La Chambre des magiciennes (2000) - film review

Claire, an anthropology student, is suffering from migraine attacks and consults the bizarre Dr Fish.  When the medicine he prescribes for her fails, she insists on being admitted to hospital.  Here, she shares a room with a paralysed younger woman, Odette, who spends all her time watching television, and a strange older woman, Eléonore, about whom little is known.   Silent for most of the time, Eléonore has periodic fits of madness and attacks Claire.  From a nurse, Claire discovers that Eléonore has mysterious healing powers...

La Chambre des magiciennes combines themes of mental illness and occult mysticism using some disturbing visual images.  With a shaky hand-held digital camera, Miller manages to depict the world from the point of view of someone with a neurological illness, the dizzying loss of perspective and contrast being familiar to anyone who has experienced such a condition.  Although the images in the film are comparatively mundane, the way in which they are filmed and assembled is disorientating and, in some instances, quite shocking.

Whilst La Chambre des magiciennes should be commended for its original use of new technology and the way in which it transforms the mundane into some kind of surreal fantasy, it is not an easy film to watch.  There is little in the way of a coherent story and it often appears superficial and self-indulgent.  Indeed most spectators will be left totally perplexed by what is shown.  This is certainly an interesting and worthwhile excursion for Claude Miller, but it is far from being his best work.

© James Travers 2000

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