Trance (2013)

I’ve seen Trance twice in cinema by now and am really contemplating a third time.¹ It tickles my psychology sense and my mental illness² sense and satisfies my craving for aestethics. The first time I left the cinema, I couldn’t breathe – literally. The complicated plot finally got to me (after the second screening I found out I’d interpreted half of the stuff in a wrong way, sure, but it was still awestrucking at that moment). It was kind of unbelievable that someone (Danny Boyle, I am deeply into you) could put something like that together.

Now, this was the first film I saw after Oblivion and the thought that it had abundant twists seems ridiculous after Trance because post the rather slow (but enjoyable) beginning, it was one twist after another. There were a myriad of them: the perspective changed, the good ones turned into the bad ones and vice versa; the mood and the tones were changing constantly, the pacing as well; some images, fragments of what had been, kept repeating and managed to say something new each time. It was especially powerful because it all tied together: even the acting was spot on, very much so on James McAvoy’s and Vincent Cassel’s part. Trence isn’t just a complex idea with wicked visuals. Everything works.³

There were few things I’d predicted and they were all in the beginning. Each new development came as a surprise. I haven’t seen a film so consuming for ages. It was tiring but well-worth the headache over it. A myriad of things seemed different on the second watch and I was, frankly, unsure what to believe – and still am. One thing I know for sure, though: it’s a film I’ll see again and again until I’ve memorised it.

And to illustrate, we’re finishing with some top notch styleporn today:

¹ and then buying the DVD.
² by that, I mean the references to it throughout the film. I know amnesia’s not one. Guys. Really.
³ okay, one exception: Rosario Dawson’s naked scene was utterly unnecessary.