SIMON WERNER E DISPARU... (LIGHTS OUT)
France, 2010, 91 minutes, Colour.
Jules Plissier, Ana Girardot, Arthur Mazet, Laurent Delbeque.
Directed by Fabrice Gobert.
Based on the experiences at school of the writer-director, this seems to be a murder mystery, a jigsaw puzzle. At the opening, a body is found in the woods. The action goes back ten days and we see events from the point of view of four of the students at the local high school. The action overlaps and we see quite different interpretations of what has happened.
The resolution may seem something of an anti-climax (but Simon was murdered). What the film is doing is creating characters of high school students, exploring their attitudes, behaviour, relationships and the consequences of speculation and gossip about one another and the teachers. To that extent it is something of a welcome change from the usual teen comedies and melodramatic behaviour.
1. A mystery, a jigsaw puzzle? The perspectives of the various students?
2. The French high school in the 1990s, the classrooms, laboratories, the art room, corridors, sports facilities, the locker rooms, cafeteria, the grounds? A sense of realism?
3. The homes, the streets, the woods, the abandoned shack?
4. The musical score, Sonic Youth? A score for a younger audience?
5. The title, the focus on Simon, as a person, as perceived by the others, his story, tense relationship with his mother, his being a senior student, relationship with Alice? With Claire? The disappearance, the reasons?
6. The party, the walk in the woods, discovering the body? The film going back to ten days earlier? The structure of the film with the focus on separate stories: Jeremie, Alice, Rabier and Simon?
7. Jeremie's story, at home, going to sports practice, Simon talking, following, Jeremie being the last to see him? Playing, temper, the injury, the students watching, the coach? His going to hospital, return to class, his friends, meeting Alice, giving her the lift on the bike, Leticia and her bringing the notes from classes to his home? The background of gossip of the students? His party?
8. Alice's story: glamorous, her friendship with Claire, the relationship with Simon, his wanting to break with her, his attachment to Claire? Her studies, her essay and the discussion about philosophy? Her rebuke of Rabier and his lurking? Going to the party, the search?
9. Rabier and his story, on the outer, people suspicious, audiences' suspicion of him? With Jeremie, his comment about his mother's beauty? His father, the laboratory, the gossip about him and a sexual encounter with Simon? His lurking - and the rebuke from Alice, the true reason for helping Leticia? Helping her, his dreaming about her, their falling out? His seeing the gay kiss, reporting it? At home, his father and cooking, saying that he didn't have a social life, going to the art room and pretending he was with friends? The shack, finding the lighter? His talking to the press?
10. Letitia, the relationship with Frederick, the break-up, her going missing, friendship with Jeremie, bringing the notes, the police and her parents, meeting Rabier, explaining things to him, the pros and cons, in the art room, in the woods, finding the shack, her anger with him?
11. The coach, suspicions, Simon talking about the console and the computer games? The coach and his helping Grammont, Grammont's sexual problems?
12. Grammont and the kiss, spreading the rumours about Rabier's father and Simon?
13. The reality of the killer, the encounter with Simon, stabbing him? The arrest - and his killing others in the district?
14. The funeral, the students all together, the staff?
15. The solution as somewhat anticlimactic, audiences suspicious of the students themselves, their various theories? But the story as a setting for the exploration of teen personalities and themes?
