NYFF: "Through the Forest."

An arty and thoroughly irritating sliver of a film from Jean-Paul Civeyrac, "Through the Forest" picks up with a woman climbing out of the bed she's been sharing with her lover. He's content to lounge, but she gets up, tries out a few hairstyles in the mirror, drapes herself in a scarf, and sings him a song (the soundtrack suddenly picks up to give her an instrumental accompaniment). She leaves the room, and when she comes back he's gone, and what was a sunny day has become rainy. We learn that the man, Renaud (Aurélien Wiik), has actually been dead for three months, and the woman, Armelle (Camille Berthomier), is convinced that he is visiting her regardless. Her practical sister Bérénice thinks she's crazy; her free-spirited sister Roxane thinks she should see a medium. She sees a medium. The medium tells her her lover died in an automobile accident by the ocean; he didn't, he died in the woods, but this doesn't matter to Armelle — she's more interested in the fact that another man at the medium's apartment bears a striking resemblance to the dead Renaud.

The notable thing about Civeyrac's film is that its 65-minute runtime is taken up by only ten long shots, and these aren't camera-left-in-the-corner shots, these are painstakingly choreographed takes that wander from room to room, the camera swooping through hallways, tracking conversations, wandering away and then returning to characters. As a technical achievement, it's impressive; they're gorgeous. But ack, that story! Swollen and silly with portentousness, saddled with a petulant heroine, and falling half-heartedly halfway between "Solaris" and "Ghost" — all the dazzling camerawork in the world couldn't make it worthwhile.

"À travers la forêt (Through the Forest)" currently has no US distributor.

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