Mercy: brilliantly crazy (review)
An enjoyable and witty filmmaker, Alain Guiraudie creates a mystical western with the appearance of a farce which also knows how to be disturbing.
Alain Guiraudiefilmmaker but also writer published by POL whose latest novel, For centuries of centuries tells the journey of a priest who does not shy away from the joys of solitary pleasures. A being shaken up in his thoughts and actions by another himself who has taken possession of his body. The writer Guiraudie allows himself even more things in literature than in cinema where reality dictates its law. His latest film also calls for transcendence and delusional mysticism, less for forgiveness or even compassion as the title suggests. Everyone here lies about their true intentions. Duplicity prevails. It starts off like a western. A young man returns to his village of Aveyron. If he moved, the former best friend, not really. Although, feelings do not necessarily need to see the country to flourish.
However, Guiraudie’s feelings are old dreams that move to paraphrase the title of one of his medium-length films. All the tensions of the story have as their point of support the dining room of Martine (Catherine Frot brilliant), recently widowed and who will soon see her son mysteriously disappear. There is also and above all a priest adept at mushroom picking and not necessarily solitary pleasures who could mediate passions. However, he prefers to take part. “Everyone has the right to privacy?“, he says full of mischief. Mercy is a spiritual farce as much as a psychological thriller where the supernatural is all the crazier as it nestles in a disturbing realism. A bit as if Chabrol had returned disguised as Buñuel. Wonderful.
By Alain Guiraudie. With Catherine Frot, Félix Kysyl, Jean-Baptiste Durand… Duration 1h43. Released October 16, 2024
