Final Cut
**This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
I’m not sure if Michel Hazanavicius made a better film with “Final Cut” than he did with his Oscar-winning “The Artist,” but I think “Final Cut” is a more honest reflection on the struggle of filmmaking than “The Artist.” If you’ve read the description for this horror-comedy, it’s a bit misleading- purposefully so- but it also goes with the wild energy this film is made with. I enjoyed the film- a remake of the Japanese film “One Cut of the Dead”- very much.
We begin as a zombie movie is being filmed. There are long stretches when the director (Romain Duris) is not in sight, but when he is, his approach with his actors is intense. But every moment feels…staged. It seems as though there’s more going on with the shoot- is it beset by real zombies? And is the director doing more than just filming to bring this on?
The first 30 minutes of “Final Cut” have us following the film being made. Our primary focus is on three of the actors- Nadia (Bérénice Bejo), Raphaël (Finnegan Oldfield), and Ava (Matilda Lutz)- as they are going through the filming, and playing scenes. When we get to the end, though, have we really seen a film getting filmed? Yes and no. It’s hard to go into the rest of the film without delving into spoilers, but needless to say, we start to see the first half an hour in a new context, and it’s a reflection on today’s entertainment environment on delivering a film at the dictation of producer requirements and release dates more than the need to make great art.
As the director, Duris is a frazzled, frenzied riot, especially as we get deeper into what led to the film we watch at the beginning. As his wife, Bejo’s Nadia is largely seen in the context of her performance in front of the camera, and it’s filled with wicked pleasures. As we double back, some of the unusual creative choices made at the outset- long stretches without music, dialogue that seems forced, unusual camera choices- make sense, and point to the folly of how films can get made when everyone is in a hurry. This might be one of the most genuinely pleasurable films about making films since “Bowfinger,” also about a director practically forced by circumstance to make some wild decisions. Compared to the lush cinematic experience of “The Artist,” “Final Cut” is shaggier, but it also captures the frustrations and exhilarations of creating art as well as any movie in history. This wild dark comedy is worth taking a bite out of.
