“When It Melts” Sundance Review: Veerle Baetens tells an emotionally stunning story about a difficult life

It’s a sneaky compliment to Sundance to see a film as emotionally stunning as Belgian director Veerle Baetens’. when it melts, which premiered tonight at the festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and one immediately wonders why a film of this caliber wouldn’t make its Cannes Official Selection debut this year. This is in no way meant to suggest that the American indie showcase is some second-best place for it, rather an indictment of Europe’s biggest film event, which regularly features such harrowing tales of tormented and tormented women – as long as they ‘directed again. of men.

Ironically, at least two of those men (especially Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier) are recognizable for their influence here, in an intense and uncompromising debut that sets the bar very high for this year’s international art house sector. There is some overlap with this in relation to the study of youth brutality near by Baetens’ compatriot Lukas Dhont, an award-winner and likely Oscar nominee, which delves into the aftermath of the once close friendship of two boys entering the pressure cooker world of high school. But Baetens kicks that tension into fifth gear with this heightened adaptation of Lize Spit’s 2021 novel Melt. It’s hard to say at this point how the life of this film will be and what audience will dare to see it, but there is almost nothing wrong with the execution and execution.

The most striking achievement of Baetens’ film is that it breaks the usual rule of dual timeline films, namely that one period is usually more interesting than the other. It begins with Eva (Charlotte De Bruyne) who, after falling out with her younger sister over moving out of their shared flat, receives an online invitation to an event celebrating the life of her boyfriend Jan, who on a young age died be dead. As she prepares to compete, Eva reflects on her small-town childhood and her friendships with two local boys, Tim and Laurens (collectively known as the Three Musketeers). Jan’s death casts a shadow even in these early flashbacks, making one wonder if his death is what prompted Eva to freeze a block of ice, pack it in her car and drive it back to her guy village.

Baetens, perhaps better known as an actress for her role in 2012 Break the broken circle, found an equally impeccable cast here. De Bruyne’s steely, mutilated devotion to adult Eva is one thing, but there’s more: Rosa Marchant as a young Eva is nothing short of incredible. In a heartbreaking performance that will leave many viewers uneasy, Marchant fleshes out the character’s backstory. Born to an overbearing father and an alcoholic mother, she finds it impossible to settle into the quicksand of a dysfunctional family. This is how Tim and Laurens become such a big part of their lives; She harbors an unrequited need to be loved and accepted, and participates in her increasingly sexualized games of truth or dare, giving vulnerable girls around her a false sense of security.

This is where the title comes from; a clue to a mystery Eva stumbles upon that she believes will cement her status as a musketeer and perhaps do more. However, these plans are thwarted by a fish girl named Elisa, perhaps the most synthetic of all these otherwise real flesh-and-blood characters (who may themselves be a byproduct of memory). Elisa’s arrival sets off a downward spiral of events which, among other things, reveals that her old friend Jan’s death is final – but not Dear – the Rosetta Stone we thought it was.

After 2022, in which way more commercial films about women have failed, it would be naive to say so when it melts 2023 may break through. But the strength of Baetens’ film is that it really hits and anyone who sees it will find it hard to forget. Which, to put it cryptically, is what the determined heroine is aiming for.