It has always been one of my endeavors to find a film that expresses existential themes without subtlety or pretense. Whenever I watch a film that audiences or critics viewed as being existential, I am always left with some degree of disappointment (although I liked all of these films) because the existential themes were not as explicitly expressed as I hoped it would. Fight Club, I Heart Huckabees, and American Beauty were a few that came to being pretty down-to-earth about the intended existential themes.
However I find this specific film, Un Homme Qui Dort (The Man Who Sleeps) to be very blatant about the intended existential themes. When you watch the film, you do not have to try to look for any existential cues, as you would in other films, and consequently dub one of them as "An Existential Film". In this film the existential theme becomes a completely disclosed reality through both visual scenes, music, and second-person narrative monologue.
The second-person narrative monologue can be little dry, repetitive, and occasionally boring, but it is also full of the use of metaphors, similes, and existential terms (Existence, Emptiness, etc.) that conveys the boundless empty depth of the modern soul. This does not only express itself through the monotone and speech of the second-person narrative but also in visual scenes such as a wide empty road, an empty hall, or an empty subway.
In this films...existentialism is right in your face...because it captivates the indifferent motion of the mundane reality in various facets. It conveys meaning to captivate meaninglessness. The transition from unauthentic artificial living towards the self-realization that one's existence is vulnerable, obscure, and contingent becomes apparent in the film as well.
I personally think that while the film can be a little dry and boring to most people who are use to the the adrenaline rush that Hollywood tries to enhance, the film offers something very valuable that I haven't found in other films. Rather than constructing a reality through plot, characters, acting, special-effects, script, etc, this film makes existence as it understands it as explicable as possible. It is by this intent and the success of it that I have this film a full rating.
However I find this specific film, Un Homme Qui Dort (The Man Who Sleeps) to be very blatant about the intended existential themes. When you watch the film, you do not have to try to look for any existential cues, as you would in other films, and consequently dub one of them as "An Existential Film". In this film the existential theme becomes a completely disclosed reality through both visual scenes, music, and second-person narrative monologue.
The second-person narrative monologue can be little dry, repetitive, and occasionally boring, but it is also full of the use of metaphors, similes, and existential terms (Existence, Emptiness, etc.) that conveys the boundless empty depth of the modern soul. This does not only express itself through the monotone and speech of the second-person narrative but also in visual scenes such as a wide empty road, an empty hall, or an empty subway.
In this films...existentialism is right in your face...because it captivates the indifferent motion of the mundane reality in various facets. It conveys meaning to captivate meaninglessness. The transition from unauthentic artificial living towards the self-realization that one's existence is vulnerable, obscure, and contingent becomes apparent in the film as well.
I personally think that while the film can be a little dry and boring to most people who are use to the the adrenaline rush that Hollywood tries to enhance, the film offers something very valuable that I haven't found in other films. Rather than constructing a reality through plot, characters, acting, special-effects, script, etc, this film makes existence as it understands it as explicable as possible. It is by this intent and the success of it that I have this film a full rating.