Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2016
Images from the Internet
Mécanix
Written, directed and edited
by Rémy Mathieu Larochelle
Ofilms
/ Avant-Gore Films / IPS Films /
Unearthed
Films / MVD Visual
70
minutes, 2003 / 2016
Many cities have arthouse theaters. In New
York, we’d head down to those like the Film Forum on West Houston Street, occasionally
watching real life art going by such seeing rats running down the street as we
went into the theater (happened more than once).
Along with the Scandinavian films that would
depress a hyena (which SCTV lampooned
so well with Whispers of the Wolf), we’d also see films that were certainly not conventional in any way, such as
those by Richard Kern, Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man (1964). Occasionally there would be a Canadian entry, and some were quite innovative,
like the shorts Pas de Deux (1968)
and Neighbors (1952),
which we saw together in revival form (hey, I’m not that old).
 |
| Human |
The genres of avant-garde and transgression
are different, but they can overlap, sometimes quite extensively, occasionally
blurring the lines. The Montreal-filmed Mécanix
can be seen as just such a film. But, of course, it’s open interpretation. In
an interview segment included as an extra, the director also mentioned German Expressionism,
which was at its height during the silent period with the likes of Nosferatu (1922 by F.W. Murnau) and Metropolis (1927, by Fritz Lang).
Similar to that style, there is very little dialog (more on that later) until
the final act, though there is a lot going on here, especially visually.
 |
| Non-human (goat creature) |
Metropolis is
actually a good comparison point because of some of the similarities in themes
(though the resemblances kind of end there). The story, from what I make out,
is about a world split into two strata. The first is the lower class humans who
service the overlords. The second is the creatures who rule the humans, which
consists of mostly animal-like puppets and pixilated clay beings of a mostly
rudimentarily shaped type (though the goat one is quite cool looking). Like Metropolis, part of the plot is the
human’s trying to overcome by… well, it is confusing as it’s a bit
philosophical, quite fantastical and poetically opaque. It’s also about, as stated
during the film, “The desire of all things.” Note that the film is in Quebecois
French with English subtitles, though as there is so little speaking, it’s not
like the viewer is going to spend much time reading.
Speaking of the story, I’m going to do
something I’ve rarely done before, which is repeat what’s on the box (in part),
because I had trouble following a narrative:
…The last human beings are forced to be
the slaves of the strange creatures that rule this strange world. There is only
one thing these beasts fear – the embryo of the universe: the origin of
everything … is hidden in the last freeborn man. The scientist helping the
beasts must vivisect every human on the planet to stop this embryo from growing
and destroying it forever.
What interests me, as a media theorist
(that’s right) is the hinting of both the works of French philosopher Jacques
Ellul and Toronto professor Marshall McLuhan, whether intentional or not. McLuhan
tends to be thought of as dreading the inevitability of the takeover by
technology, but it was actually Ellul who posited that theory (beware!) in his seminal book, The Technological Society (1964). He
described what he called Technic, or
the way things are done; for our film here, the term used is Mécanix.
In Understanding
Media (also 1964), McLuhan theorizes how technology is an extension of
humans (e.g., cars are extensions of the legs, pens are extensions of the
hand). One of the stop-motion creatures even states (whispering soto voce) to the central character:
“Mécanix are the extension of your being, like you are an extension of nature.”
In actuality, though the humans are here are the extensions of the creatures,
helping them get fed (though it seems like they always refuse the food), and to
try and find the “embryo.”
 |
| Both human and nonhuman |
The motion of the creatures is jumpy (you do
what you can with your equipment), especially considering this was done with
16mm film rather than digital. There is no computerization used
(anti-technology, or just what was available?), which is admirable. In fact
they use the same technique/technic for the mixture of animation and living
actors that they used in silent films. This is explained in the interview
extra.
There are some really nice moments, like a
beastie who interrogates the main human character has his snout wrapped in
wire, and before he asks any question it unwraps and a ball of wire falls from
his maw. After each query, the ball goes back into his mouth, and the wire
wraps it up again. Larochelle designed and built all the puppets and animation
creations, and also pixilated them, which took about half a decade.
The image of the film is murky, like the
Yellow River: muddy dark brown and a bit hazy at times. But it is not as convoluted
as the narrative. I’m not saying this as a negative, but if you’re looking for
light and airy fare, or a blood feast, this may not be where you want to be
searching. However, it is interesting cinema in its artistry, and in its sheer
labor (oh, wait, it’s Canadian… labour), considering the filmmaker was just out
of college.
Included as its only extra (not counting the
chapters) is a single camera 30-minute interview with the director and a producer,
Phillippe Chabot. The prewritten (but previously unread by them) questions were
handed to them on a sheet of paper that is held during the taping. About 50
percent of it is interesting, but when it is and they are taking it seriously,
it had my attention.
I’m glad this is getting a new release,
because works like this deserve to be in the film canon, and I certainly hope
at some point Larochelle releases a follow-up of some kind (does not have to be
directly related to this), because he shows he has a head on his shoulders with
this dark almost-poetry and definitely philosophical allegory. That being said,
I also hope he actually adds a commentary track on the next reissue to further
explain what he was meaning by the actions on the screen.
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