Adam and Eve In the 60s, film critics and young directors suddenly become enthusiastic supporters of a new form of cinema, the French New Wave. Some, however, chose the lonely path and Emil Deguelen among them. Yet Jean-Luc Godard and Émile Deguelin have something in common: a radically experimental spirit breaking with traditional film conventions and Rachel, Godard's sister, with whom the young Deguelin had an affair. But Deguelin was quite different from his French counterpart: as a young director, he chose to go his own way and since then wandered into the wilderness. The two masters, who have known each other for ten years, receive echoes from each other but never meet. The meeting took place at the Cannes Festival in 1960. Emil Degelen is a Belgian director who has authored many documentaries, experimental shorts and five feature films. Some of them collected awards at prestigious festivals. He taught directing at the Brussels Institute of Theatre and Film from 1962 to 1992 and also wrote several novels. His first feature film, If the Wind Scares You, presented at Cannes in 1960, is a typical "new wave." However, this is far from the freedom of tone and heady sense of discovering a new language that characterizes the films of Godard, Romer and others. For this photogenic Flemish beach of the North Sea, which looks beautiful in black and white, and this beauty, which is striking, soon manifests itself as an end in itself, and eventually a little tiring. The plot axis around which the film develops its variations is a brother-sister incest relationship. Degelen’s talent and mastery of cinematic material are undeniable, but that perfection rules out emotion. And yet this does not minimize the importance of the director’s work and he demonstrates high ambition and undoubted talent.
Surreal adventure! Degelen is shooting with a very small film crew. Five people in all, the crew for the documentary. Degelen is a screenwriter, director and editor. Close friendships, methodical skills, and motivation that works wonders to fulfill a shared dream. The cast includes a young debutante, Elizabeth Dulak, prepared by Degelen for the female role and little-known theater actors. Two full summers without a cloud or a raindrop, a crew camping in the sands. The atmosphere in a small team exudes a pungent smell of decor, endless dunes. The décor of the dunes on black and white film is ideal for creating a tense atmosphere between the two main characters, a sister and a brother, who face taboos of hidden passion. The dominant horizontal dimensions of the landscape do not radiate peace, but a tacit agreement in their fate. The slow rhythm of the film sparks a reflection rather than an incestuous relationship, a reflection of the great love between two partners who know each other well. Sober storyline, no dirt and vulgarity. Modern intellectual Pierre and beautiful Claude, like Adam and Eve, are alone, not in the world, but in civilization. On a planet where they can't be with each other and where every thought is about fear of judgment. They are capable of laughing, of contemplating love, and in these twinkling sands Pierre and Claude are the only living beings. Deguelen successfully used the Belgian coastal landscape.
It is not a story that talks about the torture of desire, like most literary works or films, love is communication, psychological and physical, love is lightness and love is fidelity. It's a beautiful movie, and unlike a lot of modern movies, instead of continually creating tension, here we have a more natural flow with jerks and ebbs to the last frame. And as if it were natural that both should fall in love, slowly but inevitably. Pierre and Claude is the story of lovers, this film is an ode to their beauty.