From “The 400 Blows” to “The Florida Project,” children have made fascinating cinematic topics. Even when they’re working from scripts, there’s at all times the sense that they’re not solely performing — that they’ll’t assist however merely be themselves. The French director Bruno Dumont, a former philosophy professor who broke into Cannes almost 30 years in the past together with his stark characteristic debut “The Life of Jesus,” has gravitated in the direction of the uncooked naturalism of kids previously. See “Li’l Quinquin” from 2014, and his musical curios about France’s patron saint “Jeannette,” (2017) and “Joan of Arc” (2019), all three of which discover a unusual, startling profundity in ragtag rugrats, say, debating theology or blankly witnessing acts of violence.
Childhood, for Dumont, isn’t a stage of pure innocence, however a transition interval the place grownup behaviors are tried on by little ones who don’t solely know what they imply, or what the stakes are. Such is the case together with his newest characteristic, “Red Rocks,” which entails youngsters roughly between the ages of 5 and 7 leaping off cliffs, using mini bikes and partaking in gang warfare — or its pre-verbal equal. Lengthy, static, principally wordless takes will make these actions appear much less eventful than they sound. Affected person arthouse viewers, nevertheless, will discover a lot to chew on right here as a subtly cerebral movie about small our bodies unsettlingly, hilariously navigating an enormous, violent world.
Mixing documentary-style remark and a Romeo and Juliet framing system, “Red Rocks” — which premiered within the Cannes Administrators’ Fortnight program — is scaled-back for Dumont in comparison with his 2021 Cannes competitors entry “France,” a media satire starring Léa Seydoux, and final yr’s “The Empire,” a critically divisive “Star Wars” spoof that premiered on the Berlinale.
Twitchy, blond tyke Géo (Kaylon Lancel) and his posse (Louise Podolski and Mohamed Coly) meet one other trio of tinies whereas having fun with their favourite exercise: scaling rock formations and taking (seemingly fairly harmful!) plunges into the ocean waters under. One member of the opposing crew, Eva (Kelsie Verdeilles), takes a liking to Géo, although their romance is hampered by Eva’s different boyfriend B (Alessandro Piquera). Not that romance, right here, means something past hand-holding and laughing whereas awkwardly staring into one another’s eyes.
Cinematographer Carlos Alfonso Corral (co-producer of Roberto Minervini’s “The Damned”) alternates between fish-bowl closeups of the kids’s faces and excessive vast pictures of the craggy, coastal panorama. The impact is a bit like watching a tripped-out model of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” or “Thomas & Friends,” the Mediterranean setting — full with arched viaducts and practice tracks —miniaturized right into a sort of fantasy playground for its band of tots to roam round freely.
A fair proportion of digicam methods and strategic angles make the children’ climbing stunts look considerably riskier, although in a masterclass following the premiere, Dumont admitted to a level of recklessness, selecting to shoot most of the movie’s scenes in Italy versus France, due to filming legal guidelines within the latter nation pertaining to minors. On this Gallic Neverland, there’s not a security helmet (or nervous mother or father) in sight, which admittedly provides to the movie’s feral power. Their twiggy legs and bony frames uncovered in bathing fits, the children do certainly look additional weak throughout the movie’s savage panorama. That’s exactly Dumont’s intention — freedom is enjoyable and scary — however the alternative is certain to boost eyebrows amongst critics of the director, who has traditionally been known as out for his work with nonprofessional actors.
The star-crossed lovers drama is usually a justification to observe the children play and pull bizarre and mesmerizing expressions, which turns repetitive over the movie’s slim 90-minute runtime. Nonetheless, there’s amusement and electrical energy of their physicalities and wry antics. Working, once more, on the boundary between the elegant and the foolish, Dumont nonetheless manages to stake out new territory with this alien portrait of childhood. This can be one thing of a transitional work for a director who tends to shape-shift, however you’ve bought handy it to a man unafraid to experiment.
