Mark Jenkin with Men of Tongue tells the strange story of a woman joining plants

The meaning of “the world” – should not be missed

precision mechanicsEnys MenBritish Mark Jenkin (Bait, 2019), captivates us from the first moments, as we follow the steps of this woman in a red coat (Mary Woodwine), firmly planted in her hiking boots, on a deserted Cornish island – metallic gaze, attractively graceful, the actress looks. Like Tilda Swinton. Every day, this scientist walks to the beach to inspect some rare white flowers, seven in all, that look like hardy flowers, their beautiful petals struggling under the sun and wind.

The ritual is well established: the heroine kneels down in front of them, stabs the thermometer into the ground as if she were stabbing a knife, measures the temperature… she scares us a little, although she herself looks scared from time to time. other. On the way back, he does not forget to drop a stone at the bottom of the well, the same as the miners used to go down into the cellar, we will learn later.

Then he comes home and writes down his observations in a notebook. The statement is concise, the days at the end of April 1973 follow each other and are similar to – “no change”, writes the researcher. And yet temporality is shattered when an old radio spits out information about a man missing at sea that occurred 1^Eh May 1973. One foot in the past, the other in an incomprehensible future, the film begins to deconstruct, mixing elements, images like nightmarish reminiscences. A floating body under a yellow raincoat, a boat plate washed up on the rocks, a faded blue one that the heroine restores for her decoration. Welcome to a beautiful cottage where seven young figures dressed in white come to sing under the windows. like flowers

Folk or pagan rituals

We don’t scream in experimental Enys Men (which means “island of stone” in Cornish), presented at the Quinzaine des Filmmakers in Cannes in 2022, we try to move from one shot to another with a female character under the hum of a generator. , which should be regularly supplied with diesel. What’s more, the scientist watches the exit of whoever comes to supply him with a wistful look at a mustachioed fellow (Edward Rowe) who arrives like a savior in his motorboat.

This routine and its disruption remind us Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels (1975), by Chantal Akerman (1950-2015) – to which the Jeu de Paume, in Paris, will be dedicated to an exhibition and film cycle from September 20. But where the Belgian director spends his time posing the camera, recording the time that passes while the heroine (Delphine Seyrig) peels potatoes, Mark Jenkin creates a kaleidoscope. Folk horrorA subgenre of horror film inherited from the 1970s that heightens anxiety based on a community’s folkloric or pagan rituals – an often-cited cult film. Wicker man (1973), by Robin Hardy, investigates the disappearance of a young girl on an island whose inhabitants worship the Celtic gods.