In addition to bringing the public together in one temple called cinema, the reason for any good festival is to highlight new talents. Gérardmer was not missing this year, and the official selection left the mark on young directors. First feature film by Chloe Okuno, Watcher traces the story of Julia and her husband of Romanian origin, who leave the United States together to settle in Bucharest. While her husband is very popular at work, Julia wonders about her future life. In the midst of loneliness, she sees that a silhouette from the window of the nearby building...
Our criticism of Watcher
Window on courtyard
WAtcher is the genre of feature film that captures its intrigue of social issues that go through (and tear) our times. We find Maika Monroe absolutely upsetting in the role of a harassed woman. If the synopsis refers to intrigues that have already been seen more than once in horror cinema, Watcher can find its way in dealing with these themes. Classic on form, this thriller hides a more assertive political object than an umpteenth history of serial killers bloodshed and police rescue in extremis. It's even the opposite. Julia is alone, perfectly alone in this new country where she only baragouin a few Romanian words.
In mirror, Watcher reveals the coldness of a society trusted by men who evolve in a hermetic (even poisoned) sphere to that of women. It's as much the image of the self-made-man, to the brigade leader, as it is to the small neighbourhood strike: so many variations of blind power to those around him. Each of them is systematically busy with something else, her husband at work, the police bored by an umpteenth night call from a future case closed without further action, and the little (but the most friendly) villain will not let go of his phone for a second.
It is as expensive as the state and the anonymous neighbour who are taken in default. We would almost think of the chorus of this advertising campaign of the 1990s where the carabineros sought to wash their image after the dictatorship of Pinochet (1973-1990) by presenting themselves as "a friend on your way.". A hymn that was largely sung by the wildly repressed Chilean revolution and became a global symbol of feminist struggles. One tradition of combat widely maintained by Chilean history.
« Sleep alone, innocent child. Without fearing the robber. Because on your sweet smiling dreams. Watch the carabiner, your lover. »
Julia will find no comfort with these latter who will systematically minimize her testimonies when they will not prefer to laugh, in Romanian of surcroit. Addresses that resonate like so many alerts before the irreparable is committed. As a stabbing of the real while the victims of femicides are increasing Despite calls for help that are still too ignored by authorities and relatives. It is also a reflection on ordinary sexism that confiscates the word of women. This is partly the case of the husband who is beginning to believe that his companion is fabbling. Even if it is not fundamentally bad, it is the structure of society that separates any awareness from reality, experienced as an alternative reality by female victims and a fantasy for men.
At the supermarket, at home, in the street to the symbolic metro, Julia is increasingly alone. Very quickly, the spectator abandons all hope of finding any support from Julia's male entourage. Masculin because there is still a glimmer of female solidarity with his neighbour with whom Chloe rediscovers the smile during a spontaneous aperitif where the two women exchange and even engage a dedicated means of communication in case of aggression of one of them.
« Maybe he is staring at the woman who is staring at him. »
"A rapist on your way"
However, Chloé Okuno never falls into the caricature in the human relations she draws. Watcher In no way seeks guilt but instead calls for collective awareness. Men are also not presented as torturers, but even when they are likely to come to his aid, from the police to the neighbourhood, there is every reason to believe that they are never on the same relationship. The image of the silhouette is also that of the other, nobody and everyone at once.
Is it the neighbor or the insistent look? Unless Julia locks up in paranoia. It is on this point that Watcher marks its singularity. Rather than instilling doubt as to the truthfulness of Julia's fears, the director constantly adopts the perspective of the victim, so that the spectator fortunately did not suffer from an umpteenth twist on madness, the common denominator of script poverty. And icing on the cake too much declined to wear in actors like Di Capri in recent years.
It Follow-up Ten years later...
All the interest lies in Julia's behavior which will react and grasp herself of her fate by reversing the burden of the fault which is too often lent to the victims with the now infamous « short skirt syndrome » and its variant of "Why are you looking at me?s?" Where Maika Monroe could only flee before the boogeyman excellent It Follows, the actress is determined to face her aggressor. Nearly ten years have passed since the film David Robert Mitchell where the actress played a fragile teenage girl pursued by this anxious silhouette at such a quiet pace. Other time, other manners, is another Maika Monroe that is discovered under the female look of Chloé Okuno.
Maika Monroe is almost thirty now and she is a resolutely assertive and proactive woman who is passing through Watcher. Always elegant in its approach, this thriller breaks the codes of female fragility and invites self-organization in front of the bankruptcy of institutions. Looking for what costs to follow his attacker, Julia reverses the balance of the predation ratio. A glamour, Watcher always knows how to exercise intelligence in his narration that he distills with small touches of suspense without ever sinking into the pathos.
Special mention at the stage of the cinema where her oppressor sat right behind her, like an elusive shadow that cannot by essence be loosened. An almost nightmare that recalls the breath of night terror. This is the whole picture of harassment and the burden of men's eyes. Chloé Okuno knows how to play off-site to amplify the feeling that our intimacy is systematically violated. From this large window that opens onto the outside courtyard to people in the background, Watcher Just like It Follows ten years earlier, probes the viewer's gaze, becoming alert to every detail.
Maika Monroe is remarkable in this new sensitive and almost allegorical role. One will naturally think of this scene where Julia, dressed in a red dress, symbol of the power that we also couple with desire, drinks a glass of red in her living room, in full sight of a voyeur too modest to discover the veil of her curtain. It should also be noted that even knowing that she is spied, Julia will never turn off the light of her apartment. With a striking accuracy, Maika Monroe holds her head high to her attacker. A symbol for the female cause.
Entered craggy of 30th Gérardmer Festival and overshadowed by proposals at the margin, Watcher certainly has not much to do with the fantastic register but it deserves all your attention. Release scheduled for April 12th... In VOD only unfortunately. An unfortunate tendency that is as unbearable as it is to me.
Chloe Okuno, director
Born in California, she studied in California in Berkeley, where she obtained a master's degree in production from the American Film Institute. She wins the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award and directed the horrific short film Slut. She also wrote the remake of the film Audrey Rose by Robert Wise for Orion Pictures, as well as a segment of horror anthology V/H/S/94, which she also realizes. Watcher is his first feature film.
Trailer of Watcher
A well-developed critic who wants to see the film!
Thank you!
Thank you! It's a film that was very popular and was somewhat erased by the successes of other films at the festivals.
I can't wait to see him, too.
[...] the films Se7en and Zodiac. Maïka Monroe, noted actress of It Follows and excellent Watcher (read our review) also delivers a magnetic performance. The one that is often chosen [...]