Carcasses
Nov 14, 2011
(Denis Côté, 2009, Canada, 35mm, 72 min)
Carcasses is one of the most original Canadian movies in recent years. It opens as a documentary portrait of Jean-Paul Colmor, the unabashedly eccentric owner of a massive junkyard in rural Quebec containing just about every conceivable object, as well as the dilapidated carcasses of thousands of cars. This gnarled, rusted landscape proves to be as fascinating as Colmor himself, especially when his kingdom has some equally surprising visitors. That’s when Côté takes his film into a realm that viewers may recognize from the strangest visions of Werner Herzog, Luis Buñuel and to more recent works from filmmakers like Lisandro Alonso. Carcasses makes for an unusual journey by anyone’s standards, but it’s one not soon forgotten.
"The Stranger Suggests: The films of the French-Canadian director Denis Côté are challenging, but only a coward registers all challenges as bad. We must not be cowards in the case of Côté’s films. We must confront and experience them as fully as possible. They deserve our effort. The difficulty in Côté’s cinema is not in the style (manner) but the substance (matter), and this substance primarily concerns the limits and fragility of human morality." —The Stranger
“Carcasses indicates the revival of the Quebec Auteur Cinema.” —Premiere Magazine