Extraterrestrial burlesque

The Empire by Bruno Dumont

Berlinale 2024 notes

     Dunes, heat, village bums. It seems at first glance we are in a French village?.. In fact, this is the scenery of Star Wars. Boulogne-sur-Mer, the location of many a Bruno Dumont film. Hors Satan. Ma Loute. And here now there is  sci-fi parody & mockery.

    So, here the cosmic forces are constantly mimicking  into  people. And therefore, the locals  are not fishermen, farmers and drunks (not at all…) - but alien groups who call each other “ones” and “zeros”.

     The architecture of the film (and the architecture in the film) is unbelievably funny. And this whole ideological gag is about the conflict of everything secular and jovial with everything that is obsessed with the principles of morality and punishment. This is the freshest and brightest idea, executed elegantly in the film.

     The director’s discovery is anti-scientific and carnivalesque: Good and Evil in a human are not the aftertaste of an eaten apple. Good and Evil are brought from space.

     And there will be no peace on Earth as long as space parasites live here. However, there is a special love of life on Earth - love for food, wind, rain, etc. - which may turn out to be a weapon against space invaders. Sweet power. There is a dialogue with Gargantua and Pantagruel that defies description.

    The ideological differences between cosmic “zeros” and “ones” become meaningless when human flesh asserts itself. Apocalyptic burlesque laughter.

    And yet, the little interstellar interludes are irresistibly acted out by policemen Carpentier and Van der Weyden. They could be mistaken for reasoners from a classic comedy, but one is unable to say anything worthwhile, and the other is not able to speak at all.

    Cottin and Luchini are brilliantly  beautiful in all the nuances. They take human shape by invading the bodies of the town’s mayor and a hapless tourist guide. Luchini in a Pierrot-like costume is a real King of  nonsense in deadpan seriousness. He is the magician of of humour.