With Carnage, a pungent tale of love and sacrifice, French filmmaker Delphine Gleize has fashioned a modest epic about our ridiculous human comedy.
Carnage (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:27
Rotten:8
Average Rating:6.9/10
Theatrical Release:Sep 5, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: Delphine Gleize's startling first feature, CARNAGE, adroitly turns random moments into pieces of a tight-fitting puzzle, creating a thick multidimensional plot filled with unexpected parallels and... Delphine Gleize's startling first feature, CARNAGE, adroitly turns random moments into pieces of a tight-fitting puzzle, creating a thick multidimensional plot filled with unexpected parallels and delicately unfolding secrets. The film centers on the connection between a gored bullfighter and a young girl who watches the incident on television. The bull is destroyed, dismembered, and dispersed to markets in Spain, France, and Belgium. While the young girl, Winnie (Raphaelle Molinier), grapples with her understanding of death and personal identity, her parents buy a bull bone for their dog at a gourmet market. The salesclerk, Carlotta (Chiara Mastroianni), is a struggling actor trying to experience rebirth through aquatic exercises and primal screaming. Elsewhere, the university researcher Jacques (Jacques Gamblin), who has retained the eyes of the bull for his studies, finds himself emotionally distanced from his pregnant wife Betty (Lio). His brother, a taxidermist named Luc (Bernard Sens), covets the bull's horns which their mother (Esther Gorintin) gave him as a gift. In CARNAGE, the brave Gleize is on a complex cinematic storytelling mission. The subject matter is at times tragic, but moments of quirky comic relief show the rich contrasts in this discourse of life, love, and survival. [More]
Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Angela Molina, Lio, Lucia Sanchez
Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Angela Molina, Lio, Lucia Sanchez, Esther Gorintin, Maryline Even, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin, Feodor Atkine
Director: Delphine Gleize
Director: Delphine Gleize
Screenwriter: Delphine Gleize
Producer: Jerome Dopffer
Composer: Eric Neveux
Studio: Wellspring
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Reviews for Carnage
Gleize has a number of award-winning short films under her belt, and she directs this magical-realist fable with originality and disarming confidence.
Similar to the recent Dog Days and Divine Intervention, Carnage fares much better than both.
Funny, ironic (in the best sense of the word), dramatic, sweet and metaphorical, Carnage never lets go of its witty mix.
A gorgeously morbid meditation on the interconnectivity of life (and death).
A truly remarkable and compassionate debut from a savvy, self-confident filmmaker. No bull.
Watching the movie is like attending a meeting of the Masons: It all seems silly unless you decipher the hermeneutics, numerology and theosophy.
The film becomes a complex tissue of intersecting lives, but Gleize handles each developing story with amazing ease, and the fabulist touches are the icing on a very tasty cake.
Though Ms. Gleize's intellectual ambitions are large and sometimes vague, her cinematic self-confidence is as bracing as her eye is meticulous.
Funny, sad, and tinged with magic realism, this ambitious comedy-drama is as original as it is nimbly directed.
A bit long and pretentious at times, Carnage is still an interesting narrative experiment that recalls some of the more avant garde Eastern European cinema from the early '70s.
For Luis Buñuel fans and others who don't particularly care if their movies make any sense or have a point or are remotely interesting in any way.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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