By This River
| By This River | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Éric Beaumont |
| Written by | Éric Beaumont, Allan LaRue |
| Story by | Éric Beaumont |
| Produced by | Fabienne Renaud |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Fabienne Renaud |
| Music by | Éric Beaumont |
Production company | Azure Dreams Studio |
| Distributed by | Azure Dreams Studio |
Running time | 153 minutes |
| Country | Jumbosa |
| Language | Lemanche |
| Budget | h$75.5 thousand |
By This River is a 1993 Jumbosan philosophical and abstract romance written and directed by Éric Beaumont, staring Fillipe Monet and Maeva Toussaint. The film follows two teenagers, Monet and Toussaint, that meet each other on a bridge above a river after both escaping their respective homes, and the movie also follows their their discussions about existentialism and the true purpose of life while lying on the bridge.
The film won multiple awards in Jumbosa and was praised for its thematic music, thought provoking story, and creative low budget cinematography. By this river also was critically acclaimed by Zamastan critics, even though the movie failed to get any larger commercial success internationally. With a production cost of h$85 thousand, it grossed h$17.1 million in the box office.
Plot
Martine is running as fast as he can through an abandoned industry area while being hunted by a bunch of teenagers equipped with weapons. Martine falls over, and gets brutally beaten up by the teenagers, that calls him stuff like freak, and creep. Martine touches his own face, and when he sees it bloody he realizes he is badly hurt. Instead of going "home", he chooses to meet with junkie Caspar, who sells him some heroin. Martine then steals a bike and rides away with the drugs to a bridge over a river where he sleep.
When Martin arrives at the bridge, he realizes that a girl is sitting on the bridge. Martine sits besides the girl, and asks why the girl is occupying his bridge. The girl answers that a person can't own a bridge, and then she makes a comment about all the bruises in Martine's face. Martin refuses to answer until the girl says her name and why she's here. So the girl presents herself as Victoria, and she tells Martin she is there to reunite with her recently deceased mother. Martine tries to comfort Victoria, and then answers on her earlier question. They continue to talk about their own lives for awhile, about how screwed the world is and how twisted humans are.
As it becomes darker, offers Martine Victoria some of his heroin. They both inject themselves with heroin, and the world before them changes. The world becomes twisted and abstract, and Martine has a hard time to concentrate. After a couple of minutes of them two experiencing a ruse, that's depicted in the movie as an abstract and psychedelic explosion of colors, shapes and sounds, they both lay down tired at the bridge. It is now dark, and Victoria and Martine looks at the star clad sky while talking about the purpose of life, existentialism and the evils of mankind. Victoria grabs Martine's hand, and starts talking about the only thing that has a purpose in her life. When she is finished, she turns to Martine, that realizes she talked about him. They start to kiss each other while laying down on the bridge.
Martine and Victoria talks about the idea of reuniting with the universe, and therefore they decide to take some heroin. The movie ends with Martine dancing around together with Victoria in a psychedelic and abstract landscape.