«Le Vent Tourne», the head too

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

It's a film like no other. Directed by Swiss director Bettina Oberli, Le Vent Tourne is a demanding yet light-hearted feature film. It tells the story of a couple of alternative farmers in the Franches-Montagnes. Pauline and her husband raise their animals in a way that respects nature and is impervious to the hygiene rules imposed by the animal industry. Their hard but quiet daily life is turned upside down by the arrival of Samuel, a handsome Latin man who has come to install a wind turbine. Behind this love triangle, the theme of ideologies, treated in an original way.

Interesting Female Characters

This film is about this woman, played by the intriguing Mélanie Thierry. «The film began with the character of Pauline, who had settled into a routine and one day began to question her life,» the director explained after the screening we attended. The other key character? The wind turbine, according to Bettina Oberli. It has a strong connection to the title Le Vent Tourne, this energy-generating structure, in particular, embodies the symbolic role of the drastic life change that Pauline will be tempted to embrace. The subject matter is powerful, serious, and electrifying.

A third actress also deserves a mention: Anastasia Shevtsova, who plays a sick young girl who has come to this corner of the Jura to recuperate in the fresh air. Her talent is undeniable. The film’s director, along with Swiss producer Pauline Gygax—who is also responsible for My life as a zucchini – saw the young Russian dancer in the movie Polina. It was love at first sight. «We wanted her in our movie.» As for Mélanie Thierry, her choice stood out because of her unique and natural charm.

Read also: « Polina, dancing your life away »

Lengths

With a cast like that, Le Vent Tourne could have resulted in a significant work. The challenge was only partially met. There is certainly a unique atmosphere to this film—a sort of cinematic «daydream,» somewhere between Rousseau’s literary ramblings and the Nocturnes the melancholic tones of Chopin. But here’s the thing—a classic trap of arthouse films—you quickly get bored. Is this the fault of a critic who’s too «mainstream»? Perhaps, deep down. Yet it’s precisely a shame that a significant portion of the audience doesn’t find it to their liking.

Let’s be more specific: the film lacks pace; it relies on a plot that’s too thin and gaps that masquerade as ellipses. In a word, the beautiful images on screen lack substance. These «gaps» are compensated for by haphazard music, which truly reaches the height of bad taste when synthesizers straight out of—I don’t know—the 1980s are used to underscore the panorama of the Creux-du-Van. In the countryside, time drags on; in front of the screen, it does too. The tide is turning, yes, and so is my head.

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Photo credit: © Filmcoopi Zürich AG