Fiction

Le Parc

The Park
Damien Manivel
FRA 2016
72 min
V'16

Set over a single day and night in a desolate suburban woodland, this minimalist teenage fable plays like a remake of BEFORE SUNRISE directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul or the late Manoel de Oliveira, offering up a shred of story filled with touches of humor and, as the movie progresses, bizarre occurrences that take place in a dreamlike realm. Using fixed camera setups and delicately shot hD imagery, Damien Manivel follows a pair of anonymous adolescents – a rather seductive and chatty karate kid and a more quiet-minded gymnast – as they do a long walk-and-talk around their neighborhood park. The two are obviously on a first date and the performances are so natural, with the usual fits and starts in the conversation, that we could be watching a documentary about young love in provincial France.
From thereon in, THE PARK heads to much stranger places, toeing the line between reality and something possibly paranormal, especially once night falls and the girl finds herself alone in the wilderness. (Jordan Mintzer)

In presence of Damien Manivel.

Credits
  • Naomie Vogt-Roby
  • Maxime Bachellerie
  • Sessouma Sobere
  • Damien Manivel
  • Isabel Pagliai
  • Isabel Pagliai
  • Simon Apostolou
  • Jérôme Petit
  • Arnaud Marten
  • William Laboury
MLD Films, Shellac Sud

The Open Reel

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