With director’s constantly pushing for their films to be released to coincide with the global climate of today, we have reached a point in cinema where films seem to be touching on topics that have not even stood the test of time to know their impacts yet. Whether it is documentary releases of wars still going on or true crime films touching on cases that aren’t even closed yet, it seems being “timely” has been a trend that filmmakers seem to value.
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The COVID pandemic was a popular topic for filmmakers to capitalize on at the moment, with films being released about it even as we were still stuck inside quarantining. There is a fine line between putting out art that touches on real life topics and pushing them out to establish a “real-time” phenomenon.
Director Bertand Bonello released Coma in France in 2022 during a time when the worst of the pandemic was over but it still remained a health emergency across the globe. Coma defies expectations of being another COVID film that feels too early for audience consumption by focusing on the psychological state of his subject in an experimental blend of limbo and reality.
A teenage girl (Louise Labèque) is locked down in her bedroom with the impending global health crisis looming over France. The film progresses through a set of sequences that teeter the line between dreams and reality with various cinematic elements like stop-motion, animation, and live-action sequences. It is clear that Bonello’s purpose for Coma was to develop a film that was based on how it would make the audience feel with its trippy atmosphere rather than give them a coherent plot to follow.
Between our nameless teenager’s obsession with watching videos from online personality Patricia Coma to visualizing her Barbie-like dolls having their own life and struggles, Coma is able to explore how lockdown affected most of us, prompting his lead character to sit with herself and her own consciousness in a time where we would never have had to.
The film’s utilization of eerie “dreamlike” sequences further shows how scary it was for individuals during lockdown to navigate our minds, going places within it that were never meant to be touched. Resulting in a number of people experiencing suicidal thoughts and depression maybe for the first time in their lives, Bonello’s experimental handle on Coma put into perspective how on the outside we were fearful of a health crisis but what was even more frightening was how seclusion ate away at our minds day in and day out.
The stop motion scenes our teenager’s dolls are involved in and the animated sequences of her having conversations with various individuals skillfully portray how being trapped within our own minds will eventually cause us to project thoughts on outside influences. Our protagonist constantly having to exercise her mind in a “normal fashion” rather than having to sit with herself results in these scenes outside of reality in order for her to exercise her brain to escape. The more grotesque and strange dialogue and happenings result from this time in life when not only could we not escape our houses but we couldn’t escape ourselves. Bonello’s style in Coma strikes this balance well.
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Free will versus its illusion is a major question that Coma tackles, never giving us an answer but instead a trip through our teenager’s psyche where, in the end, the unknown is the most terrifying part. The grainy and depressing “dream” world he establishes feels as gloomy as where our minds went during our own pandemic, where even our dream state of freedom couldn’t even let us escape from our reality.
Coma is a great example of taking an issue in time and creating a film that touches on the reality of our feelings rather than the reality of our physical situation. Bertrand Bonello’s unique flair sets itself apart in a way that will be more long lasting.
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