12/08/2024 - In his personal style straddling different genres, Virgil Vernier draws out subtle concentric circles, following in the wake of a young escort as he criss-crosses the rugged city-state of Monaco

"A soldier breaks away from his unit to perform reconnaissance". Glimpsed in a sketchbook belonging to a pre-teen who has been left by her mega-rich Chinese parents in the hands of a baby-sitter during the Christmas holidays, this caption perfectly sums up the highly unique cinematographic voice of Virgil Vernier, who previously won acclaim for Mercuriales [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (selected in Cannes’ ACID line-up in 2014) and Sophia Antipolis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Virgil Vernier
film profile] (screened in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente section in 2018), and who has now unveiled his mesmerising movie 100,000,000,000,000 [+see also:
trailer
interview: Virgil Vernier
film profile] in competition in the 77th Locarno Film Festival.

So what exactly is the French filmmaker’s magic recipe? A place (on this occasion, the highly luxurious principality of Monaco in the strange, glittering setting of Christmas and amidst the city’s nigh-on deserted streets, flooded with fairy lights and lined with giant fir trees), the air of a pre-apocalyptic fairy-tale ("the giant was afraid of nothing. He destroyed everything in his path with his power... No-one could stop him. He would conquer the world") anchored in modernity (for example, the project to extend the seaside town and signs of an imminent catastrophe for which the mega-privileged are readying themselves by creating private islands), and a side-helping of class struggle with anonymous individuals working behind the scenes of this abundant showcase; invisible individuals who aspire to step through the looking glass and who are represented by Afine (Zakaria Bouti), an 18-year-old escort who finds himself immersed in the loneliness of the opulent city when his three colleagues head off to Dubai on holiday (after an evening of conversation revolving around the little group’s memories, ambitions and future professional prospects).

In a paradoxical atmosphere, hovering between a non-existent period of time (information in the Monaco underground reminds us of the struggles between the Guelphs and the Papalins) and clock hands rotating at full speed (and fully lubricated, to boot), escort Afine finds himself two "jobs" over the course of some days, which are more along the lines of companionship (going shopping in big-name stores, walking by the sea, sharing Christmas dinner, etc.) and relatively close friendship: the former with an affectionate fifty-year-old whose children have become strangers to her, and the latter with Vesna (Mina Gajovic), a young Serbian who dreams of opening an energy therapy salon in Nice and who’s spending the holidays babysitting an 11-year-old pre-teen called Julia (Victoire Kong) who already knows plenty about the world "of mansions, diamonds and gold", and who has also set fire to her boarding school for the offspring of the elite. In their company, Afine discovers secrets which totally change his perception of the world…

An alchemist when it comes to conveying atmospheres by way of Super 16, magnified by director of photography Jordane Chouzenoux, Virgil Vernier delivers an elliptical if not cryptic work, straddling genres (ultra-social-realism and a dual backdrop of fairy tales and legends, documentary and fiction, individual conscience and collective subconscious) and operating within the domain of feelings ("the eyes don’t lie") and careful listening. Wilfully sidestepping dramatization without ever losing track of this continually intriguing story (penned by the director in league with Benjamin Klintoe), 100,000,000,000,000 paints a refined and relatively detached portrait of a select few souls suffering from loneliness who are entangled within the sophisticated fabric of a world of rugged opulence, which is itself teetering on the edge of the abyss ("if things carry on like this, everything will fall apart"). It all makes for a highly unique and well-executed work which invites reflection and a degree of surrender: "close your eyes and relax. This stone will cleanse all the black spots from your mind".

100,000,000,000,000 is produced by Petit Film in co-production with Deuxième Ligne Films.

(Translated from French)