Originally released in 2015 by Lize Spit, Het Smelt immediately emulated in the Flemish literary milieu. A shock reading, punching, quickly translated into many languages. (The French translation is available Here, under the heading Debacle.) It is therefore unsurprising that an adaptation to the cinema was started. Veerle Baetens, an actress recognized in Belgium, has already won two Magrittes of the best actress (for In the name of the earth in 2016 and Duels in 2020), is here for the first time behind the camera. And we can say, without brows, that she already offers us a real singular and personal proposition.
Blow hot and cold
Eva, now a young adult, returns to Bovenmeer, a small Flemish village of her childhood, years after a suffocating summer that has escaped control. His only luggage: a huge block of ice on the back of his car. In the winter of her adult life, she remembers « The Three Musketeers », that band she formed with Tim and Laurens. Their games, their fights, their mistakes. And their consequences...
From these first moments, the film splits between two distinct frames, constantly moving from one to the next. On one side, the present winter adult Eva. On the other hand, the solar past of Eva child (played by Rosa Marchant who won the Women's Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival 2023). Each frame has its own stakes and serves as an engine to the other, raising a new veil on the previous sequences. From the beginning of the film, we know that Eva has a complicated relationship with her parents. A sequence of memorable meals will then be required to understand the source. A disturbing and disturbing look between Eva and Marie, the bouchère, will only find her explanation in the film's final revelation. The scenario thus plays with the information it gives us and the pieces of the puzzle that we miss to push us even further into the horrific events that animated this summer.
Particular attention to detail
If the very structure of the script is particularly pleasant, it is attention to the smallest details that can be found in the drawings that bring a real plus to the film. Whether in the coherence of his story or in the intensification of his dramatic stakes. Here, a slight tanning mark left by a swimsuit that is removed at the end of the summer. There, a simple plan on a beetle that reveals all the psychology of the protagonist in a flagship scene. The film offers a multitude of cinematic ideas that make it a treat and wonder, in the midst of the hardness of its subject and the themes it addresses.
There's still something strange and unhealthy about the film. Starting with this leitmotiv enigma of the film, strangely macabre in the mouth of a child and motor of a perverse game organized by boys who gradually lose their innocence. The great strength of the film is to make this disturbing aspect feel, without ever feeling the need to film it in a frontal way. Eva's finally out there nowhere. Neither at home where tensions with his mother are incessant, nor with his friends, who gradually become men. Trapped, it can only move endlessly towards what awaits it. In her last attempt to take things in hand, as the summer ends, we finally see her fail. The innocence of her childhood is forever broken.
Children in the process
Despite all the qualities already stated, if the film were to be retained for only one aspect, it is good for its striking casting. If very good actors are put on the stage for adult roles like Naomi Velissariou or Charlotte de Bruyne to name but one, it is the performance of young actors that is breathtaking. Most of them have little or no prior experience, so they dominate the film by the power of their performance. A talent immediately noticed at festivals such as Sundance, where Rosa Marchant, who plays Eva young, received an award for best performance.
If they're so good, it's probably because the director was able to capture their eyes. Sometimes soft, sometimes hard, sometimes lost, one gets lost quickly in their contemplations, in the glittering iris, in these silent exchanges (or not) that carry the weight of all their emotions. We can't wait to see what Veerle Baetens will offer for his next visit behind the camera. Release scheduled for 28 February 2024 in France.
Superbly well written, thank you for this deep sharing while subtly keeping the film's plot a mystery. Thank you!