Scribble this bitch down in your diaries folks because on September 15th controversial director Romain Gavras will release his upcoming feature début ’Notre Jour Viendra’. Fans of Mr G’s forays into the world of music videos may remember the translated title, ‘Our Day Will Come’, appearing briefly as a red-head war slogan in his highly provocative-ultraviolent promo clip for M.I.A.’s ‘Born Free’. (Are the two projects connected somehow?)
So how much should we really care about ‘Notre Jour Viendra’ you ask? Given the film’s compelling, memorable and totally atmospheric trailers, combined of course with Gavras’s previous work, I’d say a lot.
‘Born Free’ had it all didn’t it? Guns, gingers AND genocide. It even pissed off YouTube legend CopperCab of ‘Gingers have Souls’ fame and that is when you know you’ve hit the big time.
The trailers themselves, both of which express the trademarks of his signature style (I’m talking about sex and violence) are really fucking awesome. In the teaser trailer a series of random images are inter-cut with some long-contemplative shots of French superstar Vincent Cassel. Including a throat-fingering scene in what is surely a cheeky nod to Bertolucci’s Brando-starring-shagathon ‘Last Tango in Paris’. And also we get a brief shot of a pair of hot naked girls jumping around in some nondescript room.
Nice. I mean what more could you ask for? And all of this is scored by the uber-tense wail of a siren. Ominous shit I think you’ll agree. The full length trailer shows a rapid-paced montage of shocking images. Some of which are unflinchingly gruesome. Personal favs include a man with huge tits sitting down in football changing room (ROLF!!) and shot of Cassel’s co-star Olivier Barthelemy shaving his all hair off with a small razor (WTF?!!). The whole thing begins with a taut monologue spoken by Cassel that shrouds the whole piece in an oblique darkness. Oooooo. One can only assume that upon the film’s release the Daily Mail will call for the banning of this sick filth. Sometimes the articles just write themselves don’t they?
The film’s recent sales synopsis posed the following question; ‘What do you do when you’re a red-haired teenage loser with no friends except for an older guy, your shrink?’. Helpfully it also teases with the decidedly awesome answer, ‘you and your loser buddy blow all the cash you can get your hands on to buy a sportscar, you dress smart and you head for the land of redheads, Ireland. But what starts off as a search for an ideal, gradually escalates into a rampage of hate, violence and self-destruction.’ So the shrink is Cassel I presume and the film will (rather predictably) be an orgasm of carnage and coercion. Still it is an exciting premise, and one that will hopefully (if the beautifully composed trailers are anything to go by) live up to the expectations set by the director’s previous works. Vive le Française!
Oh and one more thing. Maybe it’s me but I’d love to see a French film that didn’t have Vincent Cassel starring. Just sayin’.