I do not think it is fair to compare the works of Gaspar Noé (Argentina, 1963) and his wife Lucile Hadzihalilovic (France, 1961) and highlight one over the other. However, it is worth noting that media reporters have given all the recognition to Noé's films, ignoring her works, are little known movies that have not been distributed or promoted like those made by Noé.
Although Hadzihalilovic made her own porno-didactic short (jokingly and seriously) titled «Good Boys Use Condoms» (1998), I believe that she does not resort to explicit sex with the assiduity of Noé. I have her first feature on my list of films to watch, «The Mouth of Jean-Pierre» (1996), a drama about an abused girl, and «Innocence» (2004), about a school for girls, which seems to be her most celebrated movie; and I have already seen «Earwig» (2021), the story of a man who takes care of a girl who wears ice dentures, and now his drama «Evolution», one of the most suggestive and hypnotic films I have ever seen in my life.
Set in a town of lonely streets by the sea, where only Caucasian children and mothers live, «Evolution» tells the story of little Nicolas, who, while swimming and diving one morning, sees the corpse of a boy at the bottom of the sea, with a starfish on his belly. The boy tells his mother and his friends, but they do not believe him. His mother feeds him something that looks like seaweed and noodles and makes him drink a supposed medicine because he is growing. One morning his mother takes him to an austere-looking hospital, where Nicolas must spend the night. A true ordeal then begins for the boy and, without a doubt, for the viewer, who does not understand what is happening, especially when Nicolas discovers that other children (including his friends) are suffering the same (bad) luck and when he follows his mother one night. And sees her participate in a viscous rite with the other mothers... who possibly none of them are mothers... Without having monsters, witches, or apparitions, we discover a terrifying process in the damp and gloomy hospital, without us knowing if the child dreams everything or if it is reality...
Running only 81 minutes, the film, however, feels longer, especially when the director decides to dispense with the obligatory scene in which the events are explained, so typical in mystery or horror films, but rather chains a series of meetings, ultrasound, drawing and surgery sessions, and rare therapies. Filmed in the Canary Islands, with a cast exclusively of children and women, with great visual economy, few sets and special effects, «Evolution» is an overwhelming film experience, which well deserves all the multiple awards it won.
Although Hadzihalilovic made her own porno-didactic short (jokingly and seriously) titled «Good Boys Use Condoms» (1998), I believe that she does not resort to explicit sex with the assiduity of Noé. I have her first feature on my list of films to watch, «The Mouth of Jean-Pierre» (1996), a drama about an abused girl, and «Innocence» (2004), about a school for girls, which seems to be her most celebrated movie; and I have already seen «Earwig» (2021), the story of a man who takes care of a girl who wears ice dentures, and now his drama «Evolution», one of the most suggestive and hypnotic films I have ever seen in my life.
Set in a town of lonely streets by the sea, where only Caucasian children and mothers live, «Evolution» tells the story of little Nicolas, who, while swimming and diving one morning, sees the corpse of a boy at the bottom of the sea, with a starfish on his belly. The boy tells his mother and his friends, but they do not believe him. His mother feeds him something that looks like seaweed and noodles and makes him drink a supposed medicine because he is growing. One morning his mother takes him to an austere-looking hospital, where Nicolas must spend the night. A true ordeal then begins for the boy and, without a doubt, for the viewer, who does not understand what is happening, especially when Nicolas discovers that other children (including his friends) are suffering the same (bad) luck and when he follows his mother one night. And sees her participate in a viscous rite with the other mothers... who possibly none of them are mothers... Without having monsters, witches, or apparitions, we discover a terrifying process in the damp and gloomy hospital, without us knowing if the child dreams everything or if it is reality...
Running only 81 minutes, the film, however, feels longer, especially when the director decides to dispense with the obligatory scene in which the events are explained, so typical in mystery or horror films, but rather chains a series of meetings, ultrasound, drawing and surgery sessions, and rare therapies. Filmed in the Canary Islands, with a cast exclusively of children and women, with great visual economy, few sets and special effects, «Evolution» is an overwhelming film experience, which well deserves all the multiple awards it won.