THE “WORLD’S” OPINION – MUST SEE
The American West, in the 1860s. Cavalcades, shootings and hangings… Till the end of the worldthe second film directed and performed by Viggo Mortensen, is a western according to the rules of the art except that its central figure is a woman: Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps), a florist of Quebec origin, agrees to leave San Francisco to live with Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen), a Danish-born carpenter, in Nevada, where he has taken up residence.
Arriving at Elk Flats, she discovers an abandoned house, at the bottom of a dry and stony ravine, on the edge of a forest. From then on, the film’s mission is to follow his efforts to transform the place into a little flowery paradise. Producing singular images – piles of manure and tulips, cowboys and planters – this My Fair Lady des canyons establishes a somewhat naive and outdated relationship with a femininity that recalls the fairies of the equipped homes of the 1950s and 1960s. We could almost hear this little nursery rhyme found in an old manners manual… “If your home isn’t cheerful and welcoming, don’t expect your husband to spend more time there than necessary…” Note that Mortensen was a flower deliveryman before becoming an actor.
Viv has little in common with Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley or Belle Starr, the legendary adventurers, snipers and criminals of the Wild West. It’s hard to imagine her chasing Gregory Peck with her rifle like Jennifer Jones did in Duel in the sun (King Vidor, 1946) or as a vigilante at the head of a battalion of henchmen like Barbara Stanwyck in Forty killers (Samuel Fuller, 1957). His banality, in fact less archetypal, gives his character a subtle complexity. Dignified in her choices and trials, Viv is both loving and uncompromising, going to great lengths to clean, plant, mother and work. Independent above all.
Knight
When the Civil War broke out, Holger decided to join the army alongside the Union troops. Viv must now survive among the men who have taken control of the city, the corrupt mayor and a major landowner, and resist the sexual assaults of the latter’s son. Behind the counter of a more or less frequentable restaurant, she is now closer to Felicia Farr, singer turned bistro owner, in The Last Caravan (Delmer Daves, 1956)… By plunging into the virile western of bad boys, this second part deprives itself of the romantic flashes of the director, who is never as inventive as when he films the couple.
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