![]() We first see the film’s protagonist, the 25-year-old successful Montreal businesswoman, the part-owner of three chic boutiques, the attractive Bibi Champagne (Marie-Josée Croze), when her life is at a low point. Its coldness resembles the modern industrial world and how difficult it is to find others to communicate with. Though beautifully acted and stylishly filmed and musically scored (Tom Waits hip songs are mixed in with Grieg’s romantic symphonies), Maelstrom seems antiseptic and distantly intellectual rather than a tender overcoming of grief tale. Villeneuve seemed more interested in capturing the concepts of death and love and the natural flow of life (arising from and returning to the ocean), then in having a free-flowing romantic drama. The film suffered in how skeletal was the portrayal of the main character and in how abstractly symbolic her story was rather than feeling real. The problem was that the philosophical humor failed to register with me. One of the narrator’s pet sayings was “He who kills will be killed,” as the narrator frames the morality agenda and adds some needed humor to this grim tale. Its novel talking fish narrator and its abrupt way of cutting from a scene, gave it a strange and discomforting surreal feel. “ Antiseptic and distantly intellectual.“įrench Canadian writer-director Denis Villeneuve’s Maelstrom is a bleak and whimsical morality fable narrated by a blood-smeared fish on the chopping block. (director/writer: Denis Villeneuve cinematographer: André Turpin editor: Richard Comeau music: Pierre Desrochers cast: Marie-Josée Croze (Bibi Champagne), Jean-Nicolas Verreault (Evian), Stephanie Morgenstern (Claire Gunderson), Pierre Lebeau (voice of the fish), Bobby Beshro (Philippe Champagne), Marc Gélinas (Stranger in Subway) Runtime: 87 MPAA Rating: R producers: Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal Arrow Entertainment 2000-Canada-in French and Norwegian with English subtitles) ![]()
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