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Brownian Movement (Nanouk Leopold, 2010)
Charlotte,
an attractive young doctor who sleeps with men in a rented apartment is the
subject of Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian
Movement. A carefully attuned character study, this quiet Dutch film resists
easy answers in its examination of sexual mores and inexplicable drives toward
pleasure. Sandra Hüller, who bares her body and betrays little of her mind,
plays Charlotte as something of a cypher.
During a therapy session she says “I really don’t know how I’m supposed
to feel.” Asked for an explanation for how she could profess to be happily
married yet persist in her string of hook ups, she finally concludes, “I
shouldn’t tell at all. It only makes it worse.” Such an attitude is sure to
frustrate many viewers, who will hope for some psychological or sociological
justification for Charlotte’s actions. But Leopold is after something subtler.
As the title implies, sexual desire here is seen as a force that is random and
ultimately out of one’s control. As such
Brownian Movement becomes feminist not through Charlotte’s agency, but
rather in the sense that she is irreducible to a stock type due to her
contradictions. Stylistically, Brownian
Movement almost feels like a knowingly retro art film. Its basic scenario
seems designed to upset our impressions of women, much in the manner of the
once-shocking Belle de Jour or
Two or Three Things I Know About Her.
Leopold’s Antonioniesque style observes things at a remove, even as it indulges
our desire for prurience. Dangerous romps in bed are contrasted with scenes at
Charlotte’s sterile hospital job. Sex scenes with her husband are set against
dull slices of her home life. Leopold suggests here that we should observe the
sex play and the daily routine with same clinical detachment as her job, which
is somewhat disingenuous as it is only Charlotte’s sexual drive that serves as a
point of narrative propulsion. As a result,
Brownian Movement feels unnecessarily
coy at times, as if it understands what makes Charlotte tick, but opts instead
to obfuscate in the name of art. In Brownian Movement’s
weakest section, its first, it attempts to arouse some degree of shock value in
Charlotte’s selection of mates, who are often obese or unkempt, but one suspects
an edit, which takes us from the doctor stroking a fat man’s stomach to one of
her lying naked on a bearskin rug tells us enough about her desire for sensual
variety. Since no conclusive answers are offered, the focus on the film’s style
is exaggerated. This is a film that
is self-impressed with its formalism (it’s even neatly divided into three
parts), but at least it has some degree of rigor. While Leopold might indulge in
dated art house clichés, that isn’t necessarily a problem. I love the art films
of the ‘60s and it’s strangely comforting to watch a contemporary film that is
cut from the same cloth. Brownian
Movement ultimately might not be thought-provoking, beyond posing the
question of whether it is worse to deviate sexually or to be perpetually
unsatisfied, but it seems to understand the style within it functions. 61 Jeremy Heilman 07.21.12 |