The protagonist of Calvaire is Marc, a country singer, a solitary figure who performs in nursing homes in front of a few elderly people and nurses, trying to make a living for a few coins.
One evening, his van breaks down in the middle of a forest, and he finds help from Boris.
A strange character who was nearby looking for his dog.
Boris takes him to Bartel, the owner of an inn, who offers Marc shelter and assistance.
The Beginning of the Calvary
Bartel, initially hospitable and cooperative, will radically change as the hours pass.
His behavior escalates from first sequestering the poor artist, then treating him as if he were Gloria (his wife who disappeared), and finally subjecting him to severe torture.
In this desolate and lonely setting, Du Welz, with a steady hand and through an extremely realistic screenplay, shows us a slice of this world.
A distorted world populated by men completely abandoned to their nature, culturally raised in captivity, where there isn’t even a trace of the feminine hemisphere.
It is precisely this total absence of women that has led men to the state we see.
The complete lack of contact, sex, or conversation has created these ugly, dirty, bearded, and unkempt outcasts.
Once trapped by Bartel, the poor protagonist will fall victim to delusions, which will condemn him to the mercy of all the other inhabitants of the area.
Amid sexual abuse, torture, disturbed gazes and thoughts, and animal intercourse, CALVAIRE tells the true calvary that will suddenly replace Marc’s normal life.
Guilty only of finding himself by chance in a place forgotten by progress and civilization.
We will see him try to escape from this sick and brutal world, which seems absolutely normal to its inhabitants…
All without showing mutilations and excessive bloodshed.
The film strikes the viewer’s psyche, and that, yes, it does with notable violence.
Pandemonic Moment
The monotonous dance in the inn: a hallucinatory scene that perfectly shows, through heavy notes and primitive movements, the state in which these people find themselves.
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