Berlinale: Boris without Béatrice ( Boris sans Béatrice )

Boris without Béatrice (Boris sans Béatrice)
Directed by Denis Côté
Starring James Hyndman, Simone-Élise Girard, Denis Lavant, Isolda Dychauk, Dounia Sichov and Bruce LaBruce

by Joanna Orland

Boris Malinovsky is an arrogant bourgeois prick.  He goes about life thinking he’s above others, valuing material goods and status symbols over human relations.  His world begins to waver as his wife Béatrice, a minister in the Canadian government, is bedridden suffering from melancholia.  As his wife’s condition worsens, Boris is visited by a mysterious man who claims that the key to Béatrice’s recovery is for Boris to become a better person.

Referencing the arc of a Greek Tragedy, Boris sans Béatrice is far too pretentious of a film to convey any deeper meaning than a selfish man’s journey of self discovery.  The film comes across as arrogant as Boris himself, and while some shots are beautiful to the eye (the opening helicopter scene for instance), the plot and characters remain as vacuous as Boris’ materialism.