Passion, Brian De Palma: The please-don’t-do-that-to-me-feeling
Ok, say it: you’re confused. You know there is something you can’t grasp. This is Brian De Palma, you don’t wanna even try to overthink it, because you know you lack both knowledge and will.
The only thing you want to grasp is a gun to shoot the hot blonde CEO (well, European CEO, the big boss being the one who decides who’s good or not via teleconference from the US). And you want to shoot her all the time because she gives you no relief. As for the brunette, less hot (sure) but less mean (not so sure), you want the blonde one to shoot her immediately. I mean, ambitious women are mean and vain bitches anyway… and bound to do something stupid.
Indeed, it all starts with our two brats (yet good actresses) looking for an idea for a commercial for a smart phone (following?). Before they practically make out on the expensive couch, they try and think – hey! I got an idea: our smart phone has to be the smartest phone! – You’re so right, let me snog (European!) you. Oops, my super hot but unhealthy boyfriend (who’s that out-of-place British-ish actor?) comes in and he’s the one snogging me on purpose in front of you (threesome? No, just ambiguity). Then the brunette is on her own and she’s smart (ha! Ha!). So she comes up with a brilliant idea for the commercial. Wait! What is the idea? Something about a woman’s ass, that’s all you need to know… And then, thanks to the successful ad, the brunette is going to fuck the blonde’s unhealthy boyfriend and make her explode with meanness (surprising). Humiliation, betrayal, plot, revenge and… Guess what? Murder! Don’t take it for granted though. There will be dreams, bad ones. Oh no! What’s real? Is this a dream? Shit, I’m being manipulated too! Please, don’t do that to me.
In this steel modern world, people have no background. They just manipulate other people via cell phones, videos via cell phones, and commercials via/for/on cell phones. They’re confined into a world of screens (see all-sizes screens, squared screens, blurred screens, split screens…). And the bitten apple of Apple ® (see the close-up) is in the center of the manipulation -but we bit in it. So! We’re puppets (see the white mask) in a world (a ballet? See the ballet) of illusion, deceit, I mean. True, well put sometimes, but not very visionary.
Compare the please-don’t-do-that-to-me feeling to…
You’re a girl and you’re being told a blonde joke (say, randomly: What’s a blonde lesbian? – A waste). Two things happen: first, you want to demolish the jerk that’s just told you the stupid joke. Then you’re not sure you got the joke. The world is unfair, right?
You’re a guy and you’re at a party and there’s that bitch who keeps changing the music and actually makes people go crazy on “Bailando bailando”… Unfair and frustrating (unless you’re drunk).
Sophie Beaulieu graduated from Normale Supérieure, made research on the use of GET in rap lyrics, taught English linguistics, quit, became an actor and began to write and direct short films. And she likes vintage images of Californian swimming pools.
