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André (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) arrives at Istanbul, pretty much all
on his own, a bit lost, and supposed to prepare for his job as a teacher
in this strange city ... and rather by chance, Lale (Francoise Brion) is
the first person who speaks to him, is friendly to him, acts as his guide
around the city, his occasional driver ... and before you know it, the two
are a couple. There's something odd about Lale though, she always claims
she speaks no Turkish (apart the most basic), but she does talk with the
natives quite a bit, and she evades several of André's questions,
especially those concerning her private life ... and one day she's gone. André
tries to track her down, but is left with nothing but a handful of wild
rumours he refuses to believe, rumours that include forced prostitution
and the like. Then as suddenly as Lale has left she returns. She claims
everything is alright, but refuses to talk about where she had been - or
at least not until they are at a "safe place" ... and when she
drives them to a safe place, she evades a dog crossing the street and
steers her car right into a tree, which kills her while André manages to
get away unscathed. Now André is all the more curious what might have
been going on, and he interviews Lale's acquaintances, but they only make
contradictory statements, he digs into his own memory, but his memory is
as traitorous as it is fleeting, and all he comes up with is a stranger
(Guido Celano) with two dogs who popped up a few times too often in the
story, and one of the dogs might have been the one Lale evaded. Lale
herself turns up again, too, and before long André can't tell anymore if
he's awake or dreaming, seeing ghosts or fantasies ... and hey, maybe he
died in the car crash as well ... L'Immortelle is a
labyrinthine thriller that starts out as weird and becomes more and more
absurd the longer it goes - and that works for the film, too, as it works
like a puzzle that seems to reinvent its rules several times throughout
the movie, something that's also supported by the rather unusual
camerawork that often uses what I'd call "associative pans"
instead of editing, and an exquisitely unlinear yet fascinating narrative
approach. Definitely not your usually thriller entertainment, but (also
definitely) well worth a look.
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