An abrupt opening, an abrupt ending. Yet, a masterpiece. Carnage, directed by Roman Polansky, was a courageous bet on screen, for not only the subject had been approached by other great directors in the past, but also because it is unlikely that the audience remain attached to their seats watching four people closed in the same room for nearly all the seventy nine minutes of screening. In this case, the bet was won.
Fifty years before Carnage’s release, Buñuel presented The Exterminating Angel, the story of a group of people who cannot leave a room though nothing physical is holding them prisoners. In a closed universe, they start showing mutual antagonism and uncivilized tendencies. Polansky uses the same principle deviating the stress in the plot. The story is not about the fact that people cannot leave the room, which leads to animosity, but about people who cannot leave the room because of that animosity. Two couples meet to settle a fighting between their children. After the very first and short scene with the two boys quarrel, shot from a distance, the parents’ meeting is introduced already in the middle of a conversation. Trying to be civil about the problem, they end up stooping to the children’s level and showing insulting behaviour. All the dynamic of Human Nature is described with accuracy and simplicity in tilting friendly and unfriendly responses.
The film ends just at it begins. The couples’ conversation is suspended. With children, no feeling is permanent, only the consequences of their actions. And, as the credits flow in the screen, the boys in the park are friends again. Finally, a sweet metaphor of the plot: a lady walks her little dog. As they go around in circles, never persevering in a steady path, we cannot tell who is leading the stroll.
Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz play the parents of the boy attacker, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly the parents of the boy attacked. A perfect choice.
Cast and Crew:
Carnage (2011)
Director Roman Polansky
Duration 79 min
Cast: Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly
Fifty years before Carnage’s release, Buñuel presented The Exterminating Angel, the story of a group of people who cannot leave a room though nothing physical is holding them prisoners. In a closed universe, they start showing mutual antagonism and uncivilized tendencies. Polansky uses the same principle deviating the stress in the plot. The story is not about the fact that people cannot leave the room, which leads to animosity, but about people who cannot leave the room because of that animosity. Two couples meet to settle a fighting between their children. After the very first and short scene with the two boys quarrel, shot from a distance, the parents’ meeting is introduced already in the middle of a conversation. Trying to be civil about the problem, they end up stooping to the children’s level and showing insulting behaviour. All the dynamic of Human Nature is described with accuracy and simplicity in tilting friendly and unfriendly responses.
The film ends just at it begins. The couples’ conversation is suspended. With children, no feeling is permanent, only the consequences of their actions. And, as the credits flow in the screen, the boys in the park are friends again. Finally, a sweet metaphor of the plot: a lady walks her little dog. As they go around in circles, never persevering in a steady path, we cannot tell who is leading the stroll.
Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz play the parents of the boy attacker, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly the parents of the boy attacked. A perfect choice.
Cast and Crew:
Carnage (2011)
Director Roman Polansky
Duration 79 min
Cast: Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly
