The film is broken into two parts that are focused on each of the sisters. More specifically, these parts are centered on how these sisters deal with their death. I say this because I feel that Justine is dealing with the death of what she considers the essence of her life. I can go into how the need for love is the spawn of her character flaws but it is not what I am actually concerned with in her character. What I am concerned with is the way in which she confronts the crash and burn: her epiphanic moment. She goes into this ascetic discard of all that she feels is unnecessary in her life: that being most people in general. I mean, she has sex with a person she just meets on her wedding night. Even worse, it is a pure selfish moment because she covers the face of the guy with her hand. She reaches out to her father who flees the scene. I realize that her flaws are also his in the situation. I mean, undoubtedly she has some issues as her father called her Betty like every other young woman in the room, but she also had a faceless lover. At the end she surrounds herself with these grotesque images of death and falls asleep alone. In the final moment of the first part she beats the horse until it lies flat on the ground. Her actual crash and the completion of her epiphanic moment. She sees the star missing and it symbolizes the death of what she considers her life. The first problem I have is that this whole first part is hard done by the second. The second problem I have is with Justine's character. I do not doubt that Kirsten Dunst played the character with accuracy, but I have a problem with the character not the way in which she was played. I have trouble being empathetic to a person who seems incapable of empathy themselves.
This brings me to the second part. I think Claire's character is a more human character on the whole in the way she deals with her death. She fears what will happen to her, her son, and her sister. She still clings to life. On the contrary, we never confront a Justine who is clinging to life. The second part she is basically a person who is already dead for all intensive purposes. She condemns life by saying it is evil on earth. She also claims to know that there is no other life anywhere. This statement actually disgusted me. It was like she wanted to cast off what it was to be human. To cast off any potential connection in contrast with her sister who would rather die with companionship, together. Personally, I like Gainsbourg's character better. I actually hate the fact that they tried to justify Justine's character by making her seems prescient of all things or something of that sort because she knew how many beans were in the jar. There is a slight reprieve at the end when she cares for her nephew. But Claire's epiphany of met with someone who still has life in them and it makes her seem more human next to the ghost of Justine.
The first part is hard-done by this second part and I think it makes the film as a whole weaker.
On the technical side, I really don't see the justification for the shaky camera work. Some parts it makes more sense because of the way in which you can move from a face to another face, but an outright usage of it hinders emotion rather than exemplifies it. I think, anyway. There was some good usage of symmetry though. And, the themes were struck hard and obviously. Driven home directly as if they were afraid you were going to miss them. I think that comes across pretty clearly with the slow motion prelude of the film.
All of that isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the film. Though, at the same time, it frustrated me. To me, it had too many things that I could critique in the way of that which I could speak about with praise.
7/10
