Acid: is the disaster of the film with Guillaume Canet realistic?

Acidnatural and intimate disaster

After staging The cloudhis first highly successful feature film, Swarms of Crickets Thirsty for Human Blood, the filmmaker Just Philippot presents in Acid another natural disaster, but on a larger global scale and from which we cannot escape: deadly acid rain. These rains, full of sulfuric acid, erode all matter, and therefore also all flesh, animal and human. Getting hit by this ultra-toxic polluted water means dying within minutes.

As in The cloudthis major disaster Acid, which makes his show scary, is above all an opportunity to reveal more intimate conflicts between the characters in his story. Social and family structures that collapse, individuals’ anger that destroys bonds of solidarity… The natural catastrophe that unfolds before the eyes of individuals corresponds to their personal catastrophes. In this case, a Acidthe drama is as much in this rain that devours everything as in the total perdition and disintegration of the already fragmented family unit of Michal (Guillaume Canet), his ex-wife Elise (Laetitia Dosch) and their daughter Selma (Patience Münchenbach).

A realistic disaster movie?

Spectacular, while refusing to play with the unrealistic codes of American cinema, Acid is a new demonstration of Just Philippot’s know-how in staging realism main destruction sequences. So, seeing the sheets of metal and the meat eaten by acid rain, we believe it and we are afraid. This is a warning about the damage our societies are causing to the environment. But also and above all on our inability to know how to react to disaster if our social bond, our solidarity and our empathy no longer exist.

But is the phenomenon of acid rain, as shown in the film, realistic? On this point the screenplay written by Just Philippot and Yacine Badday pushes harmful effects to the extreme acid rain. If these exist, they exist in reality much less dangerous. At least for humans…

Harmful effects on fauna and flora

Acid rain, in fact, has the effect of increasing the acidity of the waters of lakes, ponds, aquifers, springs and oceans. By generating complex chemical processes, acid rain, for example, more easily dissolves toxic products such as heavy metalsmaking them more mobile and therefore increasing their circulation.

Of both natural and anthropogenic origin, i.e. deriving from human activities, acid rain has harmful effects on flora and fauna. They directly weaken plants and can lead to wilting, thus indirectly affecting entire ecosystems. When very acid rain pollutes aquatic environments, fish and shellfish can disappear completely, as was observed in the 1980s in Scandinavian lakes*.

The effects of acid rain must be estimated in the long term, and often derive from an indirect and delayed action. For humans, who are also part of the fauna and depend for their survival on water with a pH ideally between 6.5 and 7.5, acid rain – with a pH between 2, 5 and 3 – can in some cases lead to breathing problems.

So in reality, the danger of acid rain is fortunately very low compared to what we see in the film Acid. Furthermore, they do not affect different regions of the planet in the same way, with variable effects depending on their natural environment and the human activities present there.

*: Survey on the status of fish in Nordic lakes: effects of acidification, eutrophication and restocking activity on the current composition of fish species – 2003.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.