VÉTÉRANE

BY: Dante Fresse

A house MILF, Camélia, must examine her place with the other girls in an erotic massage parlour in Montreal. Director Pier-Phillipe Chevigny brings this story to life with a modern aesthetic. He builds a stylized ambiance through colorful, eccentric lighting and poignant, sustained tracking shots, which capture the sense of time that lingers like a weight over these characters. Camélia searches for her identity and self as the barriers of society construct her from all sides.

Gabriel Brault-Tardif is the cinematographer responsible for the look of the film. It pops out at you with vibrant shades of pink of purple while you walk through the massage parlour. Chevigny’s close-ups capture the hopelessness of these characters, using haunting shot compositions to frame actors in the center of scenes accentuate their emotions and reactions. Sandrine Bisson, who plays Camelia, gives a striking and moving performance, which generates the drama in scenes and serves as the heart of this film.

VÉTÉRANE is a dark drama, edging on erotic melodrama, which emotionally grips the viewer from beginning to end. You are left in suspense watching Camélia as she learns to do what it takes to survive. The hostility with which the girls treat one another in this competitive environment comes through in the surface acts of the massage parlour. Camélia’s boss, Ludo, played by Danny Gilmore, feeds the tension by pushing Camélia to fit into an ultimatum: find your niche or get out. This film is jarring and will captivate you from start to finish.

VÉTÉRANE has won awards at Gala Prends Ça Court, San Diego International Film Festival, Cinema on the Bayou, and many others. It is distributed by H264 and has a production list with innumerable names featured. VÉTÉRANE has over 14,000 plays and is one of this week’s Staff Picks for Vimeo.