Animal: Emma Benestan mixes reality and fantasy in an excellent thriller

Emma Benestan auditioned for the second film

Three years have passed Fragile as Emma Benestan’s second feature film, Animalcomes to the cinema. In 2021, his romantic comedy was very well received by critics but went unnoticed in theaters. A lot was revealed there, especially his connection with actress Oulaya Amamra and his talent as a writer and director. A very promising first work that has created expectations and challenges for the future: where will Emma Benestan go in her new film, will she confirm herself, will she attract the public?

Launched on horseback, Oulaya Amamra stands out in a group of men, in the heart of the Camargue. She plays Animal Nejma, a young woman who works in a manadea bull farm. She and her colleagues participate in the “Racings of the Camargue”, a sporting event in which the “raseteurs” must grab the attributes hanging from the forehead of a bull, in an arena, using a hook. A practice without killing, where the danger concerns almost exclusively the “razeteurs”.

The only woman in this small Camargue community, Nejma will lose consciousness during an initiation rite, after a drunken evening. Waking up with no memory of the night, she nevertheless feels that something has happened to her. Little by little a physical transformation will take place, while suspicious deaths will accumulate among the shepherds…

An actress in full force

Brilliant black sun, Oulaya Amamra confirms her talent, which she had sublimated Divine and it earned her the César as the most promising actress in 2017. With a few words, through the silent culture of the South as well as through the very physical expression of her character, she takes on the air of a western heroine, in a constant duel with adversities. Captivating in its image, in organizing the dramatic story that unfolds, it also manages to highlight the male secondary cast, made up of local actors, not professionals but very convincing and in some ways true managers. The actress, in the role of Emma Benestan’s on-screen stunt double, completes her mission: to perfectly blend reality and fantasy in a fantastic metamorphosis.

Continuity in change

Animal is a great genre film, sensational and carnal, precisely embodied and carefully written. It is undoubtedly more so Fragilebecause he is more confident, more determined and radical. But despite being very different, it has numerous similarities that together constitute an identity. As in Fragilethe main character is in an a priori universe oppositehere the only woman coming from a very masculine background. Also, Animal it speaks of a formative period of life, at the extreme limit of adulthood, in which experience is constituted. Once again it is the South, its warmth and its great nature, its expanses of sea or marshes as far as the eye can see, an invitation to freedom and its dangers.

But Animal it is in fact a fantasy-horror thriller combined with the chronicle of violence, with its creatures and its highly successful special effects, its staging that has fun with first-person shots where the darkness of the night would almost recall the waters of Jaws. Animal it is therefore delightfully frightening in its images, in its use of sound, very effective in its economy of means, and this use of the classic codes of the genre goes well with the allegory that develops.

The tension was almost perfect

The only point we can regretAnimalthis allegory is finally explained with the on-screen depiction of what happened to him and triggered his transformation. Indeed, Animal he is so successful in his representations and in his suggestion that we understand the nature of the violence suffered without it being said.

In fact, it is above all for the right distance in remembering the figure of the werewolf as well as that of the mythological Minotaur – victimized, exiled and punished creatures -, as well as for the initially repressed, at the same time angry and patient emotion of its protagonist, Emma Benestan succeeds to perfectly imagine the contemporary female condition and its struggles, a brilliant subtext of her highly successful fantastic tale.

But it was a very fine balance to achieve, a quest that is a challenge: the line must be completed rape and revenge of the film, show and punish the culprit as well as finish building Nejma’s character, preserving the delicious and relentless tension, built by the formidable atmosphere of the film rather than its events, and resolve it only as late as possible so as not to defuse too much soon his great sensations. However, if this concern for understanding the topic slightly stiffens the end of theAnimalthis does not take anything away from his sagacity and his great cinematic strength.

Animal by Emma Benestan, in theaters from November 27, 2024. Above is the trailer.

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.