“She is Conan” review: A fever dream of finding beauty in savagery

Robert E.Howard conan the barbarian Deeply rooted in the golden age of cartoonish hypermasculine pulp fantasy, it’s hard to imagine a boldly feminist character.But the new film of “Changing Innocence” She is Conan, Created by French writer/director Bertrand Mandico, The Myth of Conan takes the classic Conan mythology into new dimensions with its mind-bending visuals and story about how man’s capacity for violence transcends gender. the height of.

Set in a shape-shifting world where time and space change in a chaotic, dreamlike way, She is Conan The story of how a humble young girl becomes a legendary savage after her village is sacked by a band of bloodthirsty marauders. At 15, Conan’s (Claire Dubourque) mother is murdered and she is enslaved by Sonya (Julia Ridler), a vicious warrior who roams the land. Looking for amusement in vulnerable targets. But with nothing left to lose but her own life, Conan chooses to embrace her world’s currency – grotesque savagery – to save herself. In making this decision, she inadvertently set in motion events that went on to shape the course of human history.

exist She is ConanWith its most basic plot beats and depiction of a nightmarish world where sexualized extreme violence is the norm, you can see flashes of John Milius’s testosterone-filled 1982 conan the barbarian Movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. But rather than simply trying to subvert Howard’s hyper-masculine creation with a story centered on a female character, She is Conan Harnessing one of the most fascinating aspects of the original Conan mythology to stunning effect.

Before Conan became a fully awakened man, the barbarian was just another character’s past life in “The Dark Man” – Howard’s 1932 short story originally published in Strange stories of mystery and horror About a man discovering his past life. She is Conan Taking this idea to the next level, Conan is introduced not just as a regular exotic girl, but as an older woman (Françoise Brion) who takes stock of her role in becoming a war and destruction Symbol of the many experiences experienced in the process of life.

Fifteen-year-old Conan is just a small piece of the puzzle, and her fears indicate that she is at the beginning of an epic. But that fear is replaced by something more complex and dangerous when Conan encounters the demon Reina (Elena Lowensohn) and her 25-year-old self (Christa Seret), The latter must kill her past rival to enter their shared world. future.

Unlike the traditional linear way of recording Conan’s life, She is Conan Focusing on these key moments of self-destruction/realization as a way of exploring the many different forms of brutality. For old Conan, this is all long forgotten history – an ethereal woman wandering the depths of hell in search of memories. But it’s all new and terrifying for the film’s young Conan, who enters the film as a representative of the specific decades in which the titular barbarian truly established himself as a force. The status of a force that cannot be ignored.

With Anna Le Mouël’s production design, you can see how She is Conan The film finally took shape after Mandico spent a lot of time developing ideas for other Conan-centric projects at the Nanterre-Amandie Theater. Especially in the opening scene, when Conan Sr. finds himself in Hell for the first time, the film feels like an abstract stage play designed to evoke the sense of shock that comes with looking back on the trajectory of one’s life. The film’s drama-like quality makes it easy to understand its brutal yet beautiful transitions from one Conan to the next, emblematic of the barbaric act of destroying one version of yourself to become another.

But at the same time She is Conan Decades of Conan’s life are presented in vignettes, and they’re all so richly textured that it’s hard to imagine any of them without cinematographer Nicolas Eveilleau’s ability to highlight their intricate details will be so powerful. Although it depicts bloody scenes of disembowelment, She is Conan It’s a stunningly beautiful film, whose sophisticated high-fashion aesthetic is masterfully used by costume designer Elise Kriebier-Deland to explore the many facets of Conan’s identity.

No two Conans are exactly the same, but they are all women whose desires—for revenge, for understanding, for others—ultimately drive them to be the best at their job as barbarians.as She is Conan Conan himself becomes increasingly fascinating and creepy as he rushes toward the finale, but it’s the film’s ideas about barbarism that are most inspired.Although it’s hard to imagine descriptions of murder, cannibalism, and war being of compelling poetic beauty, that’s the pattern She is Conan exists, and it’s a sight to behold.

She is Conan Also starring: Sandra Puffy, Christopher Bier, Caroline Rose Sun, Holly-Rose Clegg, Yomin Hay and Anna Raison. The film is currently scheduled for a limited theatrical run in several cities across the United States, but the film is also available for pre-order on DVD and Blu-ray.

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