Enigmas and puzzles in the night
The summer before last I was mesmerized by a 23-minute French movie called Vesper. Many things about it were impressive—the filmmaker’s masterly assurance and attention to detail, his ability to set a mood and command our attention from start to finish, and the quality of the performances from well-established actors. The most impressive thing, though, was that it was directed by someone who was only eighteen years old at the time. Despite being a prodigy, Keyvan Sheikhalishahi also turned out to be a nice guy who graciously gave me an interview in which he discussed Vesper, his interest in film, his influences, and his love for the James Bond movies.
So what has he been up to lately? Happily, he has completed another film, and not a minute too soon for me. Forget Game of Thrones. That can wait. I wanted to see Keyvan’s new flick, and now I have. It is called Nox, and if there is anything disappointing about, it is that is half the length of Vesper. Despite this, though, it feels as though it has every bit as much content—if not more—as its predecessor. The audience will recognize it as a suspense caper thriller, but there is more going on beyond a mere heist or burglary. It is the kind of movie that demands that you immediately re-watch it. While straightforward enough as narrative, it is also a puzzle. Because there are jumps in time, withheld information and the lingering suspicion that one or more things may have actually been in a character’s mind, there is a bit of work involved to figure out exactly what has happened. What I really want explained is that enigmatic smile on Claire’s face.
While the style and themes are familiar from the previous film, it is an entirely different work. For one thing, it is in English. One way in which it is a mate to the previous film is that it has a one-word Latin title. According to my Latin dictionary, Nox means night, which is fitting since that is when the story takes place. It also nicely refers back to Vesper, which means evening. The night in question happens to be election night, apparently in the United States. Our opening shot is of a man attaching a silencer to a gun. Peter and Claire are professionals expertly breaking into a home. As their job unfolds, we learn a bit about who lives there and why the intruders are there. Or do we? As I said, this movie is a puzzle that demands to be worked out. In this mostly conventional genre mystery, there is just enough hint of the weird and maybe even possibly the supernatural to detect the influence of David Lynch at his most restrained.
Peter is played by the Australian actor Matt Passmore, who has a long string of credits in film (Son of the Mask, Come Back to Me, Jigsaw) and on television (Last Man Standing, The Glades, Frayed). Claire is played by London-based Brigitte Millar, who has serious fan cred, having appeared both as Emmeline Vance in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and as the villainous Dr. Vogel in Spectre. This thus marks the second consecutive film in which Keyvan has scored the participation of a veteran of his beloved 007 franchise. The star of Vesper, German actor Götz Otto, had played bad guy Richard Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies. Come to think of it, in the Harry Potter movies, Nox is a light-extinguishing spell. A coincidence? With Keyvan you never know. The third main actor in Nox is Agnès Godey, who also appeared in Vesper, and though she does not speak in this role, she exerts a haughtily disdainful presence that permeates the whole movie and lingers in the mind long after.
Given the effectiveness of the framing, the cuts and all the other elements that cause of movie to rivet our attention, praise is due to the entire team that worked on this, including director of photography Jean-Claude Aumont. Particular kudos must go to Gréco Casadesus and Gregory Cotti for the musical score that has much to do with the feeling of tension throughout.
For more information, you can check out the Facebook page of Keyvan’s production company Amitice, Keyvan’s own website or his French-language film blog Fenêtre sur écran.
-S.L., 9 April 2019
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