Star Power at BAM
Iconic before the word became a degraded synonym for "famous," Adjani carries the memory of Adele H. into the turbulent Bronte household. Techine uses Adjani, the cinema's most intense actress, to reveal the emotional conflicts of a hermetic creative family. Her co-stars enlarge and deeper the exploration: Huppert's Anne presents a placid yet vexed surface, Pisier's older, grave Charlotte bears quietly grave witness to the mix of anxiety, desire and artistic drive--the compulsion to express one's self as in the case of brother Branwell Bronte (played by Pascal Greggory).
An additional co-star is Techine's mentor, the semiotician Roland Barthes who as William Makepeace Thackeray escorts Charlotte into the cultural canon in an astonishing sequence set to Rossini's Tancrede. Barthes/Thackeray pronounces Techine's credo: "Life is so unfathomable. I never managed to grasp a notion of its tricks on us. It takes forever, that's why youthful works are always full of errors. Life is too short for art. We need much more time to harden our shell. Hard and shiny. Ironically it's often shiny, rarely hard."
As in French provincial, Techine evokes the history of cinema's literary past so that the memory of Adele H., Barry Lyndon, Violette Noziere interacts with the classic films of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. This makes The Bronte Sisters a philological as well as romantic work. Each actor, especially Adjani, displays swoon-worthy, melodramatic aplomb in tandem with the film's intellectual rigor. A moment where Emily and Charlotte argue on opposite sides of a door distills the emotional power of Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers.
Techine's use of film lore follows French New Wave scholarship, (a test for art movie connoisseurs), but advances it into thrilling postmodern sophistication. This is simply one of the greatest-looking movies ever made. Bruno Nuytten's crystalline photography ranks with the visionary peaks of Cries and Whispers, Adele H. and Barry Lyndon-every scene an unforgettable tableau that honors the Brontes' as heroes of human loyalty and artistic ambition. Hard and shiny as per Barthes, yet achingly beautiful, too.
This testament to suffering, creativity and love looks forward to Terence Davies' The Long Day Closes. Even though Techine left this closed style for a more open, exploratory approach, this hones in on the essence of art practice which is the quintessence of Adjani's craft and star power.
Don't miss the intensity Adjani brings to Walter Hill's The Driver (March 9), Werner Herzog's Nosferatu, the Vampire (March 16) and Patrice Chereau's Queen Margot. (March 21)