily perceptive Winnie, and Clovis Cornillac is also noteworthy as a suicidal man whose impulse to follow the trail of his obsessions could lead him to the peace he seeks. There's a lot going on in the film, and it's all interesting, but it often borders on contrivance. A tragic turn at the end of the film is clumsily foreshadowed at the beginning. Gleize and her cast have created rich characters, and the director (aided by the terrific widescreen cinematography of Crystel Fournier), effectively sets the mood and maintains the film's tricky mordant tone, evident in one child's comic mangling of language to describe the mangling of a toreador, and another's mistaking a bull's eyes for playthings. Carnage doesn't exactly hit the bull's-eye itself, but these virtues keep the film afloat despite problems with the needlessly complex plotting. ~ Josh Ralske, RoviCast
- Chiara Mastroianni - Carlotta
- Ángela Molina - Alicia
- Lucia Sanchez - Jeanne
- Esther Gorintin - Rosie
- Marylin Even - Lucie
Credit
Andre Fonsny - Art Director, Antoinette Boulat - Casting, Delphine Gleize - Director, Francois Quiquere - Editor, Eric Neveux - Composer (Music Score), Crystel Fournier - Cinematographer, Jerome Dopffer - Producer, Pierre Andre - Sound/Sound Designer, Delphine Gleize - Screenwriter| Carnage (1985 Film), Carnada De Muerte (Film) | |
| Carnage (2011 Film), Carnage Cup III (2008 Film) |
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