{"id":8301,"date":"2010-02-22T20:57:04","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T04:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8301"},"modified":"2010-02-23T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T17:51:15","slug":"les-signes-vitaux-sophie-deraspe-2009-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8301","title":{"rendered":"Les Signes Vitaux (Sophie Deraspe, 2009): Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau<\/a>. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This film begins at the end. What? Like Middle Men?<\/em> No, not by any stretch of the imagination.\u00a0Vital Signs<\/a><\/em> begins at The End\u2014 death\u2014and pretty much stays there for the next 90 minutes. Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s Sophie Deraspe directs her second feature with a realism that dissolves any romanticism around the act of dying. Cinematically speaking, this death does not play chess.<\/p>\n

Deraspe probes the meaning of mortality through the character Simone, a young woman who leaves Harvard after the death of her grandmother and who begins to volunteer at the bedsides of the dying. As Simone gives herself to the sick and elderly (who are in morbid re-supply) it becomes clear that her disconnect from her own life (and tr\u00e8s Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois <\/em>rockstar boyfriend) is the real killer.<\/p>\n

There are some creative twists (handicaps and questionable murder) but the bulk of the film relies upon character development, and since the supporting cast mostly just dies, the story is left in the hands of Simone, who drifts between life and death in nihilistic woe. Interestingly, as Deraspe revealed in our discussion, she actually wrote the script \u00a0for then non-actress Marie-Helene Bellavance after seeing her inspirational performance as a \u201cvisual artist\u201d. Risky, yes, but the\u00a0 seemingly effortless vulnerability and depth in Bellavance\u2019s portrayal of Simone is penetrating and proof of Deraspe’s directorial intuition.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Deraspe\u2019s ability to recreate a natural ambiance in film is remarkable(and I suspect it stems from her background in documentary). As writer, director, and DP, Deraspe composes continuity in dialogue, acting, and cinematography that lets this film sink into a pensive and serious tone. From the onset we are aware that the message is to live life fully, but we must experience Simone\u2019s subdued journey of self-discovery to understand the why and how\u2026 and for those of you who are still worrying: the people were only acting<\/em> like they were dying!<\/p>\n

On a lighter note, the musical interludes are glorious. Just as the synthesizer-induced death rattle grows unbearable, the film cuts to a quirky Coen Brothers-ish character as he takes the institution stage to perform a deadpan number on the electric guitar or croon a dreamily demented version of \u201cUnder the Sea\u201d . The bright, upbeat colors of these straight-on shots juxtaposed with the bluish, sterility of the suspended-angle deathbed scenes bring necessary comic relief.<\/p>\n

Listening to Sophie Deraspe describe her flexible \u00a0approach to filmmaking and consequently watching her creative vision made me very proud of my country (a country that pays its artists!). Yet walking away from\u00a0Les Signes Vitaux, <\/em>I remain unconvinced as to why we need to reproduce the real world\u2014and death\u2014when it is already here..?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010. This film begins at the end. What? Like Middle Men? No, not by any stretch of the imagination.\u00a0Vital Signs begins at The End\u2014 death\u2014and pretty much stays there for the next 90 minutes. Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s Sophie Deraspe directs her second feature with a realism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}