Dir: Virgil Vernier | France 2024 77′
100,000,000,000,000 the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Director and writer Virgil Vernier is one of the singular new voices in French cinema whose work blends fiction, documentary and myth.
His look at grifters on the Cote d’Azur carries an unsettling message from China but ultimately overstays its welcome at just over an hour with some superficial scenes and a confusing opening.
Essentially a three-hander this narrative documentary drifts along aimlessly offering snapshots of the scuzzy characters inhabiting its glitzy location of Monaco: a male mixed heritage sex worker, a Serbian ‘stone healer’ and the 12 year old daughter of Chinese immigrants purportedly building their island to escape the threat of a forthcoming apocalypse.
Anyone can carve a niche for themselves in a place where there is money to burn and people who want to burn it. Vernier’s third feature aims to give a voice to his drifters but only skims the surface of their empty lives. There is nothing appealing or vulnerable about this trio to help us feel sympathy or engage with them particularly the male prostitute who has a high opinion of himself for no apparent reason and regards his clients with scorn. At least the Serbian woman Vesna is trying to find herself and make a better life. Vacuous like the characters and location they inhabit. A lost opportunity to make us engage with their plight and understand their motivations @Meredith Taylor
LOCARNO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024