One of my most anticipated films at FrightFest, and the only film to ever play 2 separate FrightFest events, new French/Belgian Giallo film Amer.Our own Noel Mellor is a man whose movie tastes I pretty much trust with my life, with some exceptions every film he recommends to me I at the very least enjoy, so when he virtually screamed incessantly to make sure I see Amer at FrightFest it had to happen, even if it meant queueing for a ticket for 45 minutes and an hour before the first film of the day started. Would I again be agreeing with him, or would I want to throttle him for making me get up so goddamn early?
Amer depicts 3 different periods of Ana’s life. In her childhood (Cassandra Foret) she has a terrifying encounter with a mysterious figure while her parents mourn her Grandfather’s death, in her teenage years (Charlotte Eugene-Guibbaud) she has an intense encounter while out with her mother and as an adult (Marie Bos) she returns to her childhood home where dark encounters from her past come back to stalk her.
While I can’t claim to be an expert in the Giallo sub-genre of horror, I have seen my fair share and I know the hallmarks. Long set pieces with minimal dialogue, beautiful women being murdered in the most gorgeously shot ways and killers with black gloves, they are a very particular form which can go wrong easily, indeed the former master Dario Argento has recently had a disastrous time making the laughably bad film named after the genre itself and so it does feel that the time is right for a new breed of filmmakers to take on the responsibility of making great horror out of exquisite death. Step forward Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, two directors who grew up on the genre and the works of Dario Argento and Mario Bava to craft one of the most sublimely shot and hypnotic experiences you could ever have the pleasure of experiencing.
Giallo’s are usually all about the visuals with little care taken to have an involving story but the best are able to create the story through the visuals themselves and Amer certainly does that. The film as a whole has perhaps a dozen lines of dialogue and a good 15 minutes can go in-between them. For those who are not prepared for this, it could well be the thing that really turns them off this film, but if you are aware of this going in, I honestly do not see how you cannot fall in love with the storytelling offered here. Amer was chosen as the title because it translates to bitter, which itself is referring to the sense of taste and the senses overall and this is indeed a wholly sensory experience, the directors capturing a story told entirely in the minds eye, the way things feel as we are experiencing them made visual. Its a daunting prospect, and one which opens itself up to accusations of pretension, but it never once feels overtly “arty”, just the exact right combination of shots told throughout the entire runtime of a film to take us into the very essence of the lead character Ana. Lighting takes on a supernatural feel, little motions are shown with the greatest attention to detail as faces are reflected in drops of water and a bead of sweat is captured by a killers blade, its intense throughout but is never anything less than staggering, your brain will feel pleasured throughout and by the end you will be utterly overwhelmed by just what you have seen on screen.
As well as being gorgeous, the film also never lets up from being completely tension filled. There are many times where you will not have a clue just what is going on but as this is a sensory experience I would argue that this does not matter. Just what is real and what is imagnined is never clear through the whole of the film, and again this may throw some off, but the film is filled with such nervous energy and surprising moments that you just do not know when and how it will end and when it does it would not be wrong to just want more. I wanted to wallow in the world of Amer for hours and when the film was over I was satisfied but also disappointed by the sheer fact that the journey was over. How many fucking films can you say that about?
It is fair to say that Amer is not exactly a film filled with performances but the 3 leads who play Ana all do a damn good job with the very barest of dialogue. Cassandra Fosset brings precocious wonder and then absolute terror to her role as she imagines/experiences very scary things with dead people, Charlotte Eugene-Guibbaud brings a brimming sexuality to the fore with a striking physicality that has you glued to the screen throughout and Marie Bos combines the two previous performances as she experiences the most intense feelings of pleasure and pain that I have seen on screen in a good many years, this performance in particular really does floor you. All 3 combine to create a character that despite the lack of dialogue, you will remember for a damn long time after the end credits roll.
Along with We Are What We Are, Amer is by far my favourite film of the festival and will no doubt appear in my top 5 at the end of year. The work of two ultra talented directors who both love the genre they are working in and they translate this on screen with one of the most beautiful, intense and visceral big screen experiences I have ever had the pleasure of seeing on the big screen. Amer is a very special film, and one I implore anyone who loves pure cinema to drink  in for themselves.
10/10
