Denis Villeneuve's Most Depressing Movie Is This Surreal Drama He Made 26 Years Ago
This film, which leaves a heavy aftertaste, is perhaps the darkest of his career.
Today, Denis Villeneuve is known for large-scale Hollywood blockbusters, intellectual science fiction, and dark noir thrillers.
His style is well-established, featuring precise compositions, cool color palettes, and an austere aesthetic. However, even before he conquered Hollywood, the director made a film that stands outside his entire body of work.
Maelstrom is a strange, brutal, and depressing drama in which Villeneuve first tackled topics of fate, guilt, and cyclical violence in a completely uncharacteristic manner.
What Is 'Maelstrom' About?
The story centers on Bibiane, a young woman who appears to have it all: youth, beauty, money, and an expensive car. However, she is adrift, having lost all sense of purpose.
After having an abortion, she falls into a deep depression and tries to numb the pain with drugs and nightclubs, which only worsens her condition. One night, while driving home drunk, she fatally hits an elderly fisherman and flees the scene.
Bibiane attempts suicide by driving her car into a river but miraculously survives. Fate gives her a second chance when she falls in love with the son of the man she killed.
'Maelstrom' Is the Most Atypical Movie in the Filmography of Denis Villeneuve
Maelstrom is Villeneuve's second feature film, and in many ways, it breaks with his established style. Rather than the usual asceticism, viewers are greeted by images reminiscent of Dogme 95, deliberate graininess, and an overall mood reminiscent of European auteur cinema.
It seems as if Villeneuve is searching for his own language, experimenting and trying out different things, which makes the movie particularly lively and unexpected.
Grotesque elements and sarcasm, which are completely uncharacteristic of Villeneuve's later work, are present in full measure here. Maelstrom is not a realistic drama but a bizarre, cruel fairy tale where life and death intertwine in a tragic cycle.
In 'Maelstrom', Villeneuve Completely Reimagines the Portrayal of a Woman
In Maelstrom, Villeneuve challenges traditional ideas about female characters. His main character is not a giver of life, but rather a woman who first ends a pregnancy and then accidentally becomes a murderer.
Transformed into a perpetrator of unmotivated, cyclical violence, she must now restore the universe's disturbed balance.
Maelstrom's symbolism – water, fish, and the cycle of life and death – is deliberately grandiloquent and almost garish. Villeneuve doesn't strive for subtlety, his metaphors hit the mark, sometimes overly bluntly, but no less powerfully.
What Did Critics & Viewers Think of 'Maelstrom'?
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Maelstrom has 79% from critics and 75% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
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On IMDb, the movie has a score of 6.7/10.
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On Letterboxd, Maelstrom scored 3.2/5.0.
Where to Watch 'Maelstrom'?
Maelstrom is available to stream on Fandor and Kanopy.
