The abyss – Wikipedia

The abyss is a French film directed by Antoine Barraud, presented at the Locarno 2012 festival, and which releases the generalized way January 8, 2014 . Film partly experimental, borrowing both the genre of the fantastic film and that of the psychological study, it also mounted in 2013 in a short film version under the title Abyss .

Georges Lebrun goes to Latin America to explore a series of dresses, of a Doline type, which have just been discovered following a renewed seismic activity in the region. He is accompanied by his wife, France, an actress who prepares the role of Liù, the sacrificial slave in an adaptation of the opera Turandot of Puccini. Replicas are always very sensitive when they arrived at the hotel and the press conference before the start of a scientific mission. Very worried, France apprehends the departure of Georges as well as to be alone. Who knows what he can meet at the bottom of the abyss.

While Georges has not given news for forty-eight hours, the anxiety of France is increasing as night approaches. If the custody of the Gite/Hotel tries to reassure her, a strange maid – who claims to “be in communication” with the abyss – only adds to his fears. During the night, dream or loss of contact with reality, France discovers as a new jolt a gallery under its bed and cannot help but go down there. Sleeping into the bowels of the earth, she follows disturbing marks of parietal art and meets a group of men who encourage her to sink even deeper to the lake to go to the other side and join Georges. Refusing the ultimate obstacle, it flees and rises to the surface.

The long -awaited telephone call The fate of his torpor: contact with Georges was restored, he returns. The next day, while she rushes towards her husband, she finds horrified that if it is her voice and her gestures, her face is no longer the same; She has to face another man. This shock leads her to make a hospital stay. Back in France, she must resume her life and her work, without achieving it.

Festival makers and national outings [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The abyss was selected during the Locarno 2012 festival – and its director appointed for the golden leopard in the category “Directors of the present ^{[ 2 ]} » – Then in November of the same year the film was integrated into the Turin Film Festival program ^{[ 3 ]} . It is also presented the January 19, 2013 in official “feature films” competition during the Festival Premier Plans d’Angers ^{[ 4 ]} . At the end of his presentation in official competition at the Montreal Fantastic Film Festival “Fantasia” the July 24, 2013 , Nathalie Boutefeu won the prize for the “best actress” and the film receives a “special mention of the jury ^{[ 5 ]} ».

A shortened version at 35 min and reassembled with a different musical band – the short film is then called Abyss -, is also presented in June 2013 at the Festival Côté Court de Pantin ^{[ first ]} , which awarded him the grand-prix of the “Fiction competition ^{[ 6 ]} », And broadcast on France 2 the June 17, 2013 ^{[ 7 ]} .

The January 8, 2014 , the film is its generalized release in France in its 65 -minute “long version”.

During his presentation at the Festival Principal Plans in Angers, the newspaper critic West France judges that this “experimental work served by magnificent actors” succeeds in proposing an “indefinable climate of anxiety” focusing on the psychoanalytic interpretations of “fantasies” and the “unconscious ^{[ 4 ]} ». After his presentation in Montreal at the “Fantasia” festival, the criticism of The press Consider this “atmospheric film” as a “destabilizing work” and underlines in particular the interpretation “very convincing […] of a woman on the verge of madness” of Nathalie Boutefeu ^{[ 8 ]} .

At the time of its national release in France, the magazine Three colours Consider that with this film the director “builds a world of rustles and dampness in perfect adequacy with the interpretation of Nathalie Boutefeu” who, put into abyss by playing an actress who repeats, underlines “the madness which touches certain artists in their work “especially in a” vertiginous ^{[ 9 ]} ». Very enthusiastic, Inrocks Sail the work of the director who by “progressive shift towards irrationality […], the game between fantasy and a reality” resulted in an “attractive and mysterious object from one end to the other ^{[ ten ]} ». Julien GESTER, for Release , judge that this film “refined” on the couple uses a “poetic sedition” and a “neat plastic” while being mainly worn by the game “wonder [x] of delicacy” of “the sublime Nathalie Boutefeu ^{[ 11 ]} ». In the same line, L’Express – Ciné Live studio highlights the performance of the main actress while considering that the work in itself is “a little academic and abstruse, but the mastery of the realization forces respect for respect ^{[ twelfth ]} ». Online magazine Critikat , which offers a more complete analysis of the work qualified as “psychogeological analogy”, underlines the different “levels of interpretation: fantastic, psychopathological, mythological and poetic” of the film which deals above all from the state of a woman who “tomb [e] inside herself” after a final scene “particularly strong ^{[ 13 ]} ». Noting similarities with The Descent (2005) De Neil Marshall et They (2006) by Xavier Palud and David Moreau, the France Télévisions Culturebox site estimates that The abyss demonstrates “an unusual sensitivity that is worth explored ^{[ 14 ]} ».

Conversely, Jacques Mandelbaum for The world Consider that the “ambitious” project does not lead due to an excess of the “metaphor of the chasm” without giving the spectator elements on life, the “causes of [l] fragility and reasons for [l ] a perdition ”of this couple ^{[ 15 ]} . Even more negative, criticism of The new observer judge that the “blurring to express the discomfort of the character and pretentious dialogues end up mine the (beautiful) work of Nathalie Boutefeu ^{[ 16 ]} ” and the one at Telerama consider that “by tilting into the fantastic, the film also sinks into the smoking ^{[ 17 ]} ».

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