Ecoute Le Temps (Fissures)

On the evidence of this supernatural thriller, Japanese and Korean filmmakers have nothing on the French when it comes to concocting silly plots involving spirits and spectral visions. At the same time, Alanté Kavaïté's Ecoute Le Temps proves that a Gallic ghost story (however implausible) can be just as atmospheric and unsettling as its Eastern counterparts. As in Brian De Palma's Blow Out, the narrative revolves around a sound engineer investigating a murder, as Charlotte (the excellent Emilie Dequenne) returns to the rural village where her mother—a tarot card reader whose revelations displeased her customers—was slain. While there's no lack of suspects, the police have gotten nowhere on the case, but Charlotte soon discovers that she can hear snippets of the past over her headphones in her mother's house, and she uses this unusual power to unravel the truth about her mom's last days (in one sequence, Charlotte constructs a precise timeline by pinpointing the exact moment and location of each fragment of conversation via lines of rope strung in a weblike pattern throughout the home). In retrospect, the plot is absurd, but the filmmaker helps the viewer suspend disbelief through the clever juxtaposition of exposition and flashback, along with a seductive visual style and a strong cast. It's no surprise that a Hollywood remake is already in the works. Recommended, overall. (F. Swietek)