Monsieur Hire - The Pallid Introvert
Quick Thoughts: Monsieur Hire (1989)
An introverted man thinks he finds solace in watching a neighbour through a window.
Monsieur Hire is a poignant film about introversion colliding with extroversion, about a watcher being embraced by their watched. And as much as it then seems like this is about voyeurism - about an act of spying with sexual undertones - Monsieur Hire is not, in my view, for the fact that the introversion in the watcher heavily suppresses his ability to desire. There is then a strange sense of purity embedded into the protagonist of this film, Hire, that imbues imagery with a tacit invite to explore minute visual details. Enveloping yourself in the meaningful close-ups of this film, it then becomes obvious that introversion is a body that unintentionally welcomes the world - hostile or not - and is an entity and space that, as much as it hides from a kind of endocytosis, is vulnerable to being pierced. On the other hand, the world of the extrovert is one that seems inviting, but is quite possibly the opposite.
The sensory brilliance of this film remains in its first two acts as we are made to feel the space of introvert confronted by the force of the extrovert. There is certainly a profundity in the resolution of this conflict. However, whilst the conclusion of this narrative is so strong, much of the third act contains drama that is far less subdued than that we see in the first two acts, and so it feels a little too melodramatic. Ultimately, the final act of this film is not as harmonious as its first two, and so Monsieur Hire is not a masterpiece in my view. It does, however, come close to achieving mastery and so I highly recommend that you immerse yourself into the imagery of this film.
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An introverted man thinks he finds solace in watching a neighbour through a window.
Monsieur Hire is a poignant film about introversion colliding with extroversion, about a watcher being embraced by their watched. And as much as it then seems like this is about voyeurism - about an act of spying with sexual undertones - Monsieur Hire is not, in my view, for the fact that the introversion in the watcher heavily suppresses his ability to desire. There is then a strange sense of purity embedded into the protagonist of this film, Hire, that imbues imagery with a tacit invite to explore minute visual details. Enveloping yourself in the meaningful close-ups of this film, it then becomes obvious that introversion is a body that unintentionally welcomes the world - hostile or not - and is an entity and space that, as much as it hides from a kind of endocytosis, is vulnerable to being pierced. On the other hand, the world of the extrovert is one that seems inviting, but is quite possibly the opposite.
The sensory brilliance of this film remains in its first two acts as we are made to feel the space of introvert confronted by the force of the extrovert. There is certainly a profundity in the resolution of this conflict. However, whilst the conclusion of this narrative is so strong, much of the third act contains drama that is far less subdued than that we see in the first two acts, and so it feels a little too melodramatic. Ultimately, the final act of this film is not as harmonious as its first two, and so Monsieur Hire is not a masterpiece in my view. It does, however, come close to achieving mastery and so I highly recommend that you immerse yourself into the imagery of this film.
Previous post:
Rust & Bone - What It Means To Love A Movie: The Objective-Subjective Cinematic Space
Next post:
End Of The Week Shorts #37
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
