Hors Satan (Dumont, 2011) & Beyond The Hills (Mungiu, 2012): Rio Cinema, 12.45pm
A 'Good & Evil Double-Bill' pairs two of the best recent foreign releases here.
Chicago Reader review of Hors Satan:
A nameless man appears in a small farm town on the northern French
coast, spending his days wandering the fields and praying. He finds an
acolyte in a sulky young woman, commits a seemingly random murder, and
has violent sex with a strange woman. That’s about it for the story of
this 2011 French drama, which evokes the Old Testament in its opaque
simplicity, and Bruno Dumont’s commanding, atheistic style--rooted in
purposely empty wide-screen vistas and the inexpressive faces of his
nonactors--doesn’t offer many clues as to its meaning. As with L’Humanité
(1999), Dumont wants to give epic form to the longing for spirituality
in a despiritualized world. I found the movie mind-blowing, though it
will likely irritate as many viewers as it impresses.
Ben Sachs
Here is the trailer.
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Chicago Reader review of Beyond The Hills:
Raised in a German orphanage, Voichita has found peace as a novice in a
Romanian convent, but her austere life is roiled by a visit from her
unstable friend Alina, who has graduated from the same orphanage to a
series of foster homes. In many ways this long, layered drama from
writer-director Cristian Mungiu seems like a companion piece to his
harrowing abortion story 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007);
both movies trace the uneasy relationship between a survivor and her
weak, dependent pal as they try to navigate a world of patriarchal
oppression. Here that oppression is embodied by the Russian Orthodox
priest who threatens to expel Voichita for her friend's volatile
behavior, yet Mungiu complicates this overt critique of religion by
hinting that both Voichita's devotion to God and Alina's clinging
attachment to Voichita are driven by childhood sexual abuse.
J.R. Jones
Here is the trailer.
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