Livide - 2011 (TIFF)

Chloé Marcq as Anna in Livide.

French horror filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo premiered their first ever audience screening of Livide (2011) yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival. I was lucky enough to snag a ticket at the last minute and attend the spooky 9/11 anniversary screening. Having never seen the previous works of the directorial team (such as the famed A L'Interieur) and hearing that the film was heavily influenced by Suspiria (Argento) guaranteed my excitement. I was finally going to see what the hype was all about!


Livide is about about a young girl named Lucie who, in the beginning of the film, starts a new job as a nurse's assistant. She travels around small town France with her boss to assist the elderly in varied stages of dementia and decay. In her travels she stops at a decrepit mansion owned by the famed Mme. Jessel, a world-famous dance teacher now comatose and sitting upon a suspicious inheritance. Lucie sees this fabled fortune as a lucrative opportunity and decides to break into the house with her two friends. What they don't realize is that the "fortune" is really something much sinister; an undead vampiric shell of Mme. Jessel's daughter Anna and a family history that that'll make your blood run cold.

Livide had some excellent cinematography and production design. The flashback sequences to Jessel's prime are very richly coloured and expertly dressed to the time period. The shot I've posted above especially moved me with its stark colour palette of white, red and green. However, Livide's excellent visuals aren't backed up by a very strong story. 

The filmmakers spent a great deal of time leading up to the discovery of Anna, establishing a frightening, storybook atmosphere through montage and creative art direction. However, after finding the dark secrets of the home the plot seems to become diluted, quick and a bit uninspired. All of this leads to an outrageous ending that leaves the audience scratching their heads in between stifled laughs. 

What went wrong?
In the post-film chat, Bustillo and Maury mentioned their struggles with funding and having to cut the story to its bare minimum. Unfortunately, it shows! The filmmakers clearly tried to create a rich character background for Lucie, especially when they divulge the recent suicide of her mother, but their story cuts ultimately end up falling flat. For example, in the beginning of the film it is revealed that Lucie has the rare heterochromia iridum - two different coloured eyes. This idea is expanded on very briefly but ultimately plays little to no role in the significance of her character or outcome. I also came to greatly question her motives, especially in her ruthless devotion to freeing Anna from the tyrannical Jessel.

Ultimately, Livide is not all that it could be. It is a very different film from their previous works and unfortunately, funding may have caused the film to be worse than it could have been.