THE COLD DEAD LOOK IN YOUR EYES
Directed by: Onur Tukel
Starring: Franck Raharinosy, Nora Arnezeder, Barbara Beddouk, Alan Ceppos
Leonard is about to lose his girlfriend, home and job. Upon that, he’s having strange hallucinations. Is it stress or an after effect of new technology installed all over the city? He must figure it out or he’ll be trapped in this nightmare forever.
Little black boxes have been installed all over New York which give off theta energy as a byproduct of providing high-speed internet across the City and unbeknownst to Leonard, they are messing with his head something bad.
Leonard is having a bad time of it as it is, although part of it is his fault, having cheated on his girlfriend Marie. As well as that relationship being on its last threads, his worklife is also a disaster - he's a restaurant chef but just about all of his dishes get returned as they taste disgusting. Things turn bizarre with the arrival of Marie's father Dennis, just after she's left on a business trip.
Dennis is a once-renowned photographer who is desperately trying to recapture the essence of his past works. He's fully aware that Leonard is on his way out the door and his relationship with Marie is well and truly over and the pair have to tolerate each other over the weekend. For Leonard that means having to constantly fix the toilet Dennis has clogged and put up with his impromptu homo-erotic photoshoots.
The film is mostly shot in black and white - very strikingly so - except for flashback scenes between Leonard and Marie, which are in colour. It’s a nice discernation between the warm memories and the stark nightmare he finds himself in now.
What is unclear is what exactly Leonard is caught up in. We become aware of the little black boxes which are spread around the city to help boost wi-fi and allow faster download speeds, and there are rumours that they give off theta bandwaves which may have unforeseen side-effects. Even so, if that is the direct cause, we have no idea of how he's being affected.
Part of it has led Leonard to see/glimpse people as rotting zombies momentarily. My own take is that the boxes are making Leonard experience different realities which tweak his life in small ways which end up having big consequences. The film gets very metaphysical as it goes on with Leonard becoming more and more adrift from reality to the point you cannot trust what you already know.
The Cold Dead Look In Your Eyes has a very arthouse feel to it (it's set in New York but the dialogue is mostly in French) and while it is aesthetically very different Onur Tukel's most famous film, Catfight, it shares that film’s theme of portraying someone whose life is in spiral. The black and white photography and cinematography here is superb and the overall tone set me in mind of Godard and Joe Sarno. I was also reminded of a recent British film called Demon, which is also shot in black and white and deals with a protagonist's downward spiral.
THE VERDICT
The Cold Dead Look In Your Eyes is going to frustrate some viewers in that there is no real explanation as to what is happening to Leonard and whether he is the only one being affected. However that aside this is a very interesting slice of life story as we witness Leonard start to lose touch with everything.