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Ivul (2009)

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Synopsis

Kötting’s first feature since ‘This Filthy Earth’ in 2001 will be a French-language drama – the artist-filmmaker failed to find funding from the conservative British film industry.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Man and nature tend to rub up against each other in odd ways in the films of Andrew Kötting, a British artist whose many projects extend to short films, installations and collaborations with the likes of musician Jem Finer and writer Iain Sinclair. This is Kötting’s third feature after ‘Gallivant’ and ‘This Filthy Earth’, his first in French (a quirk of funding) and perhaps his most conventional, at least in terms of its look. On paper, ‘Ivul’ sounds like melodrama: a teenage boy, Alex (Jacob Auzanneau), abandons his family’s isolated rural home to live in the trees after his father suspects him of fiddling with his sister of a similar age. But the textures of the film prove more interesting than the facts, which are little more than a canvas for Kötting’s more esoteric visual and sonic explorations: he inserts archive footage, employs time-lapse photography and adopts an entrancing mix of music and other sounds to explore the feelings and behaviours that emerge from his tale of teenage lust and isolation. It may lack some of the earthy kick of his previous two films, but ‘Ivul’ still shows Kötting as an outsider force to be reckoned with.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2083: 21–28 July, 2010

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User reviews of this film

G's Review said...

Posted on Jul 28 2010 11:54 I really enjoyed this film. The balance between suggestion and fantasies played out in the film was perfect for me; the story always seemed to satisfy the tensions it created, for example in the relationship between brother and sister, but also between the husband and wife.
The characters also looked like actors challenged in the intimacy of the roles, but that felt good to me, that's reality. The film didn't get bogged down by desperation or depravity, as the intriguing family drama unfolded. The family story was touching but also cruel, just like I imagine many families are.
I enjoyed the wonderful scenery and the clear develpoment of Alex's climbing skills. The scenery brought us nature's beauty and contrast etc but always in a way I could relate to: it would invoke memories of great walks, rather than the most dramatic plane ride you've taken. There was some quite innovative stuff I think too, like I enjoyed the continuous shot through the car windscreen after Freya fetched her Mum from the pub. Perhaps this is more about the idea or the conveying of an experience than the technical stuff.
To conclude then..? Well I just wanted to say I enjoyed the film and thought it was great and bold but never stupid. Sometimes melodramatic but the antidote to the melodrama was always Alex looking out and getting on with the business of life. The life that he carved out for himself was an enduring and interesting thing.

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