“Disco Boy” Review: French Foreign Legion Drama Bluntly Portrays The Horrors Of War

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22 Feb, 2023

“Disco Boy” Review: French Foreign Legion Drama Bluntly Portrays The Horrors Of War

It would be an understatement to call "Disco Boy" sort of a cousin of "Beau Travail", but the comparisons are not entirely appropriate. While Claire Denis' "Sight and Sound" topped the charts, here's a tour with the French Foreign Legion, another piece of an old colonial act, among a quiet stack that finds its best expression in the rhythms of the night. So let's put these comparisons aside directly and with a certain military efficiency befitting both films: while director Giacomo Abbruzzese pays sincere homage to his creative ancestors, his first film stands (and spins and shakes) on its own.

Constricted and captured by another intensely physical twist by Franz Rogowski, Disco Boy follows an undocumented migrant whose name, identity, nationality and, it seems, his own spiritual meaning is always on the move - the undocumented migrant.

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The actor enters the film as Alexei, a former Belarusian prisoner who quietly crosses Poland on his way to a better life. Why did you choose France as your final destination? Why not? Aleksey has learned elementary French “from the movies,” says Rogowski, spitting out odd bits of dialogue as if he needs to exorcise the poison quickly, but for the most part, he’s just following the example of a more experienced travel companion. , Mikhail (Mikhal Balitsky). However, the journey is not without risks, and when our vanguard encounters a stray dog in the Castle, this fellow traveler Mikhail turns out to be nothing more than a ghost lurking along the way. It won't be the last.

Divided into three chapters with an aesthetic and formal approach and crammed into 90 minutes but covering a good deal of the narrative, Disco Boy follows what could be called "club logic". There are plenty of contrasts across the three chapters: themed dance couples whose interactions and interactions with Alexei guide their path. When Mikhail turned a completely different page in the second chapter, Alexei himself changed. Drowned in a fate less hostile than the road leading there, Alexey the Settler becomes Alex the Legionnaire. And who knows, after five years of conscientious and faithful service, you could become a French citizen.

Long before Abbruzzese opens Chapter 3 with a fitting dance track, "Disco Boy" is full of nocturnal energy. Whether he's trekking through the Carpathian forest like Aleksey or putting his body through military training like Aleksey, Rogowski moves to a relentless pace: menacing electric bass from French producer Vitalik. More of a soundstage than a soundtrack, this metallic white plays with cinematographer Hélène Louvard's decadent lighting schemes to wake up audiences and recreate the first thrill of entering the eerie neon cathedral. Tense and mesmerized, you feel more alert.

However, as an engaging visual and intellectual spectacle, cinema can reach its peak too quickly. With military training and service completed, the second chapter takes us to the field with Alex and his unit in the Niger Delta. For the first (and only) time, Abbruzzese's camera leaves the protagonist behind and instead focuses on Jomo (Morr Ndiaye), a local rebel leading guerrilla attacks against international pimps. This, of course, is what attracts the French community. Would you be surprised if they side with the Big Oil pimps?

Seeking no subtlety or interest, "Disco Boy" presents Jomo and Alex as soldiers of fate and pawns of fate, two sides of the same coin pitting capital against each other. Underlining the brutal message with breathtaking brute-force cinematography, Abruzzese orchestrates a series of raids and counterattacks with selfless skill, delivering the nighttime killer with an infrared glow that hides predators from prey, and illuminating the moment between Alex and Jomo. embankment from the previous chapter. The distance between Poland and Nigeria suddenly disappeared, as if wherever you go, you are there.

In this roundabout way, we see the director attempting to solve a familiar and paradoxical question: How do you make a movie without glorifying war? Offering an answer as the cornerstone of this deadly second act, Abbruzzese takes a knife and simply cuts the knot. Examining the ultimate damage with panoramic helicopter views, Disco Boy is unequivocal about the thrill of such military adventurism and speaks relentlessly of the horrendous moral loss.

These bells are ringing to the end. Returning to France for the third installment and drowning his sorrows in a trendy Parisian nightclub, Alex-together-Alex gets a chance to meet Adoka (Letitia Key). Who is this latest dance couple? A woman associated with the Nigerian mission, or a pure display of military guilt? In this more imaginative rear third, the difference is less significant. With his broader political views already reflected on screen, Abruzzese moves from "club logic" to dream logic, painting the Legionnaire's latest (e)evolution in a style reminiscent of that moment in the night when the walls of reality are crumbling and crumbling.

Of course, style over content can be a pretty effective way to hide a messy story, and you can watch a movie lose its tenacity in real time. But in a tense, elliptical ninety minutes, some awkward final stages hardly seem like fatal flaws. Back and forth and down like a squeaky wheel