La Cicatrice intérieure

The aesthetic purism and ecstatic simplicity of The Inner Scar brilliantly demonstrates Garrel's sensitivity to the inhospitable beauty not only of the locations in which the film takes place (although in the film itself, nothing literally happens - the movements, gestures, and “actions” of the film and characters are beyond time and they are eternal symbols of conduct, not plots), but also of human relationships: the sad cruelty of emotions, including affection, love, or mythical human search as if from the first epics or epic poems (Clémenti on horseback), in which the rise of man to the world or to another forever misses the target. This is one of Garrel's masterpieces, when he still claimed experimental music and his films approached, even surpassed, the uncompromising nature of films by Straub and Huillet, Godard, or W. Schroeter at that time (who, however, like Straub, supplemented his puristic static shots with classical music or opera). It's a pity that Garrel's later films, although still of great quality, adopted much of the style of J. Eustache or Rohmer. (25/09/2016)