Fantaisie

It’s never clear why Louise is alone, nor in whose house it is that she spends her days and nights, sitting in the bathtub, watching snippets of old films on her phone, chatting with the cat and staring into space. There’s no explanation for her sadness and lethargy either, save for the phone messages she leaves for Antoine: she wonders if he’s dead, but it’s probably worse he isn’t. Solace lies in the songs of love she listens to or sings for herself: “I only listen to the songs because they tell the truth, the sillier they are, the truer they are.” Life for Louise is a world of light and shadow: the rays of blinding sunlight that cut through the dark rooms or the snippets of the future or past that intrude without warning. Later, in the forest, there’s the same contrast between brightness and shade, perhaps she’s just dreaming, still back there in the house, a dream of caresses and intimate conversations, logs crackling on the fire and trickling water, watching the colour of the sky change through the branches. When documenting a face, body and state of mind with such incredible focus, fiction can’t help but rear its head; just like in AQUELE QUERIDO MÊS DE AGOSTO (2008), shifting in or out of character is a truly rapturous transition. (James Lattimer)

In the presence of Isabel Pagliai.

Isabel Pagliai: ISABELLA MORRA (2015, K), ORFEO (2017, K), TENDRE (2020)