Someone's Been Watching their Bruno Dumont

Taking a break from Bonehead Bill. That geezers too heavy for me. Ended up belling Long Tall Sally for a quiet night in to watch Speak No Evil. Another Dinner Table horror from this year. A solid one too, which serves as a parody of politeness. Basic story is a Danish family forming a bond with a Dutch family on holiday. They hit it off so well the Dutch family ends up inviting the Danes for a round 2 back at their gaff. As usual, it's a game of waiting for the big reveal with these Dutch folk not being what they seem.

This one really takes its time before the expected turn, which did some favours for LTS because she did not like the final act at all. That bird didn't even have any nails left by the end of it. She even asked if I could hold my hands front of her face to block it out as her hands were getting tired. Bluntly told her to "fuck off" and she spent the rest of the evening being extremely passive aggressive towards me, so she's probably not getting invited around mine again for a while either. We're rapidly running out of movie buddies. Not good.

Anyway, before Speak No Evil kicks off, it's your typical run of the mill Dinner Table horror with plenty of warning signs that this Dutch family were a little off. A father who keeps changing his stories. In particular with regards to his line of work that will keep you on your toes. There's the red herrings too because the protagonist's family overreact on a few things such as dancing in the boozer and playing his music too loud in the car. That was hilarious. Can't approve of the drink driving but none of the Dutch couples actions on that night out were a red card for me. Didn't even need to go VAR on that shit, just dudes having a good time.

Lines not crossed at that point, hence why those antics were let go and forgiven. Long Tall Sally said the raised volume of music in the car incident was just a "typical evening with Jacob Kelly", which was why she disapproved of it massively. Especially, the moment when the drunk Dutch driver agreed to turn the music down but then laughed and turned it straight back up. LTS shook her head at this behaviour because she had seen it all before.

I swear to God she looked like a disturbed war vet experiencing PTSD. Naturally, I queried what her fucking problem was and she just kept repeating, "You!". All the memories of university gaffs came flooding back to her in seconds. These nights normally ended with myself and whoever I'd rounded up at the party in LTS's basement at about 6am in some coke fuelled stupor blurting out the words to some really stupid '80s pop song like Human League's Don’t You Want Me Baby. Everyone would have called it a night or were trying to unsuccessfully cause Phil Oakey was in their basement giving his greatest gig of his career. LTS never saw it that way, so I assumed she was always more of a Heaven 17 girl. Some people are that way inclined I guess. She would come down trying to give me the boot and get me out the door after various complaints from her flatmates and neighbours about the noise.

Politely, I would promise to switch off the music and leave but then 5 minutes later, I'd hit the play button again and go back in to my rendition of Don't You Want Me Baby. Just like that the whole street would be treated to their sixth helping of Human League that evening. The crowd would get their encores whether they liked it or not. This routine happened quite a lot. I don't know how many times she kicked me out of her place but in hindsight she may have had her reasons come to think of it. It's a miracle we still get along. But when you've got a friend with a voice as good Phil Oakey's you don't pass that up. Anyone want to start a synthpop band?

Most of Speak No Evil is intended as a critique of how we endure a lot of terrible acts from people we're unfamiliar with out of politeness. However, this didn't fully land for me. I was too distracted by another element, which was the Danish Dad's domestication. If you watch closely it is the Danish father's need for escape from everyday life and duties, which drives their decisions to remain there and not leave early as the wife desires.

You can tell this daddy wants this so badly. In the male bonding scenes (easily some of the most interesting in the movie), he mentions that he is sick of smiling and wearing a mask for society. Danish dad is looking to confide in Dutch dad and reveal his problems. He wants his new friend to expose him to culture so that when asked about musical interests he can say more than "pop. You know...rock?", as though he's been living under a rock all these years. I'd go as far as to say he envies the Dutch dad's open nature and lack of care for the polite decencies because he so desperately wants to loosen up and be his true self. You bet when the boys settled their differences and had a beer in the hot tub together, I cracked open another beverage and raised my drink. Prompting LTS to ask as she always does, "Do you have to do that every time two guys have a drink in a movie". She got just the one word reply, "Yup"

Fatherhood is a big theme in the movie. We see various types of parenting in the movie from appreciating all artistic endeavours in spite of quality to the kind of violent coaching you'd associate with Joe Jackson. Or 'Joseph' as he forced his kids to call him. The dancing scene is notably strange. Normally, I'd be laughing heavily at that kind of scene, even more so in a Danes hands, but this was so unbelievably awkward, pushing all the buttons. Didn't even know how to respond and then all of a sudden Dutch dad is lobbing bowls at his nipper cause he's got no rhythm. Blew my head off that one. Having a word with the kid cause he hasn’t got the tools I can get. That warrants a strict word. But lobbing bowls at the rugrats head may be going a little too far. Could be time to get child services on the blower when that comes out.

Throughout the 97 minutes, I was surprised at how subservient Danish Dad behaves. LTS and I both in firm agreement for once, that man's a coward. I was sat there like well he's not winning any Dad of the year awards is he. To be clear none of them are but somehow I hate the yellow bellied fuck over the abusive one. Hot take coming here but Danish dad might be the most pathetic movie Dad since Force Majeure.

Trust me, if I was there, it wouldn’t have gone down like this. Mark Wahlberg 911 style. I've got fists and I'd bloody use them. None of this "Please mister, don't hurt my family" business. Whimpering will not be tolerated. Dutch dad and his bird, I'll have them out cold in 3 moves. Quick elbow to Dutch dad's nose, dive over to his chair and shoulder his head in to the side window (that all counts as one motion). Then it's the old seat fully extended back manoeuvre to take his bird out in the back seat. These two are finished. As for the other assailant outside the car, a simple roundhouse ought to finish him off. This Danish Dad had no gun on him or anything, never seen such a softy in all my days. This guy ain't got the fucking sand. He had plenty of opportunities to get out but he wanted this weekend so badly. Therefore, this is more a story of emasculated fathers than it is the parody of politeness it was positioned as.

Respect to the filmmakers though, when Danish dad walks round the house one night and the twist is revealed using the old photograph and creepy music technique, it put me so on edge. It took it's time to build that scare by having him walk round the house first, fully earned it. Prefer this to Smile any day. This then leads to that final third LTS found too shocking. Began leaning towards a less commercial artsy ending with ideas over audience satisfaction. LTS lost the purpose of the film during the last few scenes and asked, "What's the point of this? It's just cold, sick and nasty". Told her, "They're trying to do a Dumont". Hearing this she turns her rage at the filmmaker on to me as she snaps and shouts, "Kelly, what the fuck are you talking about?"

Had to explain my adoration for the career of Bruno Dumont. There were clues scattered about that they were ripping off the French director in the male bonding. That one scene when the two Dad's scream into the countryside is directly lifted from Humanite, an abrasive classic of the New French Extremity movement from 1999.

Without spoiling it the final scenes of Speak No Evil are actually stolen from Dumont's controversial Twentynine Palms. Difference with Dumont is that his bursts of violence and screaming are a lot more effective because of the way he sets up his narratives and the set pieces involved.

Starting with Humanite, that screaming scene is undoubtedly one of the most powerful moments in the history cinema because it goes right through you. It's about reclaiming the sense of self by using every part of your body you can to prove to yourself you're still alive and fighting the good fight. The narrative is shaped in a way that when this comes, it catches you off guard. You really feel it. Everything is quiet and detached then out of nowhere you get this personal and idiosyncratic moment of weirdness. What begins as a detective story rejects the plot heavy foundations of the genre and becomes a character story.

I know what you're thinking. What about Zodiac and Memories of Murder? Didn't they do that? You noticed I said this came out in 1999 right? Before those two. Bong likes to brag that he was doing it before Fincher but Dumont did it before the pair of them. Better too because when the protagonist screams that is the thunderous roar of not just a character in an identity struggle but in a metatextual sense its cinemas fight back against the trappings of plot over character in detective thrillers. It hits me so hard, every time I see it. A moment so brilliant, it reminds you how to feel.

As for Twentynine Palms, this is a shocking movie which nails its arguments unapologetically and uncaringly but can be hard to respond emotionally to. Was for me anyway. Most people tend to react to it strongly drifting to either side of the fence whether it's good or bad. Makes me respect it more even if I am sat well in the middle.

Conceptually, it's as fascinating as all its supporters say it is with this cool idea at the centre of flipping Chris Marker travelogues (like Sans Soleil) on their head and making this very disturbing road movie. Not as cute and politically stimulating as Zabriskie Point but obsessed with nihilism. Dumont's document of America is film in its most abrasive and utterly repellent form. Stripped back of traditional techniques for maximum repulsiveness. A vision of America in which characters spend the majority of it arguing, fucking and soaking up absolutely no culture on their travels. They do not broaden the mind.

Instead, a fucked up Le Mepris and as good as it sounds better to write about than to watch. Then to top it all off there's the infamous final scene serving as Dumont's final statement on America. A film so effective that is truly horrible to watch. Frequently and lazily compared to Gaspar Noe's Irreversible due to a single similarity in one scene. Twentynine Palms is a much slower movie and comparing it with Irreversible would not do it justice, only ruining what Dumont is trying to set up. Entertainment value is not even considered on this project but it achieves its points with razor sharp consistency.

Dumont's films grow on me after watching. Love them or hate them, you don't forget them. After Humanite he was referred to as the heir to Robert Bresson (A Man Escaped, Pickpocket). Although an admirer of Bresson, the constant comparisons got to his head and rattled him so he went in to Nicholas Winding Refn mode when he made the underrated Only God Forgives. Essentially, for those who only caught Drive and not Forgives, deconstructing his own work, abandoning what was popular and leaving audience satisfaction at the door. Earning him the title of the rogue one.

Regardless, it would be ignorant to dismiss all his work prior and after Humanite. Ok so he hasn't had a classic since Humanite, I'd still draw his critics attention to his dedication to niggling away at the capabilities of cinema and in the process creating his own way of talking far away from boring traditional narratives. It's so refreshing each time to see him reject dialogue and tell stories through movement and his characters inability to communicate. His treatment of locations in his films always interests me too because he's so at one with them expressing that in a way that isn't common at all.

Dumont favours writing novels for his films over screenplays and in doing so he captures those large descriptive chunks of texts you get so wonderfully in books but can be lost in translation to screen. His camera does all the work in revealing minute details about characters and their environment. Hors Satan and La vie De Jesus were incredible at doing this. It's purely visual and that's what makes it so rewarding on rewatches. Perhaps you weren't acquainted with his method of talking but once you begin 'speaking the language' it all comes shining through and the material so rich in ways it seemed inaccessible previously. It's like he speaks in code and suddenly once you get that one word to break it, you're off and running in his world and you never look back.

Tafdrup was never going to master it with such little experience and his work comes off as imitation with limitation. If it appears as though he lost the movie in its final scenes it's because he never fully a grasp on the films themes in the previous acts and wasn't able to explore them visually to their full extent in the final third. Possibly, the problem is that the film is unable to decide what drives its characters politeness with strangers or weak fathers. It can't quite figure out what it wants to be.

Flawed? Sure. Yet, it's audacity struck me. Would have preferred the final images to be more shocking and bold with tighter control over the narrative prior to be effective. In these tame times though, going for what they did got my attention. We could have a decent filmmaker on our hands given time to grow and work on their storytelling and cinematic language. The skills will come, I value the desire to try to be as bold as Dumont. Maybe it didn't quite achieve the cold distance and shattering truths on this occasion but fair fucking play for not tying this up in boring fashion and going towards corporeality. A few more films and maybe this guy can be a Julia Ducournau.

That 'tongue' scene is enough to unnerve any parent but would have had more impact on me if the dad wasn't such a wimp. This may have been the point at which I went on a long rant to Long Tall Sally about my thoughts on masculinity and how surely anyone can locate their inner violence if Dustin Hoffman can. A man has to stand up for what's right. Poetically, I went in to saying, "If a man can't find his inner Straw Dogs, then he deserves to have Speak No Evil happen to his family". LTS didn't really bother listening to what I had to say about this issue and interrupted me rudely to ask whether I wanted to "go to a massive Halloween party in a few weeks?" Fuming that this cunt of a companion did not want to listen to my insightful lectures on masculinity, I exhaled loudly but still muttered, "Ok, yes I'll come".

Bonus Points:

-The filmmaker watching his Dumont

-Dutch Dad and Danish Dad having a beer together in the hot tub

-The reveal with the pictures on the wall

Overall Score: 3.5/5