Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve, 2009): Canada

Reviewed by Charles Hedrick. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

“Polytechnique” is a dramatized version of a true event which occurred in Montreal, Canada. This film is another of “The Quebec Films”, which incidentally are my favorite films of this years Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “Polytechnique“, if you do not mind a morbidly depressing plot line, or extremely disturbing scenes, is a powerful, and engrossing film. The best aspects of this film which must be mentioned are, the unmatched cinematography (of the films in this festival at least), and the gripping nature of this film.

“Polytechnique” is about a young man who hates feminists, so in response to this he decides that the only way for him to resolve his feelings is by killing all of his fellow female engineering students. The film not only follows the unstable shooter, but also a few other students. One is a female student who attends the same school, the other is another male student, whom acts as a kind of observer to the pandemonium. While the film is following the antagonist it shows him “preparing”, and ultimately coming to school with a rifle.  While the film was following the female student it shows her daily life, and ultimately her quest for survival in the school during the shooting. While the film follows the observer it shows another perspective to the shooting. These three perspectives come together very nicely to form a very depressing, yet well thought out dramatization of the events which occurred in Montreal in 1989.

“Polytechnique” is shot with stylish black and white film, along with the impressive cinematography this creates a very, very bleak feeling of despair. The impressive cinematography truly made the audience feel uneasy, for instance there was a scene where the female student is hiding from the shooter, and the camera angle was able to show just how close they were. During this scene the audience held it’s breath in anticipation, and when the shooter moved on the audience let out a sigh of relief. That kind of tight atmosphere can only be achieved when the audience can see truly how much is at stake, that kind of atmosphere is a sign of truly remarkable cinematography.

Another aspect of this film, which is important to discuss, is it’s gripping nature. What I mean by this is that this film not only interests the audience, but it grips them and pulls them into it’s world. An example of how this film achieved this, is a scene where the shooter is sitting in his car loading his gun. While this scene was occurring it was easy to feel an immense wave of disgust and dislike towards the character. Very rarely does an audience have such strong feelings towards a movie, these kinds of strong feelings only are felt towards a movie that has truly gripped the audience and taken them into its world.

This film can be enjoyed by both the people that are in it for the cinematography, actually this film can be enjoyed by anyone for any reason.I strongly suggest “Polytechnique” to those who can handle the emotionally heavy story, and grisly scenes.