COME IN FROM THE COLD

Abe Callard’s fiction is difficult to define at first. What is it? A modern Christmas tale set on the University of Chicago campus? A horror story, strewn with sociological observations and witticisms from the Chinese diaspora, stranded in a country in which it has yet to find its bearings? Or just a vlog, some sort of hyper-contemporary iteration of found footage? What is certain is that the film is haunted by paradoxical, even contradictory, references, inventing the missing link between The Blair Witch Project and Jean Eustache’s cinema. On screen, the village itself is completely empty: the actor’s speech (delivered by Eric Huang, a remarkable discovery) drives the investigation, offering a wealth of clues to latch onto. A murky story whose pieces are carefully scattered throughout, and the resolution too surprising to be disclosed. The precious promise made by Come In From the Cold – that speech is an act in and of itself – is all the more compelling by being subverted at its very core, stripped of the refinement that has turned conversation into an act of nobility. Nothing of the sort here: by borrowing the conventions of the least elevated form of videomaking – vlog storytelling – Abe Callard quietly invents a way of making films with no more at his disposal than a student’s studio and a somewhat grimy camera.  

Pierre Guidez

Traduction : Aurore Kahan