Artifice

Artifice

Artifice
Artifice

The movie takes place over a single day. From the very first moment you know that you are about to be the witness of an imminent downfall. Both want to be loved, or maybe it’s all about the contrary.
‘What the fuck’, he says in one of the first scenes. ‘Without you, mine would be a life of absolute misery’. Then he points a loaded gun to his own head, trying to make her change her mind. But she doesn’t. It scares the shit out of you, it seems so real.
The girl walks towards the guy, as if going barefoot across a death defying tightrope. She gives him a knife and says ‘go ahead’. He takes the knife but does nothing.
I think ‘It takes balls to document the end of an affair with a steadycam’.
It is supposed to be autobiographical so you stay there, stuck to the theater stall, expecting something gruesome to happen as the girl was stabbed in a motel two years ago. You wonder if it’s all true, some kinda snuff, some kinda psychological violence like Albee’s.
Try to stop seeing, if you can. That’s the texture of morbid vérité.
And in the midst of that high impact dramatic climax, the girl starts talking about a fantasy she has with fucking machines. People roar with laughter.
No blood, no anything. An hour and a half of shadows and a voice-over.
I’ll tell you something, man: owning a camera doesn’t make your freaking movie worth viewing.