Fidelio: Alice's Journey
The French are saucy buggers, aren’t they? Their antics onscreen would be classed as subdued porn by our BBFC certificate givers because it seems they find it impossible creating any movie without out shoving in some naughty bits too. Perhaps it’s because they are more open with their sexuality and the very thought of cunnilingus sends our tea cups quaking like a storm on the ocean…
“But Cookie, why are you talking about the French and our nether regions?”
I don’t know - maybe it’s because Fidelio: Alice’s Journey is crammed with it titillating moments and sexy scenes. And it doesn’t feel necessary. The film revolves around the titular character who is part of the crew of the titular boat, the only woman sailor on-board. As a last minute replacement, she soon discovers that her old flame Gael is the captain and it reignites her passions for him. Which would be fine if she didn’t have a fiancé at home whose waiting for her to return. Trying to navigate her unabated feelings on the floating oil drum, Alice is about to find more about herself than she ever did before.
Boats and hoes, am I right? No, I kid because that would be offensive. What I’m saying is that there doesn’t seem to be much in this film other than the boat breaking down and Alice’s torment between a passionate affair and her landlocked lover. Credit were it is due, The Lobster’s Ariane Labed those a marvellous job at emoting the titular character and attempting to flesh her out beyond her actions and circumstance, making her wholly human and excellent. It really is Labed’s film (it better be, she is the title character) and Labed is pretty much the only reason that we are drawn into this thin affair, coping with an emotional arc and story wonderfully.
Part of me wishes it would take a more Flashdance route but without the tube socks, going for a more semantic look at women in a male-dominated movie without Alice taking her kecks off half way through the film. But then again, maybe I’ve been conditioned in such a way that I cannot recognise that a woman can own her sex and still conquer the male world she is submerged in which, thinking about it, is exactly what Alice does (particularly enjoy her getting oral and then refusing a blow-job with the old ‘let’s have sex’ trick. It works!) It’s just at surface level, never really heading into the themes present in its overzealous blurb and creating a rather tedious watch with moments of titillating and character exploration sporadically hitting like an iceberg.
Anyway, where is this review going, will it be lost at sea forever? What I’m trying to say is that there is a lot of depth in Fidelio: Alice’s Journey that isn’t explored. Like the titular boat floating between jobs, there doesn’t seem to be a clear direction and cruises along at this rather boring and pretentious speed, failing to make a splash.
Fidelio: Alice's Journey is out on DVD & Blu-ray now!