One Night Only!
Lucile Hadžihalilovic’s
EARWIG
Wednesday, July 27th
at 7:30 PM
REGULAR ADMISSION
A young girl with ice cubes for teeth begins a mysterious
journey, in director Lucile Hadžihalilovic's hallucinatory, haunting, and
beautiful film.
One approaches Lucile Hadžihalilovic’s films
with caution. Those who have seen Innocence and Evolution know
her cinema to be unsettling, suspenseful, and sometimes disturbing, without
ever trading in the conventions of thrillers. But one emerges from
Hadžihalilovic’s films with a feeling of awe. She creates complete worlds that
are haunting, beautiful, and strange. Earwig is no
exception.
The premise is simple, and permits no explanation. In a
sombre European apartment in the middle of the last century, Albert (Paul
Hilton) cares for a 10-year-old girl. His main duty is to change her ice
dentures several times a day, tending to a metal appliance fitted to her face.
A voice telephones regularly to ask about the girl’s well-being. One day, the
voice tells the man to prepare the girl to leave the apartment and travel to a
new destination. A journey begins…
Scripted by Hadžihalilovic
and Geoff Cox (Claire Denis’s High Life) from a
novel by Brian Catling, Earwig is
Hadžihalilovic’s first film in English, although language is never what matters
most in her films. Her control of image and time here is frequently stunning.
Frames are composed like chiaroscuro paintings, or to evoke British horror
films of the 1970s. Some moments are held to discomfiting effect before sharp
shifts. Overall, the atmosphere of dread persists, but the film consistently
upends expectations, especially with the arrival on screen of Romola
Garai.
Like a chilling, unforgettable fever dream, Earwig affirms
Hadžihalilovic’s talent for compelling, original cinema. (UK/France/Belgium,
2022, 114min., English | Dir. Lucile Hadžihalilovic)