In his second full-length film, Jean-Jean Benex, the progenitor of the French Neo-Baroque and one of the Holy Trinity of Cinema du Luc, of course, caught on. After a couple or three years in Betty Blue, he will come to his senses and find the balance remaining after Diva and the Moon, but for now, in the Moon itself, he, like the main character, will chase a mirage and eventually catch nothing.
Gerard, performed by the already notorious Depardieu in recent times, will be looking for the whole evening (a film exclusively about workers, canned quarters of the city and only about the darkness permeated with lanterns). Mostly the murderer of his sister, often himself, sometimes his own love. He will despise and suspect his drinking friends, leave his innocent girlfriend and look for a passionate person who wants to play with him. Benex rushes with his main characters, and in the end finds nothing, returning to his point of reference, literally taking everything that happened for a myth that made its way to him through the haze of sleep.
It's too hard to believe from here. The author pursues beauty, the romanticization of everything visible and invisible, which is why, instead of a masterpiece and a work of filigree art, about which he has already made an imaginary representation, there remains only a fictional, but certainly beautiful puff. He can’t turn this movie even to the level of his partner in the direction of Leos Carax, who also had too much with Lovers from the New Bridge. Benex left behind no history and no feelings, otherwise - the material base, looking at everything as if through a kaleidoscope. Elegance became an unnecessary burden - Cesar deserved the artist, but too much of it. Benex seems to be saying in the voice of Matroskin, “I can also embroidery.” With a probable degree - beautiful, but who needs patterns on top of patterns already located on top of patterns?
“Moon” here is like a top model – one side will turn, the other, trying to find the best angle. And why need an angle if it is impossible to feel the hero, also flaunting like on the catwalk? That's why the tape was a cold reception - you can admire and discuss the atmosphere and colors of night life, spin the symbols that restlessly flash from frame to frame, and, quite possibly, get pleasure from this. But the sense of general pretentiousness from this gallery of decorators will not disappear anywhere.
23.3.2019