This past year the Cahiers du Cinema named Albert Serra’s “Pacifiction” the best film of 2022. Serra’s film, a total hypnotic scorcher, is only coming out next month in the US, but it already has a firmly stamped place in my top ten of 2023. A trailer has now been released.
Whether you love or hate Serra’s “Pacification,” there’s no doubt it shook up this year’s subpar Cannes competition — the lineup needed its inclusion just for the sake of rattling things up a bit.
To describe the plot of “Pacification” is nearly impossible. It has something to do with a top ranking French official (an incredible Benoit Magimel) in the Polynesian Islands, he’s the High Commissioner of the Republic. Very strange things start to happen to him, all seemingly revolving around rumors of the French conducting some nuclear testing near the island.
Will the masses love “Pacification”? Of course not. It’s a slow-as-molasses 165-minute statement from Serra whose not in uncharted territory here. After all, this is the director behind “The Death of Louis XI,” and “Liberte,” two impenetrable, but painterly statements.
There were tons of walkouts at the Lumiere screening last May at Cannes. It’s just that kind of film, either you go along with its peculiar vibes or you don’t. Mind you, there are some truly surreal, Lynchian moments that happen in this film, especially in the last quarter which reminded of an extended version of the club scene in Lynch’s own “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.”
“Pacificition” premieres at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City February 17, followed by a national rollout.