Monthly Review :TWENTYNINE PALMS (2003)

One of the most terrifying films I've seen as an
adult, Twenty Nine Palms demonstrates every human's vulnerability rendered unexpectedly .It reminds us that we are flesh and blood exposed to all the monstrosities of the world, regardless the strength of our minds or the intelligence of our emotions. In the end, (brutal) death is waiting and "deserve has nothing to do with it" which brings to mind the Charles Bukowski quote: "There are no beautiful women; there are no strong men"





Plot Overview :

American photographer David and his girlfriend Katia leave Los Angeles in his red Hummer and head off to the Joshua Tree desert in California where he hopes to find an appropriate setting for a magazine photo shoot. Although physically attracted to each other, David and Katia have trouble communicating. He speaks some elementary French, which is the language she uses regularly.The couple's relationship too is nascent with emptiness and malice.Their only 'pleasure' of keeping their relationship going is passionless sex. They brutalize each other, in small ways, she emotionally, he physically.That internal brutality is externalized in the last few minutes of the film leading to a shocking totally unexpected finale.

Review :

With his first film, "Life of Jesus", philosophy professor turned film maker, Bruno Dumont announced himself as a director to watch. His sophomore effort " La Humanite " managed to spark equal amounts of praise and condemnation, solidifying Dumont as a provocateur with a bleak view.Twentynine Palms adds another slow-paced, meditative shocker to his resume and is, no doubt, a film that should divide viewers as either a thoughtful work of existentialist horror or an indulgent failed experiment.

Bruno Dumont depicts man and his nature (like in his two previous films). He's obsessed by man's behaviour and he's tackled the subject in a more radical manner here. Several scenes represent the bestiality in humans. Bestiality is depicted most explicitly in the scenes when the couple makes love and fight. The groan of sexual pleasure is the same as the groan of agony. It is these moments of intercourse that are the most telling of Twentynine Palms’ obtuse philosophy. David and Katia only engage in the activity in spaces of false nature-in the motel pool and in their hotel room beneath a picturesque image of snowy mountains-and the one time they attempt to have sex in the desert they come up dry and impotent.

The disconnection with the natural world around them is key to the film’s gradual exposition that between these two people there is something deeply wrong with their understanding of each other and the world around them.The view is harsh and negative .The sequence in which David and Katia are all naked on the rocks made me think of Adam and Eve. This is a divine vision of a world which seems forever gone. These landscapes are also repulsive because dangerous. Nothing happens in them and danger could come out at any moment.It is as if in this empty setting in which everything needs to be created from scratch, Adam and Eve had no other choice but to play a part in their own destruction.

Dumont’s narrative punishes both characters by this point, slapping them down for some obscure reason. The deep irony that Katia fawns over nature, but David, who has a profession involving finding and appreciating locations, fails to engage the world around him is key to the reason why he ends up being the one who cannot reconcile what he learns by the film’s end. At first it appears that both achieve a realization of the reality of their relationship, but, like the ideas that drive the film as a whole, this realization is neither completely understood .

Rajneesh, the great spiritual teacher who has blended his experiences in the East and the West, had observed, "You can't buy into one-half of a polarity without getting the other half. You want good? You've got evil. You want pleasure, you've got pain. That's just the way it is." In Twentynine Palms, we watch David & Katia desperately reach out to each other for as much pleasure as they can get. In the process, they are isolated from the world around them and oblivious to the presence of other human beings. Eventually, David's compulsive sexual urges become the occasion for Katia's pain and some outsiders crash this party of two. For Dumont as well as for Lars von Trier (director of 'Antichrist'), the shadow side of America is violence, and it is not a pleasant sight.


Parting Thoughts :

This film should be seen for its originality, for its difference from the standard fare. This is not a fun movie to watch. But this will be the one that you will never forget. I recommend it to people who are open minded about their films and about the possibilities of films like these.

Title : TWENTY-NINE PALMS (2003)

Dir: Bruno Dumont

Cast : Yekaterina Golubeva , David Wissack

Rated NC-17 for explicit sexuality, violence ,nudity

Country :France / USA

Language : French /English

DVD Extras: Directors Note of Intent and Bio Director Interview Previews

Trailer Link :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk_hxeJIaaQ

Torrent File Name :Twentynine Palms [2003][DVDRip][Xvid]