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Animals, director Greg Zglinski's fourth feature film, is an unusual thriller to say the least. Anna, author of children's books, and Nick, chef, retire to a Swiss chalet to dedicate themselves to their respective arts, and especially to save their marriage. They rent their Viennese apartment to Mischa, who happens to be the look-alike of Nick's mistress, the couple's neighbor. The Alpine retreat degenerates while Anna, injured and can no longer separate the dream from reality.
Cinematographic processes that play with the spectator
The film takes a malicious pleasure in playing with the viewer and systematically takes him on unexpected paths. To achieve this result, Animals uses all possible processes that cinema makes available. During a dialogue scene, the field against field is suddenly emptied of one of the characters, thus bringing out madness at the turn of a line. During the stay, Anna, who is Austrian, is not surprised that a black cat speaks to her in French and materializes her own thoughts and reflections. In a moment of extreme confusion, Nick tries to prove to Anna that it's daylight and that they are not, as she claims, in the middle of the night. Who is the viewer to believe when the small village follows the normal course of its activities in the market place, but the director voluntarily opts for a night scene? Finally, without really breaking the 4th wall, Mischa evokes the very writing of the script. When asked, "What's behind that door?She replies: "I don't know, every time I want to open it someone rings the doorbell". These staging tricks brilliantly embark the viewer in the madness of the characters.
An agonizing staging of couple problems
Animals shows great ingenuity by taking up the codes of the classic horror film to divert them and bring them to a discourse with universal scope: that of couple problems. Thus, the real anguish does not come from the doors that remain mysteriously closed, or the strange behavior of certain animals, but from the impossible communication within a couple. The communication failure reaches its climax when Anna expresses the wish to leave Nick, but the break is impossible because each of the characters evolves in his own universe governed by different rules. It is this situation impossible to resolve in an incomprehensible environment that is a source of tension and discomfort for the viewer. Animals also tackles artistic distress with blank page syndrome. Indeed, Anna remains inexorably stuck in front of the sheet of the first chapter of the book she has to write. The film therefore deals with common anxieties but in a fantastic way.
A film on the border of the absurd
With Animals, you have to accept to let yourself be carried away, not to understand everything, because the film is on the border of the absurd. Some scenes are worthy of Reality, the latest film of the current master in the genre, Quentin Dupieux. It is because Animals flirts with the absurd that it exudes a fundamentally delicious humor. The different universes of the characters collide, creating offbeat and comical situations. Rehearsal comedy is also widely used throughout the film. Animals is proof that misunderstanding and fear can elicit laughter.
Animals is a film that navigates smoothly between horror and humor to deal in an original way with couple problems. The scenes of the film frequently turn to the absurd and the narrative then becomes hermetic. Animals is nevertheless a slice of pure cinema that can be appreciated!
