Calvaire (The Ordeal)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: D

 

 

How tired is the scenario of one person kidnapping another and torturing them getting?  Very.  It is showing a bankruptcy of ideas and what was revealing about human nature in 1970s films is now just the same goofy romp over and over and over again.  Fabrice Du Welz’s Calvaire (The Ordeal, 2004) involves a young man named Marc (Laurent Lucas) who unfortunately has his business van break down near the lodgings of a man named Bartel (Jackie Berroyer) who likes him far too much.

 

Marc is trusting of him at first, but soon realizes he has made a big mistake when he sees how odd the people in the town are acting.  Instead of running away for his life, he has dinner, is allowed to sleep in the next day and then becomes suspicious.  Too late.  Bartel is wrecking his van and knocks Marc out to have his way with him.  Can Marc escape?  Should we care?

 

Unfortunately, as ugly as things get, this has more of an idiot plot that it should just to stretch out its story to an unsatisfying 88 minutes, but the acting and locations are good.  Unfortunately, the lack of story still plants it squarely in the current snuff cycle and though it is not always as graphic, it can be creepy.  Too bad it cannot compete with half-hour episodes of Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected or better Night Gallery segments with the same story.  Then the ending is amazingly stupid, but not before the film wallows in its own sickening bankruptcy of ideas and content.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in some kind of video that looks like gutted Super 35mm film or an even lesser format.  Cinematographer Benoit Debie tries to move the camera around but cannot create a look that works, though it has better form for whatever reason before Marc begins to be victimized.  Color is not totally gutted out, but is not great either.  Seems the worst the script gets, the worse the look.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is limited like the Dolby 2.0 mix, as both are obvious from the fidelity of the recording that this is the last thing begin thought of when this was being made.  It is passable, but surrounds are rare and the fidelity of the original recording limited.  This was a DTS theatrical release, but you would never know it from this.  Extras include weblinks, previews for other Palm release, the U.S. theatrical trailer for this film and a making-of featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo