A first for me at the film fest today - this is my first TV screening at the festival (and not the last - you’ll see…). It’s something that I’ve generally not bothered with in the past as I watch plenty of TV anyway so the focus has been film. However, they’ve expanded the number of TV screenings this year and this sounded intriguing so I thought I’d give it a go.
The Rope (Episodes 1 & 2 of 3)
Series Creators- Dominique Rocher, Eric Forestier / Dur. 104 mins
In A Nutshell:- At a research station in Norway looking into mysterious cosmic radio waves, a group of scientists discover a seemingly endless rope stretching out into the neighbouring woods and decide to follow it…
The Good:- It’s an intriguingly odd mystery - where does this endless rope lead to and why is it there - and, by setting it in a scientific research station, allows the creators to play around with mysticism versus rationalism, belief versus facts, etc. It’s a compelling start and I was drawn in enough with these two episodes to want to know what comes next.
The cast are solid and work well as an ensemble - there weren’t any really stand out members for me.
The setting also gives it an air that is both other-wordly and vaguely menacing which is very the tone that the series seems to be going for.
The Bad:- There’s one slightly surreal sequence in the second episode which I’m not one hundred percent convinced quite worked.
Also, we were only shown the first two episodes of this three episode mini-series and there’s no confirmed air date for it yet so it’s hard to form an overall opinion on it. Science vs mysticism was also one of the key pillars of Lost and it’s hard to know without seeing episode three if this goes down a similarly frustrating route.
The Verdict:- It’s actually a difficult one to pass judgement on and probably a good indication as to why I’ve avoided TV screenings at the fest as, without seeing the third and final episode, it’s difficult to know if the promise of the first two episodes is delivered upon. Based on those first episodes, I’m suitably intrigued and would like to see the third to know if it pays off.
Q&A Notes:- Intriguingly, the creators work together in English despite being French as their film and TV references are all based on English-language works so they find it quicker to work that way. It does then mean that they have to translate the scripts back into French again afterwards.
The director has previously worked in film before making this and found TV challenging to a level that has made him want to move back to film again for his next project.
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