Vlad & Antoinette (2008) User Reviews

Wherein beautiful people spill out their ugly selves

[jparise79 · 8/10 · 9 June 2011]

Vlad & Antoinette displays fragments of a devolving relationship between a pair of acutely beautiful yet equally self-involved people. Though both photogenic, the principal angle of their coupling seems to be solely devoted to Vlad's blind adoration of beauty in Antoinette, often taking the form of back-handed compliments followed by self pity in the guise of reflection. Quick cuts of Vlad's thoughts and his dour presence belie a desire to end what does not seem to be working out, yet his own overpowering co-dependence and inability to stick up for his own well-being continue to hold him back. Antoinette is a constant case of unpleasant personal obsession, willing to consistently manipulate Vlad into being a willing party in a mysteriously tawdry lifestyle. Unfortunately for Vlad, this makes her his perfect companion. The two are made for each other as much as they should get away from each other at all costs, each serving a purpose in the others' broken existence.

The choices of color scheme plays a large part in establishing mood. Most of film is shot in black and white, lending a pessimistic take to a loveless relationship. The few bits filmed in color are revelatory of Vlad's inner desires of an end to his time with Antoinette, be it his own act of gunning her down or the quick shot of a record progressing to its conclusion. The film is wrought with this symbolic imagery, which comes across as both a condemnation of the type of self indulgence that Vlad and Antoinette represent, and a subtly humorous swipe at the blindness that can follow the wake of romance.

Whether one were to take it as a dramatic look at a broken couple, an examination of modern self-pity, or a cleverly sarcastic take on the worst habits of modern relationships, Vlad and Antoinette is an enjoyable bit of film.

Vlad and Antoinette: The butterfly in Glass

[fergs86 · 9/10 · 3 February 2009]

VLAD AND ANTOINETTE: A CRITICAL ESSAY

"Come on, we're at the beach - the BEEEEEEACH!" Antoinette exclaims to Vlad, trying to instill in him happiness, and a desire to seize the moment. She tries to rouse in him a sense of all the usual connotations of the beach. It is a typically romantic place, the viewpoint for sunsets and sunrises, beautiful, and calmed by the sound of waves lapping ashore, a place for lovers to sit hand in hand or splash around in the waves, embracing.

The setting for the majority of 'Vlad and Antoinette' is indeed the beach. In the opening scene, however, we see that this beach is far from that Romantic ideal. The film is shot mainly in black and white, lending it a quiet, joyless tone, while the associated Romanticism - the vivacity - is absent. The beach itself is not sandy - it is formed from large, haphazard rocks at which the waves are more likely to crash than to lap calmly. The two lovers sit apart, both facing out to shore and not at one another. It is almost too obvious to say that this relationship is "on the rocks". The two exchange some words: both have disinterested airs about them, and as she asks him sarcastic questions ("Why don't you ever talk pretty to me?"), he responds with sarcastic questions of his own ("Why don't you ever look pretty to me?"), but while she is attempting to bridge a gap between them with her questions, he is furthering it with his. There is no talk of how things 'used to be' between them - we assume this is how the relationship has always been, whether it has been long or short lived up until now.

The state of the relationship between Vlad and Antoinette is symbolized by the dead butterfly encased in glass. Frozen in time and space, unmoving, nonliving; the artifact lacks any substance or purpose of existence other than aesthetic. Vlad and Antoinette are doubtless a beautiful couple; both are traditionally good looking, youthful and well dressed, but what do they share other than moments of uncomfortable silences alternating with sarcastic conversations that go around and around, ultimately leading nowhere? As a couple they lack any forward momentum, any sense of direction or movement; almost 'frozen in time and space' they are much like the butterfly frozen in glass. They repeatedly call each other stupid because, on some level, they are both aware of the stupidity of their going-nowhere relationship. Needless to say, the very nature of the artifact - a dead butterfly encased in glass - is morbid in itself; and this is reflected in the morbid actions and predispositions of the characters.

When Vlad regains consciousness at the house after being knocked out by the thug, he joins Antoinette at the table. Occupying the other seats at the table are two corpses, positioned as though they too may like to engage in normal, domestic, living social-intercourse. This was doubtless contrived by the morbid Antoinette for her own amusement, which is concurrent with her behaviour with Vlad's corpse later. The imagery in this scene, the physical presentation and the style of it, function to further emphasis the state of the relationship as discussed earlier and as represented by the butterfly artifact. While the couple exchange words and, again, the conversation leads nowhere, the camera angles in the scene switch from one character to another, successively - going round and round, the camera movement mimics the conversation and encapsulates its circular and ultimately inane nature. The presentation of Vlad and Antoinette as flanked by the corpses, as surrounded and contained by death, becomes symbolic of the containment of death which is their relationship; and at the same time also evokes the image of the dead butterfly as preserved in its containment of glass. Finally the scene, showing Vlad and Antoinette opposite each other and the two corpses opposite each other at the one table, presents a parallel between the two pairs, and forcing a comparison it begs the question: how different, really, is the one pair from the other?

As already discussed, the butterfly artifact successfully acts as a symbolic representation of the state of the relationship, aesthetic but inane, and morbid in its deathly preservation. The similarities do not end there, however. In fact, much like how the butterfly artifact is destined to ultimately 'die again' (because it is made out of brittle glass - it must one day break), the necessary and only outcome for the already-dead relationship of Vlad and Antoinette, is for it to suffer another kind of death. And while one might naturally assume, at first, that this would mean a breakup, it is in fact nothing less morbid than the assassination of Vlad by instruction of Antoinette.