Alps

Lucy4.0

characters in yorgos lanthimos movies are just aliens that are still in the beginning stages of mastering how to impersonate human beings

Vivian4.0

Yorgos: y'all already know what the fuck going on!!!!!!Everyone else: do we?

ButtNugget4.0

There is an unassuming moment in Alps, the latest offbeat puzzler by absurdist Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos, when the plot’s obscurity reaches its zenith, delineating that the story has taken a sudden dark, awkwardly humorous turn into surreal, Luis Buñuelian territory. A somber hospital nurse, played exceptionally well by Lanthimos’ muse Aggeliki Papoulia, brings bad tidings to a couple, reporting that their sixteen year old daughter has succumbed to her fatal car crash injuries and passed away. The couple sits in stunned silence, devastated by the news and the teary-eyed nurse provides a warm hug to the parents. After saying her condolences, the nurse immediately shifts gears and, in an uproariously comical, deadpan manner, announces that a new and possibly better beginning is in store for the couple, shamelessly offering herself as a substitute for their dead daughter to support them during the grieving process. To top it off, she sweetens the deal by adding that her first four visits are entirely free of charge. Alas, the world’s a stage, life is cinema, and identity play comes to the fore once again. This is the underlying theme of Lanthimos’ acerbic follow-up to his excellent Dogtooth and it is quite a riot.Much like Certified Copy and Holy Motors, the film centers on role play, an act that serves as a symbolic gesture by alienated individuals to re-connect with the people around them. The way Lanthimos sets up the narrative is highly cryptic, which is effective in building up a sense of perplexity. It’s like a mystery and Lanthimos doesn’t clearly spell out what is happening on screen, forcing his nonplussed viewers to figure it out for themselves while subtly leaving pieces of the puzzle throughout. The film’s title stems from the name of the idiosyncratic clique of which the nurse belongs to. This little cabal that provides such morbidly bizarre services also comprises of an ambulance paramedic, who is the group’s morose, de facto leader, and a rhythmic gymnast and her fiery coach. Interestingly, the gymnast is played by the supple Ariane Labed of Attenberg fame, commonly considered as a spiritual successor to Dogtooth. The paramedic neatly sums up the story’s essence when he explains to the group the meaning behind the name Alps. The film revolves around Papoulia’s character the most and she does a fascinating job of performing a role which is about performing multiple, disparate roles. Whether she’s a teenage tennis player or an English-speaking foreign lover, Papoulia portrays a person desperately trying her best to become the perfect substitute to a deceased loved one, memorizing and polishing her lines to appease her mournful clients, like an individual attempting to fix the disconnection between herself and others. Her clients, such as the aforementioned couple, get completely enmeshed in the role-playing themselves strangely enough. But what makes it all the more amusing is the fact that Lanthimos directs every scene in bitingly awkward fashion, syncopated by sudden bouts of shocking verbal and physical violence as well as hilarious sexual interludes. It’s real funny, yet simultaneously disturbing and, in a way, very sad.Lanthimos composes shots that magnify the feel of alienation in the narrative. He frames characters in widescreen, often inside empty spaces. The director also alternates between static and handheld shots, tampering with out of focus imagery as his players get drowned in a sea of blurry objects. It has a definitive art house look that is aesthetically evocative and foreboding. I love the look and it keeps me hooked all the way through.The strikingly peculiar works full of black humor by Lanthimos simply amaze me. With Alps, he has made an art movie worthy of Buñuel. It’s intriguing, perverse, and heck, it even has a couple of dance numbers that rival the ones from Dogtooth. Papoulia gets to shake it once more, but it’s Labed this time who shines with her nimble, graceful gymnastics as her performance becomes the first and last shot of the film, bringing this Greek drama into full circle.