I didn’t know what to expect going into last night’s film but that’s often the case when I’m following a film season or simply following an actor I like. I don’t need a trailer or precis of the plot once I know they’re in the film. That is uniquely true of Eva Green.
It’s always her season, though I tend to watch them sparingly. Overloading on Eva’s films is not wise. She can make the world look such an ugly place in comparison and I end up wanting all my films to be her kind of Anglo-French indie collaborations.
Yet if I had known how Proxima would affect me, I might have chosen not to watch it without adequate hydration. It’s not an overstatement to say I’ve never watched a film so achingly touching. Reviewers on IMDb call it “turgid” and “melodramatic” but I think that might be down to the odd way the film was marketed. Trailers and posters make it look like a tech-heavy sci-fi. It isn’t. It’s a deeply touching drama made with relentless savagery. After two hours, I had mild dyspepsia caused by anxiety and had to down half a pint of water before bed just to dilute my stomach acid.
Alice Winocour’s film centres on Sarah Loreau (Eva), a French astronaut in the final months of training to join the International Space Station for a year. Her departure means she has to leave her daughter with her former husband, with whom the child has minimal connection. Sarah and Stella (played by the wonderful Zélie Boulant) have a very close relationship and from the first hint of their separation you begin to feel the tension.
Here’s where I understand the “turgid” criticism. Not that I agree with it but in the abstraction, Proxima can feel like a lesson in film tension (especially if you’ve gone in thinking you’re about to watch Interstellar 2). Separate a parent from their child and feel the melancholy drip from the screen in the same way that George Lucas once said how to get an audience emotionally involved in a film. “Emotionally involving the audience is easy. Anybody can do it blindfolded: get a little kitten and have some guy wring its neck”.
Well, separating a child from her mother is even more powerful. However, the film’s end credits make the point that there’s nothing theoretical about that agony. A montage of photographs of former female astronauts with their daughters highlights how that tension wasn’t merely lived for the length of the film but for years by real families, through many generations.
It's unimaginable, especially as their fears become condensed into the few minutes of actual powered flight.
Beyond the human drama, the film covers the actual business of flight training with remarkable realism that came from working with the European Space Agency and Roscosmos (the Russian space operation). More remarkable, for me at least, was seeing the actual Star City and the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Just don’t expect any space travel. I went into this thinking the title would mean it’s a sci-fi. “Proxima” might allude to the name of stars but it’s really the Latin meaning for “nearest” and the film is all about distance between two attached souls.
The film deserves better than the IMDb rating, though I say that knowing that it’s going to play to a very nice audience: space nerds (me), with a taste for indie/foreign cinema (me), and who would be willing to watch Eva Green read a French telephone directory (also me).
The only place where I wasn’t quite this film’s perfect audience is that I generally make it a rule to avoid films starring Matt Dillon. I don’t know what it is about him I dislike. Perhaps it’s that phallic, square jawed, always-in-a-vest egoism that he seems to embody. He has the same vibes as Nicholas Cage when he’s in Nic Cage mode and makes me want to rodeo ride a cheese grater simply to disavow my masculinity.
I’ve only seen him in Rumblefish and There’s Something About Mary — until now. Thankfully, his role is minimal. More of a “look at the big American name we got to appear in five scenes” type role.
But really, this film isn’t about the ever-phallic Dillon or even the slightly less phallic rockets. It’s all about Sarah and Stella. I woke up this morning thinking to myself that I hope they’re okay and I hope they are.
7/10 (including the usual boost for anything starring Eva Green)
Grater….it was worth reading it just for that genius expression!
Had to give this a miss. I’m too orrible to do emotional stuff.