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Mood:
- SexualContemplative
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Plot:
- Couple RelationsDangerous AttractionDestructive RelationshipSexual RelationsCouplesPsychologicalCulture ClashKids in Trouble more...
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Genres:
- Drama
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Time/Period:
- Contemporary
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Place:
- CaliforniaDesert
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Style:
- On the Road
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Attitudes:
- SeriousRealisticSlow
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Twentynine Palms, 2003
French, English
France, Germany, USA
Profile of Twentynine Palms
The mood of Twentynine Palms is sexual and contemplative. The plot centers around a destructive relationship, a dangerous attraction, and couples relations. It is a drama movie. Stylistically, Twentynine Palms has a road movie structure. In approach, it is serious and realistic. The pacing is slow. Twentynine Palms takes place, at least partly, in the desert. The setting is California. It happens in contemporary times.
Summary of Twentynine Palms
French philosopher-turned-filmmaker Bruno Dumont follows up his award-winning drama HUMANITE with the equally devastating TWENTYNINE PALMS. Dumont's self-professed "experimental horror film" follows a couple as they journey to the California desert town of Twentynine Palms and encounter true evil. David (David Wissack), an American photographer, and his Russian girlfriend Katia (Katia Golubeva), are scouting locations for an upcoming photo shoot. During the day, they drive David's Hummer into the expansive desert and roam freely, while at night, they argue in broken French and have animalistic sex. Eventually, their luck runs out, as the outside world catches up to them and causes their tragic demise.
TWENTYNINE PALMS is a jaw-droppingly brash work of art. Dumont takes a stylistic cue from French master Robert Bresson, simplifying his filmmaking technique in order to ponder deeper issues of humanity (good vs. evil, love vs. hate, sex/life vs. death). The result is a truly challenging film, which will confound and anger as many viewers as it stimulates and thrills. Like Lars von Trier's DOGVILLE, TWENTYNINE PALMS will also be accused of anti-Americanism, but Dumont's message is clearly a universal one. He uses a sparse yet familiar American landscape to subvert viewer's expectations, building to one of the most shocking finales in cinematic history.
Details
| Language: | French, English |
| Country: | France, Germany, USA |
| Release date: | 9 April 2004 |
| Runtime: | 119 min |
Cast and Crew
as Katia
as David
Photos
Clips
Critics Reviews
Entertainment Weekly
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- by: Owen Gleiberman
Los Angeles Times
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- by: Manohla Dargis
