Day 73: 47 Metres Down 2016 + Balthazar Sees Everything

47 Metres Down 2016

I don’t often watch trailers but this one mesmerized me. I found myself captivated. So much so, that I left my wife at home and went off to see the 9pm session by myself. Very disappointing. And if things weren’t bad enough, the ending, a total cheat, left me annoyed.

Balthazar Sees Everything

Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 – 2nd viewing

If I don’t get it the first time around then I’ll watch it again.

I let this quirky film from French director Robert Bresson sit with me for twenty-four hours but nothing extraordinary struck me about the film. Nothing to warrant its high regard by filmmakers and critics alike.

I wrote down an outline of what happened in the film, and an explanation of who the characters were, and why what happened to them occurred. Several things baffled me. Why, for instance, would the lovely, compassionate, Marie take up with Gerard, a hateful young man without a single redeeming quality? Obviously, she was manipulated by him, originally, emotionally blackmailed into having sex with him, but why did she develop love for him? Why, also, when she saw him punch a man in the face, and knock him to the ground, did she slap Gerard for his behaviour, receive two slaps, each harder than the other, in return and then walk down the road with him, and affectionately rest her head on his shoulder? It was an intimate act showing love.

Time to watch the film again.