Dir: Illum Jacobi | Writers: Illum Jacobi, Hans Frederik Jacobsen | Cast: Antony Langdon, Nathalia Acevedo | DoP Frederic Jacobi | Drama, Denmark, 95′
Illum Jacobi’s sumptuous imagined drama, exquisitely co-photographed with his brother Frederic, sees the Anglo-Irish writer and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-97) embarking on a tour of the French Alps.
Antony Langdon brings a whiff of the ridiculous to his witty and fey performance as Burke. Pompous and filled with a sense of his own superiority and importance, the puffed up politician takes with him a member of his brother’s staff, a young and attractive servant servant girl named Awak (Nathalia Acevedo), to carry his personal effects. She clearly doesn’t care for Edmund anymore that he does for her, and bears the brunt of his cantankerous ill humour with a kind of bemusement that borders on disdain, making this 18th century ‘road movie’ faintly amusing.
The Whig politician was by now rampantly in debt due to the failure of his family’s plantations and Burke’s defensiveness about this loss of face brings out a deeply unattractive side to his personality. Also clearly undergoing some sort of midlife crisis, Burke witters and whinges like a man twice his age, still imagining himself in London ranting on about the value of his work and not wanting to waste time. Poncing about the countryside all decked out in burgundy velvet and a powdered wig, he demands utter obedience and respect from everyone he meets along the way, including a couple of French farmers who he abruptly addresses: “Do you know who I am”. Burke is clearly ill-equipped for the outdoor life, so the enlightened Awak is forced to massage his ego and powder his face and wig, while he frets feverishly about his writing making comments like: “This nature stuff, it’s all a bit too much”.
Hats off to the Danish first time director for this delicately stylish and inspired piece of cinema. Clearly there are shades of Albert Serra in the mise en scene and the upbeat comical touches echo Andrew Kotting add an innovative and ironic twist to proceedings. In the third act ecological overtones – melting glaciers and natural disasters – and magical realism lift this into another sphere altogether, hinting at the enormity of the universe with its metaphysical as well as philosophical concerns. Not only is this beautiful to look at with its soaring snowy landscapes and magnificent Alpine peaks, but amusing and enlightening as well as Burke is eventually released from placing a rationale on the wonder he is experiencing in the natural world far from the limits of his structured existence back home. MT
ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL 2020