The Era of Men: Valeska Dredges the Darkness of the Past
There’s an essence of Valeska Grisebach’s cinema which makes one feel as if it’s playing out in real-time, arguably a detriment as the sometimes sinister, sometimes sublime elements of her narratives can evaporate or be eclipsed by the time taken to get where she’s going. Nearly a decade after 2017’s Western (read review), she returns with the promise of something softer in The Dreamed Adventure. Migrating from a masculine perspective and a homosocial atmosphere, Grisebach returns to the peculiarities of border life through the perspective of an inquisitive woman working as an archaeologist on the Turkish-Bulgarian border, where a reunion with an old acquaintance inadvertently thrusts her into a mysterious realm.… Read the rest
For her third feature film, Histoires de la nuit (aka The Birthday Party), writer/director Léa Mysius once again plays with genre conventions, intrigued by characters who have desperately tried to outrun the ravages of a toxic past through a complete overhaul of their identity. Films which have utilized the same title, including the early William Friedkin film penned by Harold Pinter, or even last year’s Willem Dafoe led thriller, find such a titular party to be the stage for deadly or painful confrontation. The original French language title, Histoires de la nuit, more effectively channels the neo-noir motifs Mysius is essentially attempting to deconstruct through deliberate favoring of characterization over narrative, driven by a notable ensemble of actors who are all incredibly well-cast.… 
