The film "The Separator". Reviews of the daring project of Xavier Jeans

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Trying to best realize their creative idea, directors sometimes put their characters in a closed space. The dimensions of the rooms vary: the heroes have to languish in a space shuttle, a room, and even in a coffin. The film "The Divider" (2011) belongs to this series, covering the viewer with claustrophobia in it is present to the maximum. The action takes place within the basement of an apartment building. The creation of Xavier Jeans looks great, especially if the viewer loves intense bloody psychological thrillers on the verge of horror.

Post-apocalyptic horror film

French director Xavier Jeans is an ambiguous visionary. On the one hand, the public stigmatized him as a director after, to put it mildly, the unsuccessful film adaptation of "Hitman", on the other hand, he filmed "Border" - the most straightforward and tough horror of the entire wave of Frenchextremist cinema. Then Zhans decided to try his hand at post-apocalyptic territory. In the film "The Divider" he mixed several genres and diluted the narrative with clip editing. The director embodied his idea with such naturalism that other viewers felt sick while watching. Naturally, the tape received an age limit - R. Perhaps that is why the film "The Divider" in the reviews is often positioned by the audience as a post-apocalyptic horror. Film critics tend to define the project as a thriller.

The project premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 13, 2011.

Storyline Description

The plot of the film "The Divider" takes place in the basement of a high-rise building in the city of New York. It becomes a rescue bunker for a group of characters after a nuclear attack on the metropolis. Arriving missiles are reflected in the eyes of one of the heroines of the picture in the first episode. After the start of the attack, eight heroes manage to run into the basement. The bunker was prepared for this scenario by firefighter Mickey. The man, accordingly, declares himself in charge and sets the rules, allocates a room for everyone, distributes water and food. All the unfortunate are strictly forbidden to enter his room, hung with photographs from the service. In the future, the atmosphere heats up to the limit, tearing off the masks and exposing all the vices of the characters.

The director does not change his habits: if in the "Border" Nazi cannibals act as villains, then in the movie of 2011 onthe unfortunate inhabitants of the bunker will be hunted down by Asian military men, presumably from North Korea.

Challenge to the public

Gray, hopeless (in the literal sense - the color scheme of the film is deliberately reduced to zero), an extremely pessimistic picture invites the viewer not to build illusions. Xavier Jeans focuses on the fact that in hopeless circumstances, human norms of morality, the laws of civilization do not mean anything. A person turns into an animal and in order to survive, he is not ashamed of anything or anyone.

As the authors of the reviews emphasize, in the movie "The Divider" this idea is expressed so clearly that the tape, which was not immediately conceived as an entertainment movie, expectedly failed at the wide box office. With an initial budget of $3,000,000, the box office did not reach $100,000.

Not looking for compromises with the traditional predilections of the public and genre trends, the director did not leave a single character in the bunker that was not subject to moral degradation. This was extremely difficult for the audience, in need of a positive hero to empathize with. Therefore, audience reviews of the film "The Divider" are rather negative. Tape rating according to IMDb: 5.80.

Criticism

The Divider (2011) received no less negative reviews from film critics. Foreign film experts literally threw stones at the tape. On the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the picture has a rating of 25%: it is based on 53 reviews, the authorswho gave the project 4 points out of 10 possible. On Metacritic, Xavier Jeans's entry has a score of 28 out of 100 based on 17 critic reviews, reflecting generally unfavorable reviews.

To be fair, it's worth mentioning that there are reviewers who believe that such projects are necessary, as they bring the viewer down to earth. Just so that the public does not forget what a person consists of. But you can hardly find a cinephile who has watched The Divider twice.

Expectations and reality

Most of the reviews for The Divider have stated that they went to the cinema intrigued by the trailer, which is a slicing of jumpskare and frightening images. Although Zhans' work lacks sharp movements and eerie situations, oily suspense, all these horror elements look like a ransom for fans of the genre. The director is really only interested in the story of the degradation of characters, he does not hesitate to pull out the emotional experiences of the characters on any occasion. All shades of their inner state are in full view: denial, anger, skepticism, fear, doubt, panic… In this regard, film critics often compare the picture with the film "Blindness" by Fernando Meirelles. At the same time, the finale of the main storyline is dynamic and dramatic. The surviving heroine, who left her loved ones to die, comes to the surface and sees the ruins of the city and the sky covered with a layer of ash.

For the future

By the way, XavierZhans will demonstrate in his next work, also in the horror genre, “The Conjuring. Our days . This project has nothing to do with the cult horror film by James Wan. This is a story familiar to fans of the genre about the expulsion of a demon, transferred by Jans to the entourage of the Orthodox Church, unfolding in the scenery of a Romanian village.