- This essay will inevitably contain spoilers!
'C.R.A.Z.Y.' (2005)
- A review essay by Richard Harrison (2007)
Given the glut of predictable family Christmas films emanating from
Hollywood each year it is a breath of fresh air to see a film that
takes Christmas as its apex yet casts a completely different slant upon
it. Such a film is C.R.A.Z.Y., an exhilarating Canadian 2005
release directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, which first appeared in the UK
during a not-so-wintry April 2006. The director himself has succinctly
described his film thus:
‘It's a story of two love affairs. A father's love for his five
sons. And one son's love for his father, a love so strong it compels
him to live a lie. That son is Zac Beaulieu, born on the 25th of
December 1960, different from all his brothers, but desperate to fit
in. During the next 20 years, life takes Zac on a surprising and
unexpected journey that ultimately leads him to accept his true nature
and, even more importantly, leads his father to love him for who he
really is. A mystical fable about a modern-day Christ-like figure,
"C.R.A.Z.Y" exudes the beauty, the poetry and the madness of the human
spirit in all its contradictions.’
Taking ten years to move between idea and cinema screens worldwide, C.R.A.Z.Y.
is an unusual film in that it outsold both Harry Potter and Star
Wars releases on DVD in Quebec, yet was independently financed by
its director Jean-Marc Vallee. It is also an interesting film in being French-Canadian
(as opposed to an English-Canadian release such as Sugar(2004)
for example). Widely celebrated and admired, the film is a vastly
complex odyssey which weaves a magical aura of cinematic style, finely
observed performances and an evocative soundtrack (the financing of
which had a large impact on the budget). Although its intricacy is hard
to put into words, C.R.A.Z.Y. is not purely an effective blend
of gripping narrative and ebullience of style, but also one of the
finest films to come out of not only Canada but anywhere on Earth.
One key strength of the film is that all members of the dysfunctional
family it presents, from Monsieur and Madame Beaulieu through to their
five sons, are actually very likable, even though they do have some
less than endearing characteristics (even Zac describes three of his
brothers as “morons”!). Zac becomes our main focus from the first
frame, however, establishing a strong bond between the viewer and his
character.
From its first words and images C.R.A.Z.Y. promises its
audience something different- the lilting opening to Elvis Presley’s Santa
Claus Is Back In Town fading in over images of a foetus in the womb
is accompanied by the mature Zac’s voiceover: ‘As far back as I can
remember;/I’ve hated Christmas’ before we are shown the first view of
the Beaulieu family, united and happy. The birth of Zac, seemingly a
happy event, soon brings strains to this placid, conventional
background however, especially when his Mother and Father clash over a
present for their son as Zac (and the audience) watch through the car’s
wing mirror. Early vignettes of Zac’s life in this vein serve several
key narrative functions- they establish the emergence of the boy’s
character, align the audience closely with him and also draw attention
to the relationship with his parents which comes under strain
throughout the film.
One of the many interesting aspects of C.R.A.Z.Y. is the
parallels created between characters and situations- for example those
between Zac and his Mother. We first see this when Zac suffers a wet
dream in the bed at Summer Camp- the rain that pours down both there
and at home link him to his Mother by the use of Earth elements, the
subsequent cross-cutting between the boy and Madame Beaulieu- both
breathing deeply- and their respective positioning suggest a mirror
image and a powerful bond. As the young Zac is immersed in water by two
unforgiving contemporaries there is a flash cut- and the older Zac (who
will dominate the film) is seen, rising not from water but from his bed
but catching his breath as though he were emerging from water. The use
of the images of the teenage Zac (superbly played by Marc-Andre
Grondin) accompanied by Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond
moves the film from Zac’s childhood into his teenage years and in doing
so from the realms of superb filmmaking into the realms of the
poetically sublime.
Zac’s teenage incarnation is awash with irony- he exercises hard yet
smokes, and the Rolling Stones song Sympathy For The Devil runs
through his head during Midnight Mass- and he imagines the congregation
reacting to it and lifting him up to the ceiling. Of course, this is
another parallel to earlier in the film (when the young Zac imagines
the Mass being curtailed), but this is more extreme- more outlandish-
symbolising the direction Zac himself is taking. This incident swiftly
moves on to Zac’s 15th birthday party and seeing his coquettish Cousin
Brigitte and her boyfriend Paul, which establishes Zac as a confused
young man who admires his Cousin’s sense of élan yet
seems to admire her boyfriend more.
This sexual confusion is underlined in one of the most memorable scenes
in the film when Michelle has left Zac alone in his bedroom. Putting a
record (Space Oddity by David Bowie) on and falling back on his
bed, Zac lights a cigarette. As the smoke pervades his senses, he
remembers the sensuous moment of watching Brigitte and Paul dance at
the party, the return image of Zac’s face dissolving in the smoke to
his face next to that of Brigitte and Paul. A fast zoom out shows them
to be beside a swimming pool, Zac’s smoke ring then moving up to space
before a fast tilt down brings everything back to reality again, but it
is a different reality- a moment of self-realisation. Here, in one of
the greatest moments in the film, Zac is shown moving slowly and miming
in time to the song. Using the physique of Marc-Andre Grondin to great
effect, the gradual track in to the mirror then slowly dissolves but
once. This is all the editing that is required to assemble a simple but
highly effective moment which firmly demarcates Zac’s change in sexual
direction, this change being foregrounded by his brother Antoine who
breaks up the moment to complain that Zac is making the family look
idiotic in his unconventional behaviour.
The gulf between what Zac is and what his family (particularly his
Father) want him to be is at the heart of C.R.A.Z.Y., but there
is also the ever-present complex interaction of memory and desire.
Thus, as Zac later rides a motorbike through the streets the low angle
and Patsy Cline song Crazy are accompanied by a flashback to
his birthday party and Brigitte and Paul’s dance once again. His desire
to bump into Brigitte is subsequently realised, but the presence of her
new beau Emilio dashes Zac’s hopes in crystallising Paul’s
absence. Then, as the song fades away, there is another moment when Zac
tries to reconcile Fate as he drives toward a red traffic light- ‘I
would be cured of my asthma…/if I only managed to get through’. This
link between physical health and success in love references the vanity
of youth who believe that physical attractiveness is the only way of
obtaining love. This point in the film is also marked in its very
refusal to adhere to traditional narrative conventions- no one in the
film is safe, the precariousness of the human condition is ever
present…mortality waits in the wings ready for the curtain call which
may occur at any moment, not necessarily at the end.
The following segment of the film is notable for its refusal to shy
away from issues that do confront families in the real world,
presenting prostitution and drug taking within a short space of screen
time. Zac is then seen with the capricious Michelle, but watched by
Toto the Weirdo whom Zac chases off. The danger for Zac is in his
conformity (or lack of it) with sexual norms, but it is also his
uncertainty which is really of concern- he does not really know what he
wants. He then states ‘I want to be like everyone else’, but the
problem is that everyone is different, this unachievable
paradox seeming to mark his character out as one who will be
relentlessly unhappy in a futile search for love. Zac’s confused state
even causes him to turn to violence soon after, and he punches the
unlucky Toto relentlessly- the use of slow motion making the scene more
sorrowful and self-destructive than shocking.
However, Zac does grow closer to achieving love as the snow falls and
he spends time with Toto in the car, but is seen by his Father (here a
parallel can be drawn back to when the young Zac is caught dressing in
his Mother’s clothes by Monsieur Beaulieu). The comparison between
Father and son is marked: both wear similar coloured coats, but one is
done up (both against the cold but also repressing any outburst of
love) and one open (symbolising a more carefree and liberal lifestyle).
Later, in another striking scene, Zac (the snow glistening on his hair
and face) sees Paul across a record-shop. This time, ironically, Zac
cannot take action to achieve his desired meeting with Paul, but
attempts action to rectify his asthmatic condition instead- ‘I would be
cured/if I could simply make it through the storm’. His arrival at home
sees Zac shivering with cold but also emotionally drained, for he has
achieved his aim this time, the moment of epiphany marked by his face
slipping slowly out of frame to leave that of David Bowie as Ziggy
Stardust, the implication being that Bowie is his protector, his God,
his spiritual salvation.
A film like C.R.A.Z.Y., relying so heavily on time and its
passing, needs to move swiftly yet distinctly between specific time
periods. A transition is achieved directly after the picture of Bowie
is seen by a simple dissolve to the front cover of Time
magazine marking the death of John Lennon which establishes the new
time period as Christmas 1980, and Zac’s 20th birthday. As the
celebratory meal winds down, and Raymond watches another Quebec-set
film on television (Le Martien de Noel, 1971), the seemingly
unified and stable family unit is ultimately undermined by Zac who
watches Raymond’s violent outburst being restrained with an air of
detached amusement, the voice-over admitting ‘how sweet life was since
I had become so happy and fulfilled’, the next shot showing Zac and
Michelle’s passion. That Christian’s wedding finds Zac and Paul
together in the car enjoying a ‘shotgun’ (blowback of cannabis) as they
did after Zac’s 15th birthday party throws this close relationship with
Michelle into some doubt, especially after events conspire against it.
The confrontation between Monsieur Beaulieu and his son in the rain
that concludes the wedding sequence evokes the previous occasions when
Zac’s sexuality is open to parental involvement, but this time there
are no soft snowflakes to temper the moment- Father sends son away into
the rainy night, finally ashamed of his lifestyle.
As well as marking a firm break with his family, this moment also marks
Zac’s physical decline into decadent freefall before his search for
spiritual salvation takes him to Jerusalem. There, suffering, he
telephones his Mother- the connections between them remaining strong
despite their physical distance from each other. Zac’s typically human
reaction to hearing her voice then being unable to speak- overcome by
the sheer emotion of the moment- consolidates the rich understanding of
humanity present across the whole of C.R.A.Z.Y.. Alone in the
desert, Zac’s scan of the bare horizon and his feeling of complete
isolation aligns us yet closer to him and also references the picture
Mrs.Whatshername has on her wall in his loneliness and need of help.
Then, the film returns to the Beaulieu home and Zac’s Mother waking in
the night as if summoned by the spirit of her son who is losing the
very breath of life. In a remarkably spiritual moment she splashes
water towards her mouth, the action being mirrored by Raymond who then
becomes an old man, pouring water onto the prostrate form of Zac in the
sand. The moment of fear (and yet another brush with death) over, Zac
brings himself together and returns home to find any previous domestic
balance displaced by Raymond’s suffering. As the family are united in
their grief, even Monsieur Beaulieu seems to understand Zac: ‘I’d like
to redeem myself/ but I don’t know how’, the moment between Father and
son being a beautiful one of mutual understanding and compassion.
Subsequently, and in another ironic twist, it is Zac who holds the
family together, the reconciliation with his Father being not only
extremely satisfying but beautifully affecting. The tension- and its
release- throughout C.R.A.Z.Y. transcends genre and film
itself, for it presents the emotions and rigours of life in all its
many forms.
Despite its focus on growing up C.R.A.Z.Y. is not purely
another great movie about childhood, however. It is simultaneously an
effortless evocation of an era, a celebration of the many highs and
lows of youth and also a deeply touching film that seeks to express the
feelings that are so tangible yet so elusive- the often unspoken love
between Father and son, the special relationship a boy has with his
Mother and ultimately that whatever happens families survive and pull
together at times of crisis. The only negative aspect to the whole film
is its brilliance, depressing to those who are budding filmmakers yet
inspiring in that someone has attempted to visualise a vast panorama of
human experience and emotion- and succeeded. Brilliant beyond mere
words, C.R.A.Z.Y. is a landmark film that is definitely not
just for Christmas but for all seasons.
'C.R.A.Z.Y.' is available on DVD from Soda Pictures.
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