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Starring |
Gerard Depardieu
,
Maurice Pialat
,
Sandrine Bonnaire
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Directed By |
Maurice Pialat
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Audio
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Dolby Digital 2.0
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Visuals
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16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
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Running Time |
93 mins
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UK Release Date |
March 22, 2010
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Genre |
Drama
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Our Rating |
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User Rating |
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Under the Sun of Satan was the (so-called) proud winner of the 1987 Cannes Palme D’Or. If ever an award was to emphasise the gap between perceived art and self-indulgent, gloomy tosh, this would be it. Satan is a crushingly, excruciatingly boring affair where nothing of note happens, even if the whispering performances, dreary locations and heavy-handed religioso themes would have you think otherwise. Hey, isn’t this what art films are all about?
Well no, not really; even the most hard-going affair is supposed to have some kind of dramatic pull or emotional connection, something that is lacking, even forcibly severed, here. Adapted from Georges Bernanos’ novel, Gerard Depardieu’s mumbling priest, well, mumbles about a crisis of faith to his superior Menou-Serais (director Maurice Pialat). Somehow his fate becomes intertwined with a young woman (Sandre Bonnaire) who is carrying the illegitimate child of the man she has murdered…but not before an interminable jaunt across some farmland that lasts an entire age and makes Wuthering Heights seem the most uplifting experience in the world.
However while the film may only appeal to a select few, the two-disc DVD edition contains plenty for arthouse fans to salivate over, including two early shorts films by Pialat, as well as numerous featurettes and behind-the-scenes footage.
Overall Verdict: The phrase ‘boring as sin’ springs to mind…but sin is probably rarely this boring.
Special Features:
Isabelle aux Dombes [Isabelle in La Dombes] - Maurice Pialat’s first film, an silent short from 1951
Congrès eucharistique diocésain. [Diocesan Eucharistic Congress.] - silent short by Maurice Pialat from 1953
2003 interview with star Gérard Depardieu
Cannes press conference footage
Interview with Pialat and Depardieu, directly after receiving the Palme d’Or award for Best Film at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival
1983 television programme dedicated to the film
On-Set Footage
Deleted and Alternate Scenes with commentary
Trailer
Reviewer: Sean Wilson.
