The director of Gravity presents at the Out of Competition section of the 81st Venice Film Festival Disclaimer, a seven-episode TV series that highlights the dark side of human nature. The project, directed, written, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón, is based on the novel of the same name by Renée Knight and will be available on Apple Tv+ starting from October 11.
The series features an exceptional cast, starring Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, who play Catherine Ravenscroft and Stephen Brigstocke, respectively. It also showcases more than one ace up its sleeve, like the work on voices. A third-person narrative voice tells of a romantic relationship, an inner monologue that makes us protagonists of a revenge by a man without qualities, and the second person to outline the protagonist. A radical idea that moves away from her to focus attention on us, as spectators ready to judge without mercy. The theme, after all, is this: half-truths are enough to destroy a person. To suddenly take control of their life and tear it apart without respect.
The series “Disclaimer” by Alfonso Cuarón: the story and characters
Catherine Ravenscroft is a respected documentarian, a cold and somewhat tyrannical woman, with an ambivalent relationship with her family, who has chosen to tell the truth about others’ lives. Her husband loves her blindly, even though he is actually more crushed by her personality. Her son hates her, and she seems to show little interest in either, immediately revealing her shadows. One day she receives a mysterious book, titled The Perfect Stranger, which tells of a relationship between a married woman and a boy just over a teenager. The novel narrates this sudden and burning love that begins on the beach, where the English woman, on vacation in Italy with her son, finds herself admired and photographed by a perfect stranger.
The hook is then the image, the one we choose to project, in stark contrast to the primary vocation of photography, the only one capable of capturing the imperceptibility of an expression, of an emotion. The erotic relationship that arises between the two characters is also an opportunity to reflect on the irrational nature of love, which conflicts with the attempt to tame it.
Sex, betrayal, and death in the series “Disclaimer”
If betrayal and imagined sexual confrontation become the obsession of the husband, Robert – played by Sacha Baron Cohen -, the story chooses a darker path when it comes to introducing the author of the book. From love, it transitions to death as Stephen Brigstocke, a disillusioned retired teacher, finds in his revenge against Catherine, who is considered responsible for his son’s death (with whom he had indeed woven this treacherous erotic relationship narrated in the book), a reason to continue living. This is what happens in the first four episodes, the most stimulating and tension-filled of the series, where the puzzle of voices and perspectives allows for a deeper exploration of the characters’ psychology within a thriller framework.
“Disclaimer”: between obsessions and reasoning
Unfortunately, halfway through, the series collapses, manifesting all its inconsistency, vagueness, and repetitiveness, mainly due to a lack of courage in delineating a dark, manipulative female character, but also deeply human in her contradictions. It is capable of reminding us of the nature of love: a heap of obsessions and fears that can push us from total fusion to denial, even to the desire for the death of the one we love just to avoid shattering the crystal balance of an existence based on the lies of reason. Where building is nothing but the veil of Maya, behind which the only possible truth hides: we are open bodies ready to do anything to feel alive. At least once.
Carlotta Petracci
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