In Guiraudie’s sun-drenched, ambling, gently philosophical walkabout, an out-of-work young hairdresser (Isabelle Girardet) makes a pilgrimage to the Causses plateau in search of the ounayes—a mysterious animal she remembers from childhood. Soon she meets a grizzled, slightly older shepherd (played by Guiraudie himself), and the pair set out in search of his missing flock. What follows is a suspended rural idyll punctuated by unexpected run-ins (an aimless, indecisive bandit; a threatening bounty hunter), mid-afternoon lovemaking, bursts of conversation and stretches of silence, all suffused with a sense of expectation and longing.
Force of Cirumstance / La Force des choses
France | 1998 | 16m