While the so-called French "genre" cinema is often debated, Guillaume Nicloux brings his stone to the building with La Tour, a fantastic film in which the inhabitants of a HLM find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere with no possibility of going out, at the risk of dying instantly.
A fantastic essay
This is the director's first attempt at the fantasy genre, to whom we owe for example Valley Of Love (with Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu) or The Nun. There is no denying that he has tried many genres throughout his career and these films and series are successes. The case of La Tour is more complicated. The fantasy genre is full of rules, some inevitable and others to modify at will (like any genre certainly, but this one in particular requires great precision.) The narrative rules of the film are confusing, whether related to its genre or not. As for the realization, we have a real artistic direction that seeks the dirt, the confinement, the unhealthy in each of the characters who are all going crazy. A good idea that unfortunately overdoes with a very saturated image and uneven sound. If the film revolves around the inexplicable incident which is of the order of the fantastic, it does not really matter in the end since we have the impression that we want to expose ourselves to survivalism in a violence that seems to serve as a narrative spring not necessarily logical every time. Hyperviolence could also have worked if the scenes of outbursts were better distributed, even if it meant playing on it fully. We understand the desire of a world in perdition with a "disgusting" side, but it lacks structuring and inspiration.
Plurality of genres
The Tower is like a horror fantasy movie with a social undertone that is more of a drama. The fantastic lacks consistency, and the horror lies in its terrifying survivalism despite its clumsiness. The drama is the real heart of the film because we immediately see the desire to depict spirits in perdition and human relationships that degenerate. The three are mixed quite heterogeneously and the film is divided into parts while it lasts less than an hour and a half, which does not really help. Each part gives the impression of changing genre without transition, even if it must be emphasized, the characters remain consistent in their development which is interesting for some: the main character Assistan camped by Angèle Mac is the most eminent. We have this strange impression of almost changing the film, and even if we understand once again the intention which is certainly to disturb the viewer, the change is too brutal.
A fuzzy social discourse
The characters in La Tour do not suffer from their writing until it comes to what they represent as groups. Communitarianism is one of the themes of the film and the first survival reflex of each is to regroup into ethnic communities. We don't really know where the film is going with this and it brings some confusion, but also a redundant narrative construction in which many modern survivalist narratives fall: one group attacks the other, this group responds and chaos assaults everyone. The discourse of the film is present but it is as if he could not express himself and this grouping seems in the end a little clumsy because we can not help but give in to some clichés. The idea of returning to primitive instincts when it is linked to communitarianism opens a big door to this so-called clumsiness, unfortunately. We do not really know where The Tower wants to take us even if we understand that the film seeks to explore the worst instincts of the human being. Its uneven mix of violence, its jagged narrative structure and its rather fuzzy speech make it a strange viewing that is also not without interest in Angele Mac's performance and the feeling of unease it creates by its unhealthy side which is an interesting experience as a spectator. The Tower, in theaters February 8
