[Berlinale 2021, Compétition] “Wheel of fortune and fantasy”: cruel sentimental games, superbly filmed

Presented at the Berlinale 2021, in Competition forOurs d’or, Wheel of fortune and fantasy is a film that first tells the story of Meiko, her ex-lover Kazu, and her friend Gumi. Gumi, who one day tells Meiko about a man she just met, who himself described to her as “her ex-girlfriend,” who made her suspicious of being in love. . It turns out that this man is Kazu, and the ex, Meiko, therefore. But in the end, the latter will not have the courage to cry out loud and clear, in front of Gumi, the true feelings she experienced, and still feels, for her former lover, and also to recognize her wrongs: she will imagine doing it.

The heroines of the two other stories composing Wheel of fortune and fantasy will have the same wrong: that of dreaming that the love relationships they are waiting for, or that they have fantasized about, have exactly the exciting form they want. At the risk of making some pretty serious mistakes.

Long dialogue scenes, and cruelty

From the first story of this film signed by the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Senses, Asako Chapters 1 and 2, Passion), we dive into long sequences of conversation about the complexity of feelings, and the reactions to have in front of them, to avoid suffering as much as possible. At the same time, we quickly realize that some characters who participate in these exchanges play double games, not revealing everything they have in mind or trying to trap their interlocutor. The talent and especially theimmense naturalness of the performers – extraordinary, those of the third segment reaching in particular splendid heights in their playing – help to make these scenes gripping, especially since, in some of these long passages, Hamaguchi has recourse to a very small number of plans. The form of his film appears simple, and fair. All the more sharp and tangy.

Soon, in the middle of the second story, a long dialogue sequence takes place, and evokes themes similar to the previous ones (with more emphasis on sex). The tone goes up a notch in the acidity, compared to the first segment of the film: a young woman reads to a writer a sex scene taken from one of his novels, in order to trap him. In doing so, she traps herself, poorly controlling her attraction.

Superbly filmed, and violent

Seemingly peaceful, the atmosphere of the film ends up being, in fact, quite charged with violence. And within the scenes, when suddenly, at the turn of a moment of anger, a brutal gesture arises, it rings even louder, by contrast. Likewise on the production side, when the filmmaker has recourse to a zoom short and dry, to show that a character imagines a violent situation, the effect is striking, and the accuracy remains.

Also the way in which he brings up, as a sudden climax of a very corrosive verbal exchange, frontal shots of a man and a woman attracted to each other, and resenting each other a little at the same time , remains just as bright: the expressions on their faces, between desire and brutality, mark. He invites his spectators to cruel and magnificent games, dissecting feelings with a touch of humor. The latter does not save anyone from the abysses of passion and attraction, brilliantly opened in this virtuoso film …

Wheel of fortune and fantasy, film telling three stories following Ryusuke Hamaguchi, is presented as part of the Berlinale 2021, in Competition for the Golden Bear.

Visuals: © 2021 Neopa / Fictive

–