Film: The Ordeal
Release date: 27th March 2006
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Fabrice Du Welz
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon, Jean-Luc Couchard, Brigitte Lahaie
Genre: Drama/Horror
Studio: Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium/France/Luxembourg
The Ordeal is a film which lives up to its title to the most disturbing degrees. We have seen violent locals in the English countryside in Straw Dogs, Hillbilly cannibals in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and house invaders in rural Austria with Haneke’s Funny Games. Set in the deep French countryside, we are presented here with some country folk the likes of which we have never seen before.
Marc Stevens is a young cabaret singer who travels and performs in rural Belgium. Following a show at an elderly peoples’ home, Marc turns down the advances of two women - the first of which is one of the home’s residents - but Marc is set to attract the affections of much stranger suitors.
On the move through the wilderness of the Ardennes, Marc’s van breaks down on a country road. An oddball stranger guides him to the home of recluse Mr. Bartel in search of a place to stay for the night. Bartel is more than happy to have Marc stay, and offers his home until Marc’s van is fixed. The two connect over their love of entertainment; Bartel claims to have once been a comic. However, Marc soon notices some oddities in Bartel.
The man begins looking through Marc’s belongings, opposes him leaving to go to the nearby village, and becomes more and more distressed as he tells Marc of his estranged wife. Marc awakes one morning to discover his van being destroyed before he is knocked unconscious.
Marc awakes later bound to a chair, he has been dressed in a ladies summer dress and Bartel is shaving his head to make him unattractive to the other villagers. Bartel is convinced that Marc has more than just a passing resemblance to his wife, and gives a chilling warning: “Try to leave me again and I’ll split you like a log…”
Du Welz’s psychotic horror presents some deeply affecting images, but the comic tone is undeniable - were this not the case, it would make the film very hard to watch. The influences are clear, and we are treated to an ensemble of snarling farmers, perverted villagers and leering pub regulars - it is like watching an extreme version of the locals from Straw Dogs.
Fans of extreme cinema are in for a treat as Du Welz is not shy to push the boundaries - the sustained tone of weird is set about early on as we see a desperate seventy-something lady reaching for Marc’s groin. This doesn’t quite serve to prepare us for the bestiality, sodomy and various other tortures to come, but is a definite signifier to get out while you still can!
Viewers less used to this sort of darker than night comedy may struggle to see the fun in it, but this is material the league of gents would find rife for parody. Whether it’s the perverted captor giving himself a cheeky eyebrow raise and wink bed getting into bed with Marc, or an elderly lady branding herself a “silly whore,” you will more often find yourself tutting and hiding a grin, as opposed to reaching for the sick bucket.
As controversial as the subject matter may be, some of the direction is undeniably sound, and we are treated to two unforgettable scenes. Fans of Irreversible will know cinematographer Benoit Dobie for his captivating stylistics, and he showcases them again here: a scene at Christmas dinner breaks into an insane mix of laughter and desperate crying as the camera circles the table. The panic and claustrophobia are portrayed with pace as the camera moves as frantically as the action it is capturing.
Viewers will remember also the pub scene for which this film will always be associated. As Bartel threatens and leaves a pub load of curiously sized, slack jawed yokels, the barroom breaks out into an almost ritualistic dance of the disturbed. The high-pitched piano is haunting and will stay in your head long after the film’s climax, but it is the image of the freaks on show bopping and stamping that really stays with you.
As the film’s protagonist Marc is more victim than hero, Laurent Lukas plays the part as dumbfounded as the audience - and it really is a strong performance. He is the most believable thing in the film, and his suffocating tears and cries of anxiety are heartfelt.
This is cinema at its most bizarre. Du Welz contributes a truly out of the ordinary addition to a sub-genre that rarely strays away from Hillbilly America. It is hard to watch but harder to turn away from. This will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for fans of the excessive, this is a must see. LW
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