Pacifiction

Benoît Magimel is the easy going French High Commissioner "De Roller". Charged with representing the French Government on it's Polynesian outpost of Tahiti where he travels the island in his chauffeur driven Mercedes glad-handing and pretty much going from party to party. The arrival of an admiral (Marc Susini) and some rather hunky sailors on his island soon has tongues wagging, though. Before he knows it, his placid existence is being disturbed by increasingly popular - and disturbing - rumours that the French are to restart nuclear weapons testing nearby. Of course he is assured not, and makes similar assurances to the population himself, but when local girls start to go missing the presence of the military and a general sentiment amongst the locals seems to encourage a view that it's time to assert their own independence. This creates more problems that begin to cause our diplomatic quite an headache. Can he sort it all out? Is there even anything to sort out? The thing with this film is that it is far, far too long. The story could easily lose an hour and no harm would be done. The plot, political mischief and island intrigues, would benefit from that tightening up too - perhaps sparing us from the many shots of his car! Magimel delivers an efficient characterisation here, but he is largely left to his own devices as the supporting cast struggle to build upon a rather thin storyline that needed a bit more shoring up to sustain the interest as it rambled on. It has it's moments, but sadly just not enough of them. Oh, and it's pretty wet down there!

Taking place on Tahiti, "Pacifiction" takes a long time to set the story in motion, though director Albert Serra gives us some images to think about. The images are beautiful and the camera dwells on many sets far too long. When I finally got to the end of the film I was tired and regretted that I could not feel as I should.

Well, here is the story: The High Commissioner of the Republic of France, De Roller, has little power but tries to keep peace on the island, when some native representatives inform him of a rumor, that nuclear testing is returning to the region.

Of course, everyone is upset by this idea, though no one seems to know anything in particular. But as De Roller starts to investigate, he finds a number of strange things going on, a group of sailors plus their captain, a Portuguese visitor who's passport has been stolen, foreign shady characters are popping up, a submarine has been sighted and so on.

The more De Roller pokes around, the less he can make any sense out of it but he begins to believe that there is truth in the rumor. In between he manages to coach a local dance group for their performance at his favorite night club, where he also chats with Shanna, a transsexual. Shanna has high hopes to become the secretary of the Commissioner, and De Roller certainly gives him reason to think so by taking him along on some of his visits. This relationship does not seem to be sexual, but the film gives no explanation to what it is that draws De Roller to Shanna.

I don't want to go into more details, but the film is certainly too long, I would say by an hour! Running 2:45 right now, there is no reason not to cut it down, some sidelines don't really advance the story. But despite the length, we hardly see any Tahitians who are not wearing costumes and perform for tourists. Which I don't think is close to reality.

This is a truly boring film. It's long, seemed pointless, had scenes that went on forever to no good purpose, had essentially no characters to speak of, and made little sense. I can enjoy long, leisurely paced films, like "The Traveling Players" or "Satantango," but there has to be a reason to be patient and a payoff for doing so. There is neither here.

At the screening I attended, the director, beforehand, said that the last 45 minutes was really special. That was a bait and switch, since they were just like the rest of the film. If anyone goes into this film expecting anything at all like a thriller, they will be disappointed, and disappointed for a rather long time.

The director, speaking afterwards, said he wanted to avoid cliche. In one respect, he failed miserably. The dialog, I believe, was improvised by the actors, rather than being scripted. As a result, it was banal, repetitive, and pointless. There is no more tedious cliche than weak improvised dialog.

It's common for one reviewing a long film to say something like "there's a good 90 minute film in there." Here, there's a mediocre ten minute travelogue in there. There are some pretty shots of Polynesia, and a good surfing sequence, but you pay a heavy price to get to those, and if you're willing to watch a long, weak film to see some nice shots of Tahiti, you're better off with the 60s version of "Mutiny on the Bounty."

After I got home from the screening, I cleaned my cats' litter boxes. I found that experience both more entertaining and more intellectually stimulating than "Pacifiction."

Everyone can still remember the violent protests around the world when the newly elected French President Jacques Chirac ordered nuclear bomb tests to be carried out in the Mururoa Atoll in 1995. The people of French Polynesia can remember this particularly well. The French High Commissioner (Benoit MAGIMEL) in Tahiti constantly feels this, as he tries to hear the grass grow in Papeete through his constant presence and constant conversations with all possible sections of the population. The French film star Benoit MAGIMEL (CANNES 2001: Silver Palm for LA PIANISTE) plays this brilliantly in his white suit, which has almost become his uniform. In individual set pieces, we as viewers experience how precarious life must be in the holiday paradise of Tahiti. Whether in the homoerotic atmosphere of Morton's (Sergi LOPEZ) bar or during breathtaking surfing on the beach. These last-mentioned shots are so magnificent that you can almost feel the waves just by watching them.

With this film, Spanish director Albert SERRA takes us on a nearly three-hour trip into the heart of French darkness. With the fantastic Benoit MAGIMEL, we stand on the dream beach of Tahiti and use binoculars to search the surface of the Pacific for a submarine that could provide the first indication of suspected impending nuclear weapons tests.

This film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. If you like films like APOCALYPSE NOW, QUERELLE and TROPICAL MALADY, you shouldn't miss this event.

Pacifiction could look like a thriller when you watch the trailers however this plotless story will end up deceiving you on several aspects. As a matter of fact, you quickly realize there is no lesson to extract from this aimless story whose director seems to have had fun deceiving his spectators. All in all, it's a massive disappointement, for a total of 2h45 minutes of soulless and unattractive filming.

When you read the synopsis, one would expect a political explanation about Tahiti, this French "département" with special rules, and let's say an atypical population. Or maybe one would expect a focus on the problems of the islanders or some sort of a a criticism towards this new colonialism represented by this high commissioner called Monsieur De Roller (the main character of the film). However, nothing happens as expected in this film; worse; nothing happens AT ALL !

The so called high commissioner wanders around the island, speaks to his mates, argues with some unions guys, seduces some travestite dancer who is as admirative as suprisingly dumb, but the worst is that you just can't find out any logic to all his actions. You feel left in the lurch, and abandoned by the director after an hour or so as you clearly understand the film is going nowhere.

You never end up understanding who is this Monsieur De Roller (I believe he was a politician for real, but I have never found out his legacy), you never find out why he drives around the island aimlessly, by himself, without any goal, without any vice even (except the one of listening to himself), without charisma except his megalomania and narcissism. The film is full of scenes with long silences punctuated by De Roller's long speeches which are after the second one a massive bore.

Did you say suspense? There is NONE ! We understand quite quickly that the hallucinations of the high commissioner are only the results of his excesses and the contempt of the French government towards the natives.

A real pity if you think about the expectations one could have after having seen the trailers. I wonder if the director did not feel a bit of contempt towards his spectators by leading them astray on purpose with no taste for aesthetics what so ever.

I would keep one scene though... the surfers contest with impressive (one scene only) waves and impressive landscape. Don't waste your time please !!!!