La carne

A short film in a grand style. David Overbey (Toronto Film Festival): 'Carne only lasts 40 minutes, but Caspar Noé's immense talent explodes across every CinemaScope frame.' In the film use is made of the broad Cinemascope format in a surprising way. And Carne is made with great feeling for style and no less feeling for humour, pitch black humour to be precise. The titles used frequently by Noé are original and often very funny.The central character in the film is a butcher; a horse butcher. (Noé does not balk at filming in full all the cruel details of slaughter.) The butcher lives alone with a mentally-handicapped daughter who cannot look after herself. The butcher has little pleasure in life, but he takes care of his daughter every evening with touching tenderness. The sombre and sometimes bizarre world of the man can be heard as a monologue intérieur on the soundtrack.One day a stranger seems to take advantage of the girl's helplessness. The butcher, already hateful of his surroundings, avenges himself (making excellent use of his skill with a knife) without thinking... on the wrong person.Noé is well aware of the examples in the history of film which involve blood, slaughter and obsessions and Carne has countless allusions to them.