[Review] Psychological Spy Thriller REFELCTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND is A Thoughts Melter!

Visible mad geniuses Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani return with their latest cinematic head-trip Reflection in a Lifeless Diamond (Reflet dans un Diamant Mort), a Nineteen Sixties impressed spy caper with a leather-based clad femme fatale and a wildly creative puzzle field narrative. Horror followers will little doubt keep in mind Cattet & Forzani’s “O is for Orgasm” section in The ABCs of Demise (2012) for all its trippy imagery and unnerving close-ups, however it’s of their characteristic movies the place the duo’s model has ingeniously re-imagined a few of your favourite subgenres. 

The French filmmaking group’s earliest options, Amer (2009) and The Unusual Color of Your Physique’s Tears (L’Etrange Couleur des Larmes de ton Corps, 2013), each performed in a Giallo sandbox the place the actual horrors are psychological and black leather-gloved killers reign supreme. In 2017 they launched their neo-western gunslinger showdown Let The Corpses Tan (Laissez Bronzer les Cadavres), and this yr they return with an outlandish crime thriller of espionage and madness. Their motion pictures are in contrast to the rest, and so they stay two of probably the most intriguing artists working right now. When you’ve got been craving one thing new, one thing you’ve possibly by no means seen earlier than, Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani are about to turn into your new late-night obsession. Their motion pictures really feel beamed in from one other planet that solely focuses on hand-crafted, bespoke cinematic insanity. 

Like a James Bond film written by Quetin Dupieux (Rubber) for David Lynch to direct, Reflection in a Lifeless Diamond is unpredictable and absurd and ruled by a dreamy surrealistic logic the place actuality bends and breaks at will. It’s possibly a little bit apparent to say that the film peels away like an onion as a result of it reveals layer after layer of more and more weird set items, however it’s completely applicable as a result of there may be additionally a personality impossibly buried in infinite layers of faux masks and rubber skins. Think about is Tom Cruise peeled of a face in Mission Unimaginable to revel his true id however then scratched away one other to disclose he was a rival agent, solely to tear off a 3rd masks the place it’s found that his REAL id was Marion Cottillard, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. You gained’t imagine the layers this transfer has. 

At its core, Reflection in a Lifeless Diamond follows an getting older intelligence agent (performed by each Fabio Testi & Yannick Renier) spending his retirement in a beachside resort, spying on engaging company and reminiscing about outdated adventures. One case particularly nonetheless haunts him, and the sun-soaked locale bubbles a lifetime of forgotten feelings and reminiscence to the floor. Flipping backwards and forwards by every timeline (typically in cut up display screen!), we revisit the case that modified all the things, and the way the aftermath nonetheless ripples by his life right now. Alongside the way in which we additionally get an art-obsessed serial killer, a ghost girlfriend, demise by foosball desk, ninja sword fights, trippy kaleidoscope cinematography, and a dude who will get his d*ck ripped off by an murderer with razor blades for fingernails. It’s a WILD experience. And we’re solely scratching the floor right here. 

I actually can’t stress simply how brilliantly weird and unrestrained this dang film is. It’s bought such character, and each body is loaded with truck load of intelligent concepts. Color gels, digicam angles, crash zooms, double-exposure shots- it’s a treasure trove of creativity (to not point out gory gags) and all of it comes at you at 100 miles an hour.

Some motion pictures have just a few quirky moments and a handful of cool concepts however Reflection in A Lifeless Diamond is a torrential downpour of first-class movie enjoyable. There isn’t any wasted area, and each second of display screen time is used to indicate you one thing you haven’t seen wherever else. It’s surreal, it’s foolish, and due to all of the style trappings of a standard spy thriller, Reflection in A Lifeless Diamond is without doubt one of the most entertaining (and secretly one of the crucial experimental) movies of the yr. 

Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s Reflection in a Lifeless Diamond (Reflet dans un Diamant Mort) is on the market to stream on Shudder now! Tell us what you considered this high-flying wire act of spy shenanigans and psychological spiraling over within the Nightmare on Movie Road Discord. Social Media is A Cesspool. Come Cling The place All The Cool Creeps Are. 

The place to Watch Reflection in A Lifeless Diamond

[Review] Psychological Spy Thriller REFELCTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND is A Thoughts Melter!

TL;DR

I actually cannot stress simply how brilliantly weird and unrestrained this dang film is. It is bought such character, and each body is loaded with truck load of intelligent concepts. Color gels, digicam angles, crash zooms, double-exposure shots- it is a treasure trove of creativity (to not point out gory gags) and all of it comes at you at 100 miles an hour. Some motion pictures have just a few quirky moments and a handful of cool concepts however Reflection in A Lifeless Diamond is a torrential downpour of first-class movie enjoyable.

Character & Creativity

95