Cosmos (1996)

 

Directors: Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, André Turpin and Denis Villeneuve

Screenplays: Marie-Julie Dallaire and Sebastien Joannette (segment "The Individual"); Denis Villeneuve (segment "The Technetium")

Cast: Igor Ovadis as Cosmos; Marie-Hélène Montpetit as Yannie (segment: Boost); Pascal Contamine as Joel (segment: Boost); Marie-France Lambert as Fanny (segment: Jules & Fanny); Alexis Martin as Jules (segment: Jules & Fanny); Stéphane Crête as Antoine (segment: Jules & Fanny); Sebastien Joannette as L'individu (segment: L'individu); Eve Gadouas as La jeune fille dans le corridor (segment: L'individu); David La Haye as Morille (segment: Le Technétium); Audrey Benoit as Nadja, l'animatrice (segment: Le Technétium); Carl Alacchi as Tekno (segment: Le Technétium); Marc Jeanty as Janvier (segment: Cosmos & Agriculture); Gabriel Gascon as Crépuscule (segment: Aurore & Crépuscule); Sarah-Jeanne Salvy as Aurore

Ephemeral Waves

 

I told you. Everything started with agriculture.

Most will come to Cosmos, unless you are well versed in Canadian and French Canadian cinema, because this is an anthology work with Denis Villeneuve very early in his career among the list of directors. A list of what segments are what is wiser to have ahead of time, as instead of a traditional segment followed by a segment structure, these all interlink around Greek-Canadian cab driver Cosmos (Igor Ovadis), whose work intertwines the stories. These are: Boost by Manon Briand; Jules & Fanny by André Turpin; L'Individu by Marie-Julie Dallaire; Le Technétium, which is Denis Villeneuve's entry; Aurore et Crépuscule, by Jennifer Alleyn; and Cosmos & Agriculture, Cosmos' own segment by Arto Paragamian.

All shot in monochrome, there is many segments which juggle between each other in priority. For the most part, the set up focuses on most of them, the last two mentioned being introduced much later into the film. Le Technétium's lead, a filmmaker named Morille (David La Haye), is drinking espresso after espresso in a cafe, hesitant before an interview for an art television show as he writes about cinema and war, so on edge he is even adding chemical stimulants to the caffeine, enough for the female cafe staff member to ask, frankly, whether he is planning to fuck a gorilla. Cosmos, an older cab driver of Greek heritage, is the interlocking titular figure, who crosses paths with all. That includes the film director Morille; that includes a man with flowers from L'Individu, the vaguest of the narratives as he may be the man killing young women across town and leaving flowers with the bodies after he also molests them; a lawyer named Fanny (Marie-France Lambert), from Jules & Fanny, involved with a legal dispute; and Cosmos helps jumpstart the car Yannie (Marie-Hélène Montpetit) has acquired for a friend, by jumpstarting the battery, who is in a depressed mood.

Barring L'Individu, which feels so much grimmer as a premise to the rest of the segments, and has no real resolution, with a trip in an underground parking complex which was apparently installed near Hel with the noises on the soundtrack, Cosmos whilst having serious moments is much lighter in tone. Some of it is serious, but a lot is lighter hearted, more openly humorous and playful as character pieces. The filmmaker is traumatised by thoughts of Cambodia and war, especially of the woman dear in his life connected to his work on the film on this, but his story is one of the more absurd tales. With Cosmos once in the militia and offering a discount haircut at $15 because he likes him, the interview is at Tekno's Hair Shop, an underground television show which, ran by Tekno (Carl Alacchi), is more interesting about styling the guests' hair even against their will, and talking about the products used on camera than Morille's art. That is until Morille snaps and threatens someone by shaving his or her hair off.

Julian ("Jules") (Alexis Martin) is helping a deaf woman in a court case, whilst pontificating with Antoine (Stéphane Crête), one of the staff at the hotel he is at, about a dream he had about atoms being made of energy, and matter, alongside being chased by hit men. That is until he bumps into Fanny, an old girlfriend and the lawyer against his client in the case, offering him to see her newly acquired breast implants if he deliberately sabotages translating his client in court. There is Yannie and her male friend Joel (Pascal Contamine), in the segment Boost, the later gay and hinting at a serious medical fear he is waiting on, such as a HIV test result, the car Yannie has acquired evoking nostalgia for him and to try to help in this extremely stressful moment as they bond.

The two segments that come later are Aurore et Crépuscule, Aurore (Sarah-Jeanne Salvy) a twenty year old girl who, because her boyfriend did not bother to get to a theatrical performance on time, finds herself bonding with a significantly older man named Crépuscule (Gabriel Gascon). This episode does not get into an uncomfortable territory, the cliché of older men wooing a younger woman, even if there is a romantic chemistry; that cliché for me is only a problem in that they ended up being a trope especially in Hollywood cinema, a fantasy and a casting cliché of always having older male actors with a newer and significantly younger female star with them just to be the love interest. For me, any spring-winter relationship regardless of the genders of those involved should not be viewed as wrong in a story or real life, when at least here, it is a chemistry between two people, not becoming sexual, where they get to bond and having a friendship for one night even if with an undercurrent of flirting. It is a huge credit to the leads, and it is to note, in mind to what I have said, that this is a segment by one of the female directors, so I would not be surprised if Jennifer Alleyn came with this possessing far more nuance in tackling the subject than a fantasy. Cosmos & Agriculture is a great send off to the feature, in which two bank robbers steal Cosmos' taxi cab for a getaway vehicle whilst he is with a friend and fellow cabbie, one pontificating that the world's ills, whilst also a good thing, can be blamed as far back as to when the species developed agriculture. The car chase that ensures is a fun comedic short.

Out of all of them, you can see Denis Villeneuve at his beginning, as the final breakdown for Morille involves the kind of distortion of the screen which evokes the styles he would change between, but truthfully, alongside other segments for me being far more interesting, all baring the one involving a potential serial killer were interesting. Like a good anthology, it is a variety and for me, I am more forgiving for this genre for seeing the idiosyncratic tones and styles at hand, here deliberately existing in the same world and tone perfectly, all Canadian filmmakers showing their skills and the anthology altogether being of worth. Villeneuve's career out of all of them managed to become that of a Hollywood filmmaker, but one who managed to keep his own style.

Jennifer Alleyn is an artist, filmmaker, writer and photographer, so whilst her filmography from this is smaller, she works in multiple art forms. The filmography of Manon Briand is smaller sadly, but she had started before Cosmos in filmmaking up to Liverpool (2012). Marie-Julie Dallaire works more in documentaries, such as Big Giant Wave (2020), but was a Second Unit Director on Villeneuve's own Arrival (2016). Arto Paragamian's filmography sadly only has two films and this segment as a director, but they are working to this day still. André Turpin became a director, but is more prolific as a cinematographer, for the likes of Denis Villeneuve early in his career, but especially for Xavier Dolan, a big name in Canadian art cinema. He was also cinematographer on Playmobil: The Movie (2019), because why not end this review, recommending Cosmos, on something tonally alien but yet befitting. That all these figures worked on this collaborative effort, all work in a variety of areas from then on, and all of them work, be it toy tie-in animated films to Denis Villeneuve ending up directing sequels to Blade Runner and a reboot of Frank Herbert's Dune. In itself, like all anthologies, you can also see the way cinema works in all the fascinating tangents everyone here ended up within as they continued.