Sans un bruit

Clairement, Sans un bruit convient particulièrement bien à l’ambiance d’un festival et le buzz qui a suivi sa sortie dans la grande distribution a quelque peu nui au film. Un bon point à John Krasinski pour le côté « horreur sympa » ; je trouve qu’il a fait du bon boulot et, personnellement, j’ai trouvé dans ce film à peu prèsce que je cherchais. Par contre, la musique m’a posé légèrement problème, car je l'ai trouvée assez inutile – voire carrément dérangeante – dans ce film. En plus, il me semble que Marco Beltrami a plus ou moins chipé la mélodie de Jóhann Jóhannsson dans Sicario – cela dit, comme les bandes-son originales ne sont plus très répandues de nos jours, j’aipu faire l’impasse sur ce point. [KVIFF 2018] (04/07/2018)

La décision du duo central  de mettre au monde un enfant (bruyant), comme pour que le film puisse fonctionner dans la peur et la tension, a complètement détruit cette œuvre devant moi. Déjà, la promenade initiale dans la forêt, où les parents laissent leur plus jeune enfant marcher sans surveillance derrière eux, indiquait que la logique même la plus idiote ne serait pas de la partie ici. Normalement, je ne m'occupe pas de ces absurdités dans les films, mais ici, elles représentent des événements clés dans l'intrigue et vont complètement CONTRE la sophistication du concept de réalisation consistant à travailler avec la création de tension à partir d'une idée intéressante. C'était douloureux de supporter la stupidité du film, que j'attendais avec impatience et qui aurait pu (ou aurait dû) être exactement ma tasse de thé. JEREMIE (04/10/2018)

Un film terriblement ennuyeux avec néanmoins l’une ou l’autre scène captivante. La scène la plus réussie est, paradoxalement, celle qui semble en décalage avec le genre, celle de la danse sur fond de Harvest Moon de Neil Young. (15/09/2018)

A straightforward family survival spiced up with one interesting variation (the motif of silence, even if it’s not exploited to the its fullest) that is tense rather than scary. The first half is held up by that one idea and great craftsmanship, but the second half is brought down by silliness and breaking the rules the film has laid down. It’s a bit of a problem when at the beginning we are told the monsters are sensitive to the tiniest crack, but during the chase at the end, their sensitivity works in any way that is convenient to the script. Why, for example, in a key moment the boy runs into a corn field is something I can’t make any sense of (I’ve never run into a corn field, but I guess it would be pretty noisy). And the second half is full of moments like this. The monsters are unfortunately shown way too often and they look disappointing, like run of the mill creatures that seem to have fallen out of a Marvel movie (the typical alien minions of the main villain that are there so the super heroes will have something to fight). Although I sound critical, A Quiet Place is an above average film, thanks mainly to the quality of its craftsmanship and the performances. With regards to the horror, at the time of release (April) it will hardly reach this year’s TOP 3 and the comments of it being the best horror film in the last years are totally unwarranted. (13/05/2018)

A Quiet Place is primarily an outstanding psychological drama about loss (of a loved one, one’s own voice) and the impossibility of letting go of the attendant pain (which, however, can be turned into strength, an idea on which the film’s climax is partly based). The characters have to keep all of their emotions bottled up inside, which only deepens the trauma. Their resources and manifestations of joy, which would bring them relief, are severely limited. Playing the game on which today’s society is based (because we do not want only to consume, but also to have fun) means risking one’s life. In this respect, the film is the antithesis of the dystopia of Ready Player One, which depicts a society focused solely on playing a game. The initial tragedy occurs because of a toy, the next one nearly happens while playing a board game (typically, that game is Monopoly – this is the only way that the characters can treat themselves to the pleasure of shopping). Partners can dance only while wearing headphones; otherwise the use of the technologies on which we are so dependent today is practically out of the question. Thanks to the superb actors, information conveyed in the mise-en-scène and the way the characters react in certain situations, we always understand what the protagonists are going through and what they are doing, even though there is almost no dialogue in the film. It is in this aspect that I see the film’s main element of exceptionalism. It shows what many directors have learned in (not quite) a hundred years of cinematic sound design – how a psychologically layered story can be told without words. Due to the focus on the characters, the slower middle section of the film, the woman’s decision to conceive another child (to fill the void) and some slightly sentimental moments (which, however, are disturbing only when applying a purely horror reading) find their justification. As a horror movie, Krasinski’s film is brilliantly directed and hardly allows us to breathe, even though he uses relatively well-known tricks and rarely gathers the courage to be truly silent. Not only with its content, but also its style, A Quiet Place essentially confirms that American filmmakers fear few things more than absolute silence. The film is thus not remarkable so much because of its work with silence than as a clear connection between the basic conditions for survival in the given fictional world (on must not make any louder sounds) and what the characters are going through. The fact that the film ends in the best way (without eliciting the feeling that something essential remains unexplained) compelled me to add a fifth star to the obvious four. 90% (24/04/2018)