{"id":622,"date":"2009-05-02T20:30:33","date_gmt":"2009-05-02T19:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=622"},"modified":"2009-05-03T23:09:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-03T22:09:39","slug":"the-last-of-the-crazy-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2009\/05\/02\/the-last-of-the-crazy-people\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LAST OF THE CRAZY PEOPLE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nFormat<\/B>: DVD

\nDate:<\/B> 18 May 2009

\nDistributor:<\/B> Peccadillo Pictures

\nDirector:<\/B> Laurent Achard

\nWriters:<\/B> Laurent Achard, Nathalie Najem

\nBased on the novel by:<\/B> Timothy Findley

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Le Dernier des fous<\/I>

\nCast:<\/B> Julien Cochelin, Annie Cordy, Pascal Cervo, Dominique Reymond, Fattouma Ousliha Bouamari

\nFrance\/Belgium 2006

\n95 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe Last of the Crazy People<\/I> is the second feature film from French writer\/director Laurent Achard, adapted from Timothy Findley’s 1967 novel of the same name. Not dissimilar from the films of Michael Haneke, it is a work of formal sophistication and psychological complexity. <\/p>\n

\nThe film opens in a dark room, on a softly illumined eye peeking outside through a chink in a door. We soon learn that this eye belongs to Martin, the somber, 10-year-old boy who we follow throughout the film. Martin lives on a farm with his family and their maid. His mother, Nadí\u00a8ge, seems to be psychotic; she refuses to leave her bedroom and is prone to fits of screaming. His brother, Didier, is a would-be writer\/poet, tormented by self-doubt and by his impossible relationship with a man who is engaged to be married. The other characters act as provocateurs and\/or peacekeepers to the intense atmosphere of the household, while the action centres more and more on the suffering of Nadí\u00a8ge and Didier, and on its effects on Martin. <\/p>\n

\nFear and doubt are at the heart of The Last of the Crazy People<\/I>, permeating form and content in equal measure. Achard depicts a world that is uncertain, violent and, worst of all, meaningless, the horror of which affects all the characters, but chiefly Nadí\u00a8ge. Lingering on her remote, glaring eyes, the film asks: Is Nadí\u00a8ge mad? Or just much more sensitive than the average human being? Perhaps Nadí\u00a8ge is the only sane one, the only one who is really awake, and it is all the ‘normal’ people who surround her, and who give no thought to the horror of reality, who are actually mad? <\/p>\n

Formally the film plays a game of push and pull with its audience, encouraging both our disorientation and our sympathy for the characters. In turns, we are tempted to think that the film unfolds from Martin’s innocent perspective, from a detached, realist perspective, and from a fantastical, hyperreal perspective. It is never certain whether the point of view is subjective or objective, reality or illusion, schizoid hallucination or prophetic vision. We search for a single fixed truth, which ultimately doesn’t seem to exist. Like the characters we are lost between the equally undesirable poles of illusion and nothingness.<\/p>\n

There is no denying the bleakness of the film, but this is not to criticise. The Last of the Crazy People<\/I> is a work of honesty, not miserabilism. One would perhaps see a glimmer of hope in Didier and his poetry, were it not for the weight of the prevailing order, and of fate, which sit so heavily on his shoulders. The world doesn’t want a poet. Perhaps it did once, as Didier’s piles of old books suggest, but not anymore. The world now seems to say, ‘you’re either normal or mad; you’re either with us, or you’re on your own’. Didier, not quite mad perhaps, but very much alone, broods unhappily towards a resolution. When he finally makes his decision at the end of the film the consequences are nothing short of apocalyptic.<\/p>\n

The Last of the Crazy People<\/I> is an excellent film. It is by no means easy viewing, but as a rare piece of serious cinema, it is essential. <\/p>\n

David Warwick <\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not dissimilar from the films of Michael Haneke, The Last of the Crazy People<\/I> is a work of formal sophistication and psychological complexity.
\nReview by David Warwick <\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvds-and-blu-rays"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-a2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2009\/03\/01\/traite-de-bave-et-deternite\/","url_meta":{"origin":622,"position":0},"title":"Trait\u00e9 de bave et d’\u00e9ternit\u00e9","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"March 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Directed by Isidore Isou, founder of the proto-Situationist art movement Lettrisme, Trait\u00e9 de bave et d'\u00e9ternit\u00e9 is a howling white-hot meteor of resistance. 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