I Stand Alone
Regie:
Gaspar NoéScenario:
Gaspar NoéCamera:
Dominique ColinActeurs:
Philippe Nahon, Guillaume Nicloux, Olivier Doran, Blandine Lenoir, Nicolas Jouhet, Gérard Ortega, Frankie Pain, Arlette Balkis, Laurent Aknin (meer)Samenvattingen(1)
De wereld van Seul contre tous is kil en eenzaam, nihilistisch tot op het bot. Een 50-jarige paardenslager komt uit de gevangenis na een poging tot moord op de verkrachter van zijn autistische dochter. Berooid en zonder werk staat hij op straat. Alles wat hij heeft is een pistool en drie kogels; een gewapende tijdbom die slechts energie put uit haat en vergeldingsdrang. In zijn ogen is alles wat hem dierbaar was hem door de maatschappij ontnomen. "Moraal is een werktuig voor de rijken, en gerechtigheid het pistool in mijn hand." Zijn innerlijke stem geeft beetje bij beetje inzicht in de gebeurtenissen die leiden naar een gruwelijke climax. (Filmmuseum Distributie)
(meer)Recensie (4)
I Stand Alone is a New French Extremity version of Taxi Driver with a pessimistic voice-over monologue by a freak from a slaughterhouse with a tendency to wax philosophical who is, to put it mildly, dissatisfied with his life. Why did Gaspar Noé switch from such loquacious, straightforward and rebellious confessions to meaningless visual masturbation games like Enter the Void? Because he loves Kubrick’s space opera? Pah. With his feature debut, he was able to get the better of Ferrara and reach the heights of Scorsese! P.S.: I also recommend its prequel Carne, where the story of the slaughterhouse worker begins.
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A flawless performance by Philippe Nahon that irradiates anger and hatred. I Stand Alone is one of the least pleasant films I’ve ever seen. I’m really not sure how to approach it. I must watch it again.
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A hard-to-digest manifesto of hatred towards everything and everyone. During the whole film, we hear the uninterrupted monologue of the main character, who is determined to have a fight with the entire world at any cost. Gaspar Noé doesn’t hesitate to touch on themes like nationalism, homophobia or incest, teasing the audience to see how much they can endure, even exhorting us, using a timer for a few seconds, to leave the screening before reaching the final scene. The latter, however, is not that shocking after all that has preceded, and doesn’t tear the viewer apart. I can’t totally figure out to what extent Noé’s violent charade was self-serving; therefore I reserve a potentially higher ranking for a possible second screening. If only I make up my mind and go for it.
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One of the most intense cinematic experiences ever and undoubtedly the most intense Noé. Irreversible was OK but offered nothing deeper than those two shocking scenes, Enter the Void was visually transcendent and overall terribly immersive, but out of all Noé's work, I Stand Alone wins out for me. Few films can make me sit up in my seat in such a way and few films inspire in me such disgust for the main character (I can take a lot, really, but I can say quite bluntly that I wasn’t far from throwing up during one internal monologue). The main question is to what extent the main anti-hero is "abnormal" and out of touch with the reality of "decent people", because as much as I hate to speak for anyone else, I can't shake the feeling that just about everyone has such peppery inner monologues from time to time. There are a few extremes that (thankfully!) stray from anything that can be considered normal and human (I swear on my dying breath now that I would never shag my own daughter), plus this film convinced me that even French can sound really nasty (as pure and beautiful a language as I had previously thought it was). I'm fascinated by the intensity, the explicitness, and the fact that Noé doesn't pull his punches even a little bit. But the experience was revolting and painful.
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