AFI Fest Report: Fissures (Écoute le Temps) Remake News and Review

The film as it stands is richly textured and gloomily atmospheric. In the lead role, Emilie Dequenne, who made her debut in the Dardenne Brothers’ Rosetta, offers a touching portrayal of an emotionally fragile woman named Charlotte who is brought to the edge of a breakdown after a tragedy.

Her mother (Ludmila Mikaël) was murdered while staying in the family’s cottage in the French countryside. The local authorities are slow in making progress, so Charlotte takes matters into her own hands.

One night while listening to a tape of her mother, she begins to hear other sounds, conversations and noises that appear to emanate from different points in the small cottage itself. A sound engineer by trade, she drags her equipment to the house and begins her own investigation. The more she listens, the more she becomes convinced that the sounds originate from the recent past, and that the identity of her mother’s killer may be discovered by a careful study of what she is hearing.

Charlotte spends considerable portions of the running time with headphones on, marking notations on the floor of the cottage, while the film flashes back to her mother’s developing relationship with a local man.

Among other interesting notions, the press notes suggest that Charlotte has the gift of being able to peer into the past, and that her mother had the gift of being able to look into the future. For the first time viewer without press notes to peek at, though, little of this is immediately apparent. Many of the intended deeper meanings are lost, simply because not enough clues are given.

Indeed, Fissures is that rare non-English language picture where I longed for a bit of Hollywood-style exposition.

That’s not to say the film does not have considerable merit. The story’s structure is tenuous, and that’s a good reflection of Charlotte’s grip on reality as she comes to terms with her mother’s death. Too much sledgehammer explicating—or regularly scheduled “boos!” caused by shock sound cues—would damage a piece that requires finesse to succeed.

Director Alanté Kavaïté was present for a post-screening Q&A, and I hope to post notes from that interesting discussion later this week.