|
''Martyrs'' is a 2008 horror film written and directed by Pascal Laugier. It was first screened during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival at the Marché du Film, and the film's French release was on 3 September 2008. The American rights for the film were purchased by the Weinstein Company and the company was responsible for the release of the DVD in April 2009. The film has been associated with the New French Extremity movement. ==Plot== The film begins with a young girl, Lucie Jurin, as she escapes from a disused abattoir where she has been imprisoned and physically abused for a long period of time. No signs of sexual abuse are identified, and the perpetrators and their motivations remain a mystery. Lucie is placed in an orphanage, where she is befriended by a young girl named Anna Assaoui. Anna soon discovers that Lucie believes that she is constantly being terrorized by a ghoulish creature; a horrible, disfigured, emaciated woman. Fifteen years later, Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï) bursts into the home of an apparently normal family, the Belfonds -- Gabrielle, her husband, and their children Antoine and Marie -- and seemingly kills them all with a shotgun. Elsewhere, Anna (Morjana Alaoui) waits in a remote location to hear from Lucie. Although Anna knows that Lucie believes that Gabrielle and her husband are the people responsible for her childhood abuse, she had thought Lucie only intended to keep them under surveillance and is horrified when Lucie calls her to tell her that she has killed them. Upon arriving, Anna is appalled by the carnage, and worries that Lucie may have killed the wrong people. Anna discovers that Gabrielle is still alive and tries to help her escape. Unfortunately, the two are discovered by Lucie, who bludgeons Gabrielle to death. Lucie is again attacked by the scarred creature, but Anna only sees Lucie hurting herself; the 'creature' is nothing more than a psychological manifestation of Lucie's guilt for leaving behind another girl who was also imprisoned and tortured with her as a child. Lucie tells the apparition that she killed its tormentors and that it can rest, but it has no effect. Lucie finally realizes that her insanity will never leave her and slits her throat. She dies in Anna's arms. The next day, a melancholy Anna, still at the family's house, telephones her mother, from whom she has been estranged for two years, in part due to her mother's low opinion of Lucie; their conversation implies that Anna suffered abuse from her parents as a child. Anna notices a hidden passage and discovers a secret underground chamber. Imprisoned within is a horribly tortured woman, Sarah Dutreuil, covered in scars, with strange metal contraptions attached to her head and lower body, proving that Lucie was right about the family's involvement in torture. Despite the risk, Anna helps Sarah and cleans her wounds, but a group of strangers arrive and shoot Sarah dead. Captured, Anna meets their leader, an elderly lady referred to only as Mademoiselle. While her underlings bury the Belfonds, Lucie and Sarah, Mademoiselle explains that she belongs to a secret philosophical society seeking to discover the secrets of the afterlife through the creation of "martyrs". She also explains that their society was responsible for Lucie's childhood kidnapping, as she was one of their earlier test subjects, and Gabrielle Belfond was her primary torturer. Their experiments inflict systematic acts of torture upon young women in the belief that their suffering will result in a transcendental insight into the world beyond this one. So far, all of their attempts have failed, and they have only created "victims." As a result of her selfless actions of refusing to desert Lucie and of helping Sarah, Anna becomes the group's latest subject and is imprisoned in a chamber, just as Lucie was years before. After a period, during which she is repeatedly beaten and degraded, Anna hallucinates a conversation with Lucie, who tells her to "let go" so she won't be afraid any more. Soon after, Anna is told she has progressed further than any other test subject, and has reached the "final stage" and will suffer no more. Anna is taken to a surgeon and is flayed alive. She survives the procedure, entering a state that is described as being "euphoric" and likened to achieving transcendence. Mademoiselle arrives, eager to speak to Anna about her experience. Anna turns to her and whispers into her ear. Members of the society gather at the house to learn of the insights Anna shared with Mademoiselle. During his welcome speech, Mademoiselle's assistant, Etienne, mentions that there have been only four previous martyrs, all of whom died before imparting information. Later, while Mademoiselle prepares herself, Etienne asks her if what Anna said was clear and precise. Mademoiselle confirms that there is no room for interpretation, then asks him if he could imagine what comes after death. When he says no, she tells him to "keep doubting" and places a revolver in her mouth and shoots herself, implying that what Anna told her was too terrible for her to live with. An intertitle informs the audience that "martyr" is Greek for "witness", followed by the last shot of the film before it cuts to black; a slow zoom into the face of the skinned Anna accompanied by an eerie chorus of voices. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Martyrs (2008 film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|