I was able to see Julia Ducournau's new film yesterday, and it was an experience that was very different from her previous two films Raw (2016) and Titane (2021).
First off, I am a JD fan. I have a poster of Titane on my wall. I think her work is provocative and deals heavily on identity, specifically the changing bodies and identity of women in their adolescence and adulthood.
Alpha is unlike her first two films where they were more kinetic and genre driven. The film deals with memory, loss, addiction, disease and the deterioration of the body.
This is a sad and disturbing film.
While the film is centered on and follows Alpha (the titular character), Tahar Rahim as Amin brings an equally visceral and disturbing performance as her uncle who is far gone junkie (although it's not explicitly stated, it's implied as heroin.)
Blood is everywhere in this film. The blood the pours out, the blood inside, the blood that turns to dust.
JD's films have always had a surreal element to the narrative. Here it is all a dream. Trying to discern on what is real, what is imagined is difficult, making timelines hard to follow. And that is the main difference between Alpha and her previous work. This is a film of feeling, impressions and experience.
The narriave is quite simple, at least it seems. Alpha gets a tattoo that may or may not have infected her with a deadly virus a la AIDS. In this instance, the victims gradually turn to stone, in some interesting and impressive makeup work. Victims don't wither away, but are petrified in a death rattle.
There is a lot of difficult imagery in this film of death, explicit drug use and overdose, homophobia, mass death, and panic as a pandemic rages in the streets.
Alpha means "the beginning". What is this young girl's fate?
This is Julia's most difficult work, and the early lukewarm reviews are I think a reflection of this. This I believe is her most mature work as she seems to be exploring more impressionist storytelling.
Your ability to enjoy this film is centered on whether you can get through the themes of the story. I'm still thinking about it a day after.
Word of advice. Watch something easy and pleaseant
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