Released last autumn, Lost in the Night (or its original title) Lostos in the noch) offers a night dive into a contemporary Mexico, caught in a row between rampant ultra-capitalism and galloping corruption. An asphyxiating thriller to find now in physical format...
Climbing violence
Emiliano (the brilliant Juan Daniel García Treviño) lost her mother, an activist opposed to the construction of a mine synonymous with ecological disaster for the region. As convinced as her sister was that she was killed, they each track in their own way the different leads that could lead them to her killer. Tracks that all seem to converge towards a lakefront villa, where resides an exuberant couple of artists and their family.
Mexican director Amat Escalante It's not his test run. He had already won the Cannes Film Directing Award in 2013 for his film Heli, and his latest film – The Wild Region (2016) – made a big noise. A brilliant review of the Possession d
Escalante therefore returns with a visceral thriller, close to what had offered us Damián Szifron with Misanthropist Last year. The film opens with a quote from Dostoevski in The dream of a ridiculous man :
« Killing oneself was a question of such indifference that I wanted to wait for a moment when it would make a certain difference. »
Text on red screen. An invading cardboard like the blood that the film and the starting situation promise to spread. A handful of plans throw away in medias rest Its spectator in a weak social conflict around the construction of a mine, whose stakes we will quickly understand. Financial, of course. Ecological too. We will see the only appearance of the mother of Emiliano, trying to mobilize with a handful of activists identified by the police a protest against the environmental aberration of the exploitation of this underground resource. A brief appearance, soon ended by a nocturnal road map at the Lost HighwayOne night torn by a gyrophare and a few shots. Explosion of a dramatic violence and return of this red screen. Dostoevski's quote no longer appears, but we have it in memory...
Be careful, it shakes.
And the film will advance in this way, in sudden ambushes breaking plans of almost contemplative length. Lost in the Night casts his plans, as the brain bursts out of the driver maculing his windshield, the sperm swallowing a hand after a brief masturbation in the cambress or the visions of corpses in putrefaction softened by the water in which they soak. A spout that will pass through the feature film, destabilizing a spectator who will never know what to expect so quickly negotiates his breaks and his nightmare appearancesdesques.
This double tempo of groping (Emiliano is literally "lost in the night") broken by sudden ambush instils a rhythm taking on this film of revenge that contrasts with the poncives of the genre. Where one usually finds a determined hero, thrown on rails and that nothing can stop (The Killer en est une parfaite illustration récente, mais cela concerne également bon nombre de classiques), Emiliano se perd. S’embourbe toujours plus dans un marécage inextricable, jusqu’à errer, yeux hagards, submergé par une situation que l’on devine indémêlable.
La Maison du lac
Une situation indémêlable qui se concentre pourtant autour de cette villa d’artistes. Une poignée de plans nous embarquant dans leur flottement fantomatique nous jette les bases architecturales de cette maison hors-norme, mi-bunker, mi-phare. Des fenêtres en meurtrières aux installations artistiques étranges, des multiples balcons superposés au jardin intérieur, elle est filmée comme le cocon de la famille qu’elle héberge. Un cocon violé – plusieurs attaques imputées à un groupe sectaire de la région vise le paternel de la famille – que même Emiliano, alors qu’il se fera embaucher comme homme à tout faire, ne pourra pénétrer que rarement.
Escalante le garde à l’extérieur, presque constamment. Satellite d’un monde qu’il tente de sonder, de comprendre. Observateur des saillies artistiques des adultes et de leurs étranges œuvres, des facéties sexuelles bien peu discrètes du couple de parents, ou encore des manies dictées par les réseaux sociaux de la fille aînée du couple (Ester Expósito). Observateur également des rapports de pouvoirs qui se nouent et se dénouent sous ses yeux : collusion avec une police résolument corrompue, puissance numérique enfermée entre les ongles manucurés de l’adolescente, discours démissionnaire d’une classe bourgeoise sédimentée par sa propre condition sociale. Le film brasse large et perd un peu plus son personnage principal dans une nuit capitaliste qui semble décidément avoir pris le pas sur le jour.
Conclusion
Lost in the Night est donc le retour d’Amat Escalante, et un retour diablement réussi. À cheval entre Night Animals and Misanthropist, il promet un voyage nocturne chahuté dans un Mexique rural violent, gangréné par sa police et ses narcos. Un long-métrage à découvrir désormais en format physique.
Data sheet
DVD Zone B (France)
Publisher: Blaq Out
Duration: 118 min
Date de sortie : 06 février 2024
Video format : 576p/25 - 2.39
Soundtrack Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (and 2.0)
Subtitles French
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