on 6/22/2025, 7:41 pm
year, but failed to get a US distribution deal & has remained inaccessible to North American audiences.
In 2024,du Welz tackled a true crime story based on a gruesome set of crimes that shook the Belgian legal system in the 1990s: the result was the sprawling MALDOROR, which premiered last September at the Venice Film Festival to more mixed reviews. English-speaking reviewers there likened it to David Fincher in general and ZODIAC in particular (both films share a character whose obsession with apprehending a monstrous criminal winds up putting himself and his family in danger).
During this time, du Welz became friendly with French actress Beatrice Dalle, best known to American arthouse audiences for playing the title role in BETTY BLUE, a sexually explicit tale of a high-strung, highly exotic young woman who is descending into madness. Dalle's career continued in a parallel vein over the next thirty years, veering between Euro-erotica and arthouse. Her recent assocation with du Welz produced an unusual documentary, LA PASSION SELON BEATRICE, released on DVD last year, a "road movie" hybrid where Dalle travels to Italy in search of the cultural legacy of her film-making hero, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Shot in black & white, the film is an intriguing departure for both Dalle and du Welz.
WE may not see any of these films here in America for quite awhile, but du Welz remains a filmmaker whose interests definitely align with those cinephiles who gravitate to the dark side. Let's hope that we get a chance to view them...
(From 2021) At TIFF and garnering many reviews: INEXORABLE (2021, France-Belgium)
Posted by Don Malcolm on 9/14/2021, 1:11 am
Belgian filmmaker Fabrice du Welz's career began in 2004 in the horror genre (CALVAIRE) and moved into crime/action films over the course of the next decade, finally landing in neo-noir territory with a souped-up remake of THE HONEYMOON KILLERS named ALLELUIA (2014). After an bumpy Hollywood debut with MESSAGE FROM THE KING (2016), featuring the late Chadwick Boseman, du Welz returned to Europe and made ADORATION (2019), the first of his films to focus on a troubled woman.
INEXORABLE, released in France last week and currently in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows on its heels, and is one of the most heavily reviewed films of in the 2021 festival lineup. It stacks up as an erotic thriller featuring another troubled young woman who insinuates herself into the life of a successful writer and his family. The comparisons in the linked reviews below range from LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN to much more recent films with much more dubious pedigrees (THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE and STOKER).
The Italian review (fifth in the list) is particularly acute in isolating common details that occur across du Welz's films; only the final review is an outright pamThe sixth review, from Variety, is by our old pal Dennis Harvey, a long-time reviewer of our French noir festivals: he likens the film to a 70s giallo.
One review speculated that Netflix might well pick up INEXORABLE, though I'm not aware of too many first-run foreign films (in need of subtitles) crashing into their rotation. Nevertheless, it's a title to jot down as being worthy of a look if/when it becomes readily available for viewing in the US. (And Dennis Harvey suggests that the film will need subtitles in the US for another reason: a scroll of semi-squeamish backstory notes that are revealed as part of the closing credits.)
https://www.backseatmafia.com/tiff-review-inexorable/
https://www.highonfilms.com/inexorable-2021-tiff-review/
https://reelfilm.com/inexorable/
https://joshatthemovies.com/2021/09/11/inexorable/
https://www.indie-eye.it/cinema/covercinema/inexorable-di-fabrice-du-welz-recensione-tiff-2021.html
https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/inexorable-review-1235060176/
https://thefilmstage.com/tiff-review-fabrice-du-welz-falters-with-inexorable-a-rote-riff-on-a-90s-thriller/
Responses