Métamorphoses, 2014
Written and directed by Christophe Honoré
Starring Amira Akili, Sébastien Hirel, Mélodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, George Babluani, Matthis Lebrun, Samantha Avrillaud, Coralie Rouet
SYNOPSIS:
French director Christophe Honoré brings Ovid’s Metamorphoses to life in a boldly inventive modern-day version.
Imagine the Frenchiest French person you can. Maybe they are wearing a beret with a stripy shirt, or carrying a baguette stick and riding a bike. If you want to go even further, give them a surrendering attitude and a rude demenour. Now look at this man and imagine that he is less of a French stereotype than Christophe Honoré’s French arthouse movie Métamorphoses – a completely pointless, over-long and meandering mess that will make you question why people like this kind of guff.
Honoré gives contemporary interpretations of Ovid’s Greek mythology stories with three tales of Europa, a young girl who gets caught up with three different deities. They in turn tell their own stories, some of which contain separate ditties and none of them never lead to anything worthy of note. But a good 95% of them contain nudity, some form of sex and people turning into animals. It really is “un film de Christophe Honoré and is “art” with a capital F.
The problems with Métamorphoses are clear and present from the outset, but none are more damning of the movie’s quality than the fact the film lacks any substance. Outside of taking Ovid’s stories and placing them in a modern day setting, Métamorphoses brings nothing to the table in terms of storytelling, character development or thematic progress. It features all of the tried and tested arthouse clichés like copious amounts of nudity, minimalist dialogue and lingering shots of lovely looking settings, but the stories themselves are told in the dullest manner possible. And while the movie claims to only be 101 minutes, it feels more like four hours with each section dragging its feet and never saying anything worthwhile.
It feels and sounds rather prudish to complain about the amount of genitalia on show, but if the nudity was violence and gore, Métamorphoses would rival Hostel in terms of its liberal use. But like Hostel, Métamorphoses‘ overt use doesn’t further the story, doesn’t develop character and doesn’t add to its themes (the few that there are) and is therefore ultimately pointless. It’s used solely because it’s anti-establishment and because Honoré thinks it’s “artsy” to do so. Its then funny to think that the same film snobs who would praise Christophe Honoré’s bravery to use nudity like this would be the first to complain that violence in horror movies is grotesque and childish.
There is an argument to be made that there subtext in the movie and you can argue that it’s shot beautifully and sexually charged, but at the end of the day, Métamorphoses is a dull, meandering and – above all – pointless movie. The stories themselves could be interesting, but they’re executed so badly that it just ends up being a tiresome pretentious mess. Perhaps this reviewer is not smart enough to “get it”, but Métamorphoses is a crime against cinema and a bloody boring one at that.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published September 23, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
