London Film Festival 2013: The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears (L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps) Review

“Style over substance in movie” is often used in negative sense to describe a movie that generally has a lot of visual style and uses this to compensate the lack of story. There are some movies however which thrive on this.  These films are to be experienced rather than watched. Valhalla Rising & Enter The Void are noteworthy examples of this. They immerse you in a world that is perpetuated by themes and emotion. In addition they are  driven by cinematography and music rather than that of a story. The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears is another addition to this style of film making

The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears Synopsis

The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears starts as a simple story of Dan (Klaus Tange) who returns from a business trip to find his apartment locked from the inside and his wife missing. After waiting around and ringing her, he starts his search for her around the building. This is where reality breaks down and you are drawn into the non-linear world of the experimental diverging & over lapping storylines that rarely leaves the confines of the beautiful Parisian apartment building he lives in

What ensues is a visual assault on the senses whilst Dan tries to figure out his wife’s disappearance and the secrets of the apartment block

Highly visual in nature and sexually charged

From its opening scenes of sexualised murder to Dan’s first strange encounter with one of the tenants. She tells him a story of a strange force living between the walls of her apartment you realise that this film won’t be within the bounds of the normal and will be very sexually charged. The directors use the movie as a vehicle to audio visually assault the senses.

This movie was made for the big screen. You’ll never get the same feel from the movie seeing it at home. It draws you into that trip which draws you into a subconscious experience and atmosphere rather than tell  a linear story. This psychedelic world of nightmares, impending doom and sexual situations which rarely leaves the apartment building. This results in quite a claustrophobic experience and Dan fits the various puzzles of the mystery together.

In Conclusion

The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears is highly sexual and gory in its nature. This film is not for everyone and will leave many people baffled – parts of the movie are incomprehensible to me. But it’s all about the experience from the movie. I’ve not seen any of Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s other movies but will definitely be hunting out their other movies

By Tendai – Cognitive Space