Venice Film Festival Nominee!

Sometimes bringing to mind a queer(er) Rebecca, Sébastien Marnier’s The Origins of Evil is, by the time of its delicious final reel, a movie all of its own. This high-flown tale of family, double-crossing, toxic patriarchy and murder gives a plum role to Laure Calamy as Stéphane, a working-class factory worker who sets out to finally meet Serge, her rich, previously unacknowledged father in the forbidding house he inhabits with his equally forbidding wife, daughter, granddaughter and maid. What does Stéphane seek from her father? Revenge? Money? Love? What does this ailing tyrant want from her? How will the seething womenfolk in the paternal household deal with this cuckoo in their midst? So many aspects of the film are expertly calibrated for tingling camp pleasure, from the arch performances (Dominique Blanc, as Serge’s wife Louise, is serving Phantom Thread to the power of Almodóvar) to the set, right through to the very camerawork. Stéphane’s identity and what is motivating her gradually turn this part into Calamy’s best role, delivering dark comedy and sadness in equal measure. –BFI