Enemy by Denis Villeneuve

Hey Charlie ! 

 

 Yesterday night I watched Enemy, a film that deserves and even NEEDS an article on the blog. 

 It is not the best film I have watched in my life, but it is certainly one of the most disturbing and interesting. I felt really uncomfortable while watching it and the whole night after.

                                               

I think we could say that this film is a psychological thriller, because of the plot and of the fact that it is really mind-blowing : the director (Denis Villeneuve) constantly plays with the spectator with the help of symbols, hidden messages, ...

Let me tell you the story, I'll try to keep you from spoilers, I promise !

Adam Bell is a history teacher with a normal life (actually a BORING one). One day, his colleague advises him to watch a film so Bell rents it and... one of the actors is an exact copy of him ! Plus, the actor has a life way less "normal" than Bell's one (but to understand why "normal" is between brackets you'll have to watch the film). So, he tries to meet him, to understand, involving his wife, his whole life, ...

                                                   

 What I found really interesting in this film is not really the plot in itself, however what the director makes with it and searches to show is way more fascinating : 

First, the film starts with a sentence : "Chaos is an order yet undeciphered" and a lot of allusions to chaos are made in the beginning and in the middle of the film, the teacher even makes a lesson that the spectator can follow in the film. The clearest link in the film is the one with Adam Bell's confusion when he discovers he has a "double". (Deeper in the analysis, the director plays with the subconscious and the conscious of his character, and with identity in a general way, but you need to watch the film to understand this aspect.

Then, I can just tell to you that women and motherhood, but also desire, sexuality and gender relations are key-themes of Enemy. Watching the film, we quickly understand that everything related to that is represented by a spider in the film.

Here is a video with two extracts of the film where women and spiders are combined : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLBABw1P200 

I found it striking in the way that spiders prefectly represent the vision of the main character of women and what they produce on him. (SPOILER ALERT : the actor, double of Adam Bell, cheats on his wife and he could be seen as imprisoned in the spider-web of women.)

One funny thing is that Villeneuve, the director, used similar plans in his film Arrival in 2016, although the stories are completely different each other.

Enemy on the top and Arrival on the bottom

A lot of little symbols hidden in the film enhance these few details I gave and show many other things too. 

Also, the mood conveyed all along the film thanks to colours, costumes, and by the attitude of the characters creates a special atmosphere, fascinating and oppressive at the same time.

This is why I wrote an article, I think you should see this film and your own idea about it. The director seems to be really brilliant and I truly think it changes from the films coming out now that are less and less meaningfull (in general).

Hope you appreciated, 

Bye Charlie !