REVIEW - CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915 (BRUNO DUMONT)

Camille Claudel is introduced to us first by the back of her head, then her fully-exposed, nude body, before we catch sight of her face. An imagined glance at a few days in her existence, days of hope and hopelessness, and of a justifiable uncertainty, this is no biopic. Indeed, Bruno Dumont's film is, as one might expect, less any specific genre of film than it is an artistic exercise. Dumont has manufactured an environment as hermetic in formal terms as it is in locational and narrative terms, but he permits a great degree more flexibility in his individual settings than in his overall setting. This is unconstructed action within an intricately constructed space, scenes of noise and hysteria and emotional brutality within a blueprint that distills them all to basic, repetitive points. In his removed style, Dumont accentuates the futility of any action or reaction in this asylum, how ineffectual its procedures, whether positive or negative, are, and the inconsequentiality of Camille's existence there. After all, we so rarely read of her time there, though it consumed more than a third of her life. Alas, Dumont is much too indiscriminate in his impression of these days in her life, and either confused regarding what purpose this impression has or mistaken in how to depict it - is he stressing the cruel and considerable weight of such a banal lifestyle on such a vibrant soul, or is it just banality he wants to present, unstressed, banal in and of itself? Flitting between shots and scenes one moment, lingering obsessively on them the next, it's difficult to tell. The burden of instilling a sense of consistency thus falls to the magnificent Juliette Binoche as Claudel. Though she cannot reconcile Dumont's cool, detached tone with her impassioned performance, it's nonetheless outstanding, astonishingly detailed work from this superlative actor, capable of mastering her own wild shifts in mood with a level of humility and of humanity that makes them near-indiscernible. As an exercise, Camille Claudel 1915 is a frustrating film, if admirable in certain traits. But as an examination of Binoche's abilities as an actor, it's immensely rewarding.