Almayer's Folly ( La folie Almayer )

Almayer's Folly (DVD) (*)

$31.99

Original Title: La folie Almayer
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Venice Film Festival

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Surround )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
127 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Filmographies
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Booklet

Movie filmed in 2011 and produced in:
Belgium ( France, Benelux )
France ( France, Benelux )

Directed By:
Chantal Akerman

Written By:
Chantal Akerman
Henry Bean

Actors:
Stanislas Merhar ..... Almayer
Marc Barbé ..... Capitaine Lingard
Aurora Marion ..... Nina
Zac Andrianasolo ..... Daïn
Sakhna Oum ..... Zahira
Solida Chan ..... Chen
Sun Yucheng ..... Capitaine Tom
Bunthang Khim ..... Ali

Synopsis:

Taking Joseph Conrad's first novel, about a Dutch fortune seeker trapped in a loveless marriage and stranded at a river trading post in the Malaysian jungle, Chantal Akerman updates the material from the late 1890s to the 1950s, and uses it as a springboard for an examination of the bankruptcy of colonialism through the struggle between a European father and Malaysian mother for possession of their daughter. In this sense the film is more about the novel than it is an adaptation of it. Conrad's scenario remains intact: having married Zahira, the Malaysian adopted daughter of trading post operator Lingard, in the expectation that he will inherit Lingard's promised wealth, Almayer finds himself supervising a failing enterprise while Lingard is off chasing rumors of hidden gold mines. But Akerman relegates this to the background in favor of a narrative whose central tension is the standoff between Almayer and Zahira, whose intransigent Otherness puts them at loggerheads over the future of their daughter Nina, whom the devoted Almayer has sent to a boarding school in order to ready her for a life in Europe. Lingard, however, has squandered his money on his fruitless quests, and so for Akerman, it's Almayer's hopeless dream that represents his tragic 'folly.' The cumulative effect of the director's trademark long takes and slow tracking shots, steeped in an atmosphere of tropical languor, is to accentuate the sense of becalmed lassitude and the inevitable entropy of the colonial ethos.

Working freely from Joseph Conrad's debut novel, Akerman tells the story of a European trader in 1950s Malaysia whose dreams of a Western life for his Malay daughter slowly lead to destruction. Chantal Akerman's 2000 film The Captive was an ingenious reduction of the fifth volume of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. Almayer's Folly, her second foray into literary adaptation, transplants Joseph Conrad's 1895 debut novel, which concerns a Dutch trader living in Malaysia, to the 1950s. The additional decades of foreign intervention have left an indelible mark on the region that lingers in the lush periphery of this fever dream of a film. A man sings in a bar as women dance behind him. A sullen figure approaches and stabs the man. All the dancers flee save one, who keeps performing, oblivious. She stops, and begins to sing a song of her own. This early aria foreshadows the lyricism and generous use of music that will come to infuse so much of the film. Almayer's Folly is a work of bold stylistic risks undertaken by a filmmaker of legendary precision. Akerman's characteristic long takes are here, but rather than enforcing a sense of naturalism, they serve the film's high theatrical style. The result is seductive, even intoxicating. Almayer (Stanislas Merhar) came to Southeast Asia long ago to seek his fortune. He married the adopted Malay daughter of the wealthy Captain Lingard in the hopes of winning an inheritance, but Lingard's fortune gradually dwindled after a series of ill-advised journeys in search of hidden treasure. Now Almayer is resigned to a meagre existence, running a trading post where no one trades. Nina (Aurora Marion), his half-Malay daughter, is his sole source of hope and comfort. But Dain, the young man Almayer had enlisted to help him find the lost treasure his father-in-law fruitlessly sought, has eyes for Nina, and threatens to steal her away from this steamy backwater forever. Almayer's Folly is a mature work that comments on the legacy of colonialism while telling a haunting story of greed and desire. And it's yet more evidence of Akerman's impressive control of the medium and restless pursuit of vital new images.

Almayer's Folly (French: La Folie Almayer) is a 2011 drama film directed by Chantal Akerman, starring Stanislas Merhar, Aurora Marion and Marc Barbé. It is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1895 debut novel Almayer's Folly, and tells the story of a Dutchman searching for pirate treasure in Malaysia.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 08 July, 2013.

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