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Mad Detective
Review: Pascal Laugier’s MARTYRS
Posted by Rodney Perkins at 8:11am.
Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Thriller, Horror, Continental Europe & Russia, Fantastic Fest 2008, Toronto Film Festival 2008.
The recent crop of French genre films like Frontière(s) and À l’intérieur (Inside) has been both condemned and praised for embracing new levels of graphic content. Whether one is a critic or supporter of this trend, one of the most obvious questions to arise after watching these films is how far can these filmmakers go with hard-edged realism? Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs answers this question in forceful fashion. In Martyrs, Laugier has created a film that is obviously rooted in genre conventions but transcends the boundaries of genre to achieve something unique and unforgettable.
Martyrs begins by exploring one of the main character’s (played by Mylène Jampanoï) fight with post traumatic stress, and her attempt to exorcise internal demons that drive her every action. The narrative focus shifts midway when the source of this character’s dysfunction is explored through the eyes of a new victim (played by Morjana Alaoui). As the title suggests, the entire narrative is tied together through a metaphysical theme. An implied sociological and political commentary is also presented, and is reflected in both the presentation of young women as victims and the nature of the perpetrators. Anyone who follows current news or modern history should be able to find significant parallels between the imagery and scenarios presented in Martyrs and the horrors of the real world. Such interpretations, however, are left to individual viewers, who can bring their own experiences (and traumas) to the film.
As to style, Laugier’s influences are evident and even stated in the end credits. Unlike some of his fore bearers and contemporaries, Laugier has figured out something crucial: how to sustain suspense throughout an entire film. Martyrs is a film driven by the two main character’s constant reactions to internal and external stimuli. When the film enters a lull, which is rare, the sense of normalcy is soon followed by its opposite. Even the film’s red herrings are substantive. This unending tension, which is punctuated by extreme graphic violence and nauseating practical effects by the late Benoit Lestang, hangs over Martyrs like a black cloud. The effect is to force the audience to bear the weight of the character’s mental and physical trauma, and even hardened genre veterans may buckle under this pressure.
To say that Martyrs is comparable to works like The Exorcist, The Devils, Salo or Straw Dogs is irresponsible. It is most reasonable to say, however, that Martyrs is in the same spirit as these landmark films. Martyrs is an effort to push the envelope of what can be presented on film, and explore the psychological effects that cinematic images can have on the audience. It will take a Herculean effort for anyone to surpass the intensity and psychological power of Martyrs.
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Reader Comments
dullboy 09/26/2008 @ 8:47am
I’ve read a few reviews now that describe this movie as being transcendent. I think it’s easy to throw this word into the review because the story uses the term itself, relating to the manner in which the character is to change after enduring prolonged torture. But, I don’t think this movie transcends anything.
*SPOILER*
The idea of an elite group of socialites forming a secret club to torture young women to satisfy their curiosity about true martyrdom and euphoric afterlife begs a huge suspension of disbelief. I just don’t see it happening. In fact, for me, it brought a bit of camp value to the film. Had the movie shortened some of the (boring) torture time, left out the rich people in black coats, and centered on Anna possibly falling into Lucie’s hell of being haunted by her own demon, namely Lucie herself, then things might have gotten a bit more interesting.
Rodney Perkins 09/26/2008 @ 8:51am
Exhibit 1
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/04/17/france.cult/
Exhibit 2
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21674/abused-boys-had-skin-hacked-off-and-eaten-by-relatives
I can go on and on and on . . .
Garth 09/26/2008 @ 8:56am
*SPOILERS*
I don’t think “huge suspension of disbelief” even covers it… I can’t think of a phrase that covers the needs of disbelief for this flick…
Even beyond the secret club bs, how do you suspend the disbelief of having a family living there…do the kids know about this? How do you suspend disbelief to the point of buying into the fact that the basement is a giant, state of the art torture chamber? It’s just laughably, cmapy-bad, as far as i’m concerned. More power to those who buy into it, I just couldn’t.
dullboy 09/26/2008 @ 9:01am
Rodney, those examples aren’t what I’m talking about. One deals with cultish mass suicides, while the other abuse case didn’t mention the reasoning behind the abuse. The “cult” in the movie weren’t doing things to each other or to their relatives so that they could fly away to a serene planet. They were using guinea pigs to satisfy a curiosity…an abstract thought that couldn’t even be translated to the living. And they seemed intelligent, well-off people, not nut-job hippie religious freaks. Show me an example of that. In fact, one of the points they made in the movie was that religion didn’t have to be a part of martyrdom.
Rodney Perkins 09/26/2008 @ 9:09am
The point is not to provide examples of the exact same situation. The point is to show that cultish or obsessive behavior does lead to extreme behavior, and the situation presented in the film is not as big of a leap as is being suggested here (I have researched the area in the past). Although the explanation deviated from history a bit, the use of photo of real Leng Tch’e in the film is another example. Georges Bataille talked about the Leng Tch’e photo in Tears of Eros, and his ideas re: the photo have a parallel w/some of the ideas in the film. Thats about all I have to say about it.
dullboy 09/26/2008 @ 10:06am
I’m not out to bash the film or force examples out of you, Rodney. I understand the director’s story. I just want to offer that I don’t believe it has transcended the genre. Had I not read so many statements like this, I may have had more fun with the film.
Rodney Perkins 09/26/2008 @ 10:23am
This is why you can read 6 different opinions about it here. If everybody agreed, I would be suspicious in spite of my support for the film.
dullboy 09/26/2008 @ 10:27am
True. That’s why I enjoy this site. However, I hadn’t read one bad review about it before seeing it.
Rodney Perkins 09/26/2008 @ 10:31am
Oh, there are plenty of negative reviews out there. Twitch writers, however, see films at different times so opinions come in waves.
Garth 09/26/2008 @ 11:02am
What I hate about this site is that when there are dissenting opinions, people don’t just down eachother’s throats and insult their intelligence for not agreeing. What the hell is wrong with you people? Especially all you stupid people who disagree with me!
boomclown 09/26/2008 @ 2:49pm
Rodney - the world hardly needs the film Martyrs to explain that “cultish” or “obsessive” behavior can lead to extreme behavior. Anyone that has a modicum of social awareness should be inherently aware of that fact. If you’re suggesting that’s the point of the film, then it fails miserably in making any sort of commentary on or advancement in understanding the phenomenon. Beyond suspension of disbelief issues, I was enfuriated by the insulting and stupid premise of the film. What enfuriates me even more are the reviews that continue to laud the film as thought-provoking and visionary. The only daring thing about this film is that it has the audacity to think it’s clever or has any real artistic merit. I can quite honestly say I have never hated a movie more in my life.
Ard Vijn 09/26/2008 @ 2:51pm
Yes, how dare we keep being civil?
The count is 4 for the yays, 3 for the nays.
I swear, reading the Martyrs comments seems to be more rewarding (and certainly more fun!) than watching the film itself…
Rodney Perkins 09/26/2008 @ 3:01pm
I stand by every word, and have nothing more to add.
boomclown 09/26/2008 @ 4:54pm
Rodney, I’m not sure what words you’re standing by. Citing a couple of articles about atrocities that were perpetrated in real life is frankly irrelevant. It’s quite fitting that Georges Bataille is referenced, a philosopher who’s writing about eroticism, death and degradation seem to provide about as many tenuous excuses for his own dark preoccupations as Martyrs does for its existence in the first place.
Sorry you seem to baring the brunt of most of the attacks, it’s just you’re the only one on this thread that appeared to appreciate the film at all. If you don’t have anything more to add, that’s fair enough - but as someone who may have missed the big picture, I’m curious as to what someone who liked the film finds so compelling about it.
Rodney Perkins 09/26/2008 @ 6:12pm
To be more specific, I stand by every word of the review, and my comments in this thread. I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking through what I wrote (its been on the site for at least six weeks). A related piece might appear in the future (its been in the works for awhile) but that will be about it from me on this one.
boomclown 09/26/2008 @ 7:50pm
Fair play.
The Visitor 09/27/2008 @ 8:14am
the question about the genre now isn’t how far they can push it. it’s whether all the violence and bloodletting still have a point to them. frankly, the whole genre (or sub-genre of horror) is beyond the point of saturation, a situation where everything inevitably becomes self-parody. first they were serial killers who keep coming back, now they are faceless sickos with torture chambers. and it’s always some poor soul being tortured in a secret, unknown location, seemingly without reason. then all is revealed to the audience. how many times can you keep doing that without it becoming a cliche?
The Visitor 09/27/2008 @ 8:15am
oh, forgot to add that that is also why i have no interest whatsoever in watching Martyrs.
bnl771 09/28/2008 @ 8:02pm
My take on all this is even though I can’t say I really liked it and had major problems with it. I’ve spent the days since fantastic fest thinking - “Does the fact that I cannot stop thinking about this movie mean it had it’s intended effect?” I mean, I hated HATED Seventh Moon and Repo! at Fanastic Fest but I have not thought of either of those movies. Even though I went straight from Fantastic Fest to the the ACL Festival, I spent 3 (hot) days in the sun with this movie in the back of my head. That has to say something about the “power” of the film - I can’t point to anything in the movie to explain, but it’s there.
What was the last movie to ignite this much discussion on Twitch??
Irony 03/26/2009 @ 10:31am
I agree with “dullyboy” about the shitless rich people being useless and absurd in Martyrs (2008), that part of the film should have been omitted or should have been used differently. But nonetheless, this film is definitely better than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, The Ring (2002), Dark Water (2005), Friday the 13th series and other various films on the category of horror. It is also better because it attempts to experiment with the idea of suffering. It makes us aware of the limits of our bodies and the torture we can endure. It also manages to increase the importance of women actresses - in this case Anna and Lucie - as Ridley Scott and James Cameron did in their versions of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1987). Further, it explores the idea how ordinary human beings could be related to horrific events - the family that tortured Lucie in the first place. However, what I didn’t like about the film was Anna’s resurrection. She must have escaped that place. The pessimistic ending does not qualify Anna being fed to death with the torture she received. She should have revenged those people! Yet, it was a brilliant work; it some how reminded me of Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy (2003) with the 15 years Oh Dae-Su’s imprisonment. Besides, Lucie should not have committed suicide. Again, great work!
Garth 03/26/2009 @ 4:18pm
Furthered the importance of women actresses? I don’t even know what that means, but as far as female CHARACTERS, one is crazy, the other is crazy, possibly infatuated with the first and subsequently used as a veritable pincushion for the rest of the running time.
ezekiel2517 04/04/2009 @ 6:05pm
Yah, I’m not too sure this is a good film to hold up to the light of feminism. One could even say that horror movies are notorious for their exploitation of sexual violence towards women. If I may also suggest horror has always been a great genre for probing such wonderful human/animal tendencies towards blood lust of course the ladies always seem to get that sexual humiliation twist. Although I just watched Calvaire last weekend and now my nuts have retracted just that much farther.
ezekiel2517 04/04/2009 @ 6:51pm
Martyrs is a film that is all about Mise-en-scène. From start to finish it occupies the entirety of the screen with the directors vision. I would not add, change or remove one frame. This film is as complete as a photograph or a painting. I would not say that this film is transcendental. It was right up there with Let the Right One In, but no it is still a film, nothing more nothing less. For those who are saying that it is cliched, let me suggest that it is movies like Saw or Hostel that are the cliches. This is a vision that can stand alone without being self referential.
**Spoilers** I would also question why some felt the ending was out of place. I’d like to make a couple of points. The first one is what suspension of disbelief? What I think this movie is pointing out from the very beginning is that we all enjoy torture and being tortured. Pain equals pleasure and all that. Let’s not forget that most of horror fans are watching people getting tortured and enjoying it. Of course this film is about those extremes. The breakfast scene with the mother grossing out her children with the dead mouse. Or the boy chasing his terrified/excited sister down the stairs. These moments although fleeting and easy to overlook are the reason the ending works. It shows that underneath we all enjoy watching other people be tortured and that we all enjoy torturing. Jackass, or the War on Terror are both great examples of modern mainstream torture. I think it is the director’s hint at how lurking beneath our presumed everyday normalcy is our human imperfection, our weaknesses that will invariably cause others to suffer. I wonder if psychologically we crave to be disciplined for our weakness, and be washed clean with pain. Reminds me of some of the old Hellraiser movies.
I would also like to suggest that Martyrs has a perfect ending. The suicide of the old lady, taking the knowledge of the afterlife with her, thereby condemning the rest of her cult to a lifetime of fearing the afterlife! An absolute master stroke, and the perfect revenge for killing our heroine.
seeking 06/19/2009 @ 10:53am
Picked up this movie expecting to view a familiar liasion to Joan of Ark. And not being able to sleep slip it in, only to be taken on a roller coaster ride of spine gripping intense emotion. A few times I thought that I would turn it off because of the jarring violence. However, on thing that kept me going was the line (she wasn’t raped), I wanted to see it to the end to find out why. Being a survivor of physical and emotional abuse, I’ve often found solace in the fact that for some reason or another, I managed to make it through with my virginity intact. I wanted to find out why the writer and the director made it important. As like in most vampire movies, the virgin blood is the prize.
What I got from this movie is my own revenge of days of thinking about what I would do if I could get away with it, to my molesters and abusers. Anyone ever been in a situation of feeling victimized would undoubtedly feel connected to Lucie, and yet through everything she had been suffered, there was this altursitic side of her that feared the woman she left behind who tormented her mind. And yes, we do have to transcend our minds to another realm in order to survive torture or abuse in any form-we think about heaven and hell, we speculate about God, we pray for death, or for an angel with wings to break us free, we lose our minds. It doesn’t mean that we make it out forgiving our abusers, but we make it out. Lucie survived the only way she knew how, and unfortuantely for Anna, whose only sin was loving someone who was incapable of the same, became a victim herself. The movie doesn’t need to make sense-war doesn’t make sense, genocide doesn’t make sense, hate doesn’t make sense, but they exist in our world. Bravo to the director for showing that madness is and has followers.