Scarlet (2022, Pietro Marcello) (Patreon)

33/100

It continues to look as if there's very little overlap in the Venn diagram mapping Things That Interest Pietro Marcello and Things That Interest Me. These are the toughest films to write about, because I really just want to stamp the whole thing WHO CARES? and move on; whatever it was about Scarlet Sails (unread by me, apparently a big deal to Russians) that attracted Marcello, he doesn't communicate his ardor in a way that I could parse, much less that I ever found remotely compelling. First half's a sullen melodrama about a WWI vet who returns home to find his wife dead, learns that she was raped, and becomes the village pariah by deliberately letting her rapist drown in a bog; second half shifts to the man's daughter, who bursts into song at regular intervals and falls for a planeless pilot played by the ostensibly rakish (but typically soporific) Louis Garrel. The daughter has to fend off a rapist of her own, but otherwise this feels like two tonally and narratively distinct films inelegantly stitched together, replete with elements that have no discernible purpose or function. (The brief scene in which Juliette's teacher shows up at the farm seems to exist solely to show Adeline asserting herself as an equal parent to Juliette, trying to get the teacher to discuss whatever-it-is with her instead of Dad, but that never develops into anything. We just cut from "No, I really need to speak with Juliette's father" to Raphaël telling Juliette "I spoke to your teacher today," and that's the end of it. Either cut the first scene, which is almost extravagantly pointless as is, or follow up on it.) Even the decision to title the film simply Scarlet is bizarre, given that the phrase "scarlet sails" gets spoken in dialogue some half a dozen times—including twice in a context that I don't understand at all; Rapist #2 and his friends keep telling Juliette that the scarlet sails will come to take her to the loony bin, and she never asks what the fuck they're talking about or seems to register Hey but that weird old lady in the meadow told me that one day scarlet sails would arrive to whisk me off to paradise—and that literal scarlet sails serve as the movie's big climactic visual metaphor. These might seem like minor complaints, but they're indicative of a carelessness that kept me well beyond arm's length. Evocative Super 16 photography thankfully provided something to enjoy amidst the exasperation.