Évolution (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
	Actors: Max Brebant, Roxane Duran, Julie-Marie Parmentier
	Country: F, B, E
	Genre: Drama, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 30.01.2016, Cinema du CASINO, GIFFF2016, Official Selection
Synopsis: Children and mothers live a simple life along the coast, with the boys sometimes needing medicine or a visit to the nearby hospital. Nicolas would like to understand more the world around him and why the mothers are so secretive.
Review: Lucile Hadzihalilovic is known for having co-written the screenplay of Gaspard Noé's Enter the Void, which I haven't seen but knowing the man's style (from Irreversible or Seul Contre Tous), I was expecting something out of the ordinary with Évolution and on that aspect I was not disappointed. It is easy to find the movie too slow, boring, or that it fails to deliver the keys to understand its plot and resolve it. I usually don't like those movies in which I don't understand much (like February seen the day before at the same festival), but for some reason hard to explain I pleasantly spent the viewing of Évolution trying to resolve its mystery. One thing that may have helped me liking it is that its atmosphere reminds me of Michel Houellebecq's La Possibilité d'une Ile, more the novel that the bad adaptation actually, and in fact I found Évolution to be a better adaptation of that story (or the idea behind it) than the movie directed by Houellebecq himself based on his own book! The volcanic island is the first link that easily comes to mind. The story also reminds me of old futuristic novels like H.G. Wells The Time Machine. Another element that pleased me are the images of the coast, the mysterious mothers strangely looking all alike, the decrepit locals and the underwater shots like the long one that opens the movie by literally submerging you in its spirit. A bizarre movie hard to defend and to recommend, but that I liked for its different approach to the genre.
Rating: 6 /10