Almayer's Folly (Akerman, 2011): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.30pm
This screening is part of the Chantal Akerman season at BFI Southbank.
Time Out review:
'Returning to feature filmmaking after a lengthy sojourn as a video artist, Belgium’s Chantal Akerman
delivers a work as substantive, challenging and unique as her
brilliant Proust adaptation from 2000, ‘The Captive’. Billed as a
‘liberal’ take on Joseph Conrad’s little-known first novel, this
languid essay in despair sees Stanislas Merhar
playing the stuttering, frenzied but ultimately tragic and possibly
deranged figure of Almayer, a European ex-pat in Cambodia who idly tends
to his failing trading post while ensuring his daughter, Nina (born to
a local mother), is instilled with the same enlightened European
values as himself. Scenes usually run in single, medium close-up takes
(all immaculately framed and executed) and the elliptical narrative can
usually be navigated by gauging the griminess of the cast. Tough as
the film may be, it still speaks volumes about colonial exploitation
and catastrophic clashes of culture, gender and age. The (eight-minute)
climactic shot is also sensational.'
David Jenkins
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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