This past year, Cahiers du Cinema named Albert Serra’s “Pacifiction” the best film of 2022. Serra’s film, a total hypnotic scorcher, is finally being released in the US this Friday, but it’s already one of the best movies of the year.
Whether you love or hate Serra’s “Pacification,” there’s no doubt it shook up this past year’s subpar Cannes competition — the lineup needed its inclusion just for the sake of rattling things up.
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, the High Commissioner of the Republic. Very strange things start to happen to him, all seemingly revolving around rumors of the French conducting 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.
Magimel and Serra make a uniquely formidable team here. They feed off of each other’s eccentricities to create a film like you’ve never seen before.
There are transfixing moments in “Pacifiction,” most beyond explanation — but absolutely hypnotize your attention. Particularly in the last quarter, which reminded of an extended version of the club scene in Lynch’s own “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.”
In the end, everyone’s isolated, wondering what’s going on, are we on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe? Or have our fears been manipulated for the sake of government propaganda? Whether Serra intended it or not, his strange film has now become incredibly relevant. [A-]
Zeller’s feature debut, “The Father,” was an acclaimed and Oscar-winning film. Many believe he struck out with his sophomore effort, 2022’s critically maligned “The Son.” This is another miss.