| A chilling reminder Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique is an unsettling look at one of Canada's most infamous school shootings
(Aaron Graham)
A-
| POLYTECHNIQUE
Opens Friday at Globe Cinema
A harrowing meditation focusing on a trio of lives immediately before and after a senseless murder spree, this Quebec production directed by Denis Villeneuve delicately covers the early morning events leading up to the notorious mass shooting at École Polytechnique in Montreal.
Fourteen people were killed and 14 others were injured on Dec. 6, 1989, at the hands of Marc Lépine, referred to in the film as The Assassin (played by Maxim Gaudette).
The film hides the fact that Lépine was abused as a child by his father, removing a convenient truth that viewers could easily deem to be the cause of his madness. Villeneuve prefers no easy answers and, despite the chilly voiceover of Lépine's suicide note detailing his warped views of women, we're left to ponder the atrocity with the rest of society.
What particular incident set off this "rational erudite" (his words) on such a heartless, murderous rage? He himself declared in the note that his considerable poverty (as evidenced by his shabby apartment) wasn't what sent him over the edge, even refusing jobs in order to live in squalor.
The film further concerns itself with Valérie (Karine Vanasse, also executive producing), a mechanical engineering student tense over a prospective internship, and Jean-François (Sébastien Huberdeau), a classmate of Valérie's.
Not having enough screen-time to tell the individual tales of those murdered, Villeneuve allows Valérie to stand in for one and all.
Despite public knowledge of the events, Villeneuve and screenwriter Jacques Davidts construct a narrative that isn't as predictable as it seems. Following up with Jean-François post-massacre, we see a man fraught with guilt over not having done more during The Assassin's reign, despite the fact that there was nothing he could havedone. His ultimate fate is unanticipated - to say the least.
Polytechnique is simultaneously an anonymous memorial (real names aren't used, though the slain are honoured in the closing credits) and a pained conversation piece that can't help but evoke the loaded subject of feminism due to Lépine's terrifying last written words.
The film is shot in stark, effective black-and-white and Villeneuve doesn't simply observe, as Gus Van Sant did in the similarly themed Elephant - he actively engages his characters. Thoughts and feelings of all three principals are worn on cinematic sleeves through the narration of letters written and sent. Van Sant and Villeneuve's approaches may be vastly different, but they're equally unsettling.
At one point, Jean-François observes Picasso's Guernica inside the college's radio station, unaware he'll soon be witness to a harmful man-made undertaking that'll result in a similar entanglement of limbs. Villeneuve can't resist acallback to that artwork as
Jean-François re-enters his classroom to find out he's too late.
Even though there's perspectiv,e in the sense that 20 years have passed since that unfortunate day, thisfilm indicates that the wounds still run deep in this country.
— Aaron Graham |
Uptown
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