‘Scarlet’, the English title of this European co-production, evokes the scarlet, crimson, red color of Juliette’s dress, the daughter of a poor widowed cabinetmaker, who runs through the ancient greenery of a rural area. The scarlet, crimson, red of the sails of a ship that dreams that one day it will appear to get him out of there (the story ‘Red Sails’, by the Russian neo-romantic writer Alexander Grin is the basis of the script).
‘L’envol’, ‘The Flight’, the original title of this work by Pietro Marcello (‘Martin Eden’), evokes that small plane in which a Prince Charming will arrive in the guise of an adventurous aviator and will perhaps allow Juliette to fly to the end.
Scarlet
Nationality:
France. 2022. 100m. (12).Address:
Peter Marcellus.Script:
P. Marcello, M. Braucci and M. Ameline, based on a story by Alexander Grin.Interpreters:
Raphael Thierry, Juliette Jouan, Louis Garrel.Music:
Gabriel Yared.
This is a feature film that basically has something of a slow-cooked traditional tale, with its vindication of imagination and magic, although it also offers shots of cruel realism (rejection, rape). Likewise, in its formal aspect, we are facing a flourish, with its grainy textures and pictorial compositions, although it also throws us moments of the camera over the shoulder glued to the faces of its characters.
The Italian Pietro Marcello offers a singular but also irregular film, in which he alternates fascinating moments with bland passages, a certain cozy tone of sleep with an external look at his creatures that often turns cold. ‘Scarlet’, in any case, has virtues. And perhaps only her visual richness, the dreamy songs that the protagonist sings or her timeless romanticism deserve to go to the cinema to see her.
It is a pity that in other aspects and moments the proposal does not finish taking flight and leaves this sad story located after the First World War in an intermediate territory, which hides echoes of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and tales with witches among its turns and silences. .