A feminine reinterpretation of the adventures of Conan the Barbarian, “Conann” by Bertrand Mandico will already remain as one of the most astonishing and splendid films of this Cannes edition.
WHAT DOES IT TALK ABOUT ?
Traveling the abyss, the hellhound Rainer recounts the six lives of Conann, perpetually put to death by his own future, through eras, myths and ages. From his childhood, a slave of Sanja and his barbarian horde, until his accession to the heights of cruelty at the gates of our world.
“Conann” is presented at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes of the 76th Cannes Film Festival
GENDER FLUID(ES)
That Bertrand Mandico’s films are distributed by UFO Distribution is both fun and logical. Because the director is a real UFO in the French cinematographic landscape. Even if we are beginning to identify him more and more, him and his taste for genres (cinema and sexual), which he likes to mix to better transcend them.
After a handful of short films, her passage to feature was made with Les Garçons sauvage, an allegory of transidentity shot in a black and white as sublime and contrasting as that of Conann, a surprising and feminine rereading of Robert E’s fantasy novels. Howard, whose adaptations made Arnold Schwarzneegger a star in the early ’80s.
UFO Cast Christa Theret
No salient muscles here, but a woman, barbarian, embodied by six different actresses (including Christa Théret). One for each age of the heroine whose hellhound Rainer (canine reincarnation of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder) tells us about the lives and deaths, each iteration of the character being murdered by the next, in a tale filled with fatality.
Because love and death go hand in hand in the unclassifiable cinema of Bertrand Mandico. And if nudity is less present here than in the past, Conann is no less surprising, fascinating, disturbing, amusing, repulsive… Sometimes in the same momentum, when he summons the spirits of David Cronenberg and Portier de night just as much as the fate reserved for a character named Europe connects his film to the present.
The political aspect of Bertrand Mandico’s cinema is certainly not new, and the fact that actresses embody male characters (and vice versa) was one of the most striking proofs of this. But none of his films resonated with our times as much as Conann. Perhaps because the project was first conceived with the Théâtre des Amandiers (and shot in a studio right next door), during the Covid, and it is perhaps from this situation, uncertain for the culture, that was born the pessimism of the feature film.
For me, the height of barbarism is to kill one’s youth
Relieved of certain over-emphasized metaphors from his previous works, perhaps more accessible (and mastered) too, Connan is nonetheless a barred work. Iconoclast. Queer. Where the color comes to tear the black and white like a flash with each flash of violence.
A story that assumes the artificiality of its decorations and declares its love for genres often taken from above and confined to the B and Z series, without pinching its nose. And where the fluids, recurring motifs in his filmography, mix as much as the registers.
A cinema that leaves no one indifferent and can cause real rejection as it refuses to stay in the nails. But this is precisely what appeals to his audience, who immerse themselves in the demented visions offered to them by the filmmaker, capable of making their eyes shine like the glitter that often appears on the screen.
UFO Cast
In the middle: Rainer (Elina Lowensohn), the hound of hell
This time, the background is even more present, and the fact of going through the ages with his heroine allows him, in the end, to talk about ours and make fun of current artistic performances (and influencers) in a unsavory finish.
“For me, the height of barbarism is to kill one’s youth”said Bertrand Mandico to Three colours in December 2020, to showcase Conann during its pre-production. Did he know at the time that this concern in the form of a cry from the heart would fit so well with the context in which his film would be shown for the first time? And the extra power that this would give to this unclassifiable work, certain images of which haunt us after the screening?
Now all we have to do is wait for a theatrical release date. Or to take advantage of the reruns of films from the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, which will take place at least in June in Paris.