Seul Contre Tous

Seul Contre Tous (I Stand Alone) is a quite shocking film. I was not aware of it until I got it recommended by one friend. Bearing in mind that it's the first work by Gaspar Noé, the guy behind the devastating Irreversible, I should have already laid my eyes on it long ago. Indeed, I find it odd that this film is not framed in the French Extremity genre.

We're before a rather unconventional film: the story, the narrative, the aesthetic... We could consider the leading character as a sort of Antihero, but in my concept of Antihero it's necessary to be able to gain some sort of identification with him, and in this case I can't. Having been a Vegetarian on moral basis for almost 20 years, it's clear that it would be difficult that I could feel any affection for a butcher (that's our man's "profession") from the start, but as the film goes on things don't get any better, he's a piece a shit (no matter how deeply he's been a victim of society), a rather stinky one. At several points of the story it seems like there's going to be a twist and he's going to transform into a hero, but it never happens. First, when he expounds his philosophical views on loneliness, I pretty agree on start up, but then he takes it way too far. Then, when he's in a bar and the bartender rejects to serve a coffee to a well-behaved customer just cause he's an Arab (with a "you can go for a mint-tea somewhere else" and crap like that) you think our man is going to explode and blow the head of that racist scum, but nothing happens, and furthermore, later on he'll end up showing his homophobic and racist side. About his sickening approach to sexuality, well, I think that's all I can say, sickening.

The film is set in the allegedly crisis-riddend late 80's France. I say allegedly cause also at present newspapers here (I'm still living in France, though sadly I think that only for just a few more weeks) are always talking about how stagnant the economy is and how terrifying the unemployment figures are, but being an Asturian, my notion of crisis is somehow different (25% unemployment, rows of closed shops, rows of "Gold buy and sell" shops, very aged population...). There are several shots in the film that I think try to transmit a sense of political unrest: some disgusting far-right graffiti ("our land, our blood"), walls with huge slogans asking for the vote for the PCF (French Communist Party) and CGT (one trade union).

When he was he was strolling along Lille beside that nurse I had the feeling that the architecture looked quite more British than French, well, seems it's not my mind playing tricks as you can read here

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