Gift wrapped in sex, perversity and symbolism Don’t Look Down tells a simple truth: It’s hard to let go of a grudge because it’s easier to have someone else to blame when love does not go as wished.
The film ticks out a countdown like a highly structured piece of conceptual theater. Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau have created a work that could thrive equally well on stage given its tight, claustrophobic, dialogue driven drama. Set high in the sky in an apartment in Paris, looking down on the city of love, it is a successful psychological seduction that provokes thought on the desire, expectations and obsessions people bring to relationships.
Five strangers have come together for a mysterious attempt at closure with an unseen man locked up in the room next door. An ambiguous tension is created around their intentions and his fate. Each of them has been in a painful relationship with him, whether sexual or not. Slowly they each share their most secret fantasy and an anecdote about the reality of their relationship with him. Each fantasy reveals some kind of sadomasochistic desire. Each real life anecdote illustrates that the reality of cruelty and manipulation in a relationship, however banal the circumstances, is neither fulfilling or fun. Somehow, for their own reasons, they all put up with it, just so that they could spend their time with him.
The movie is full of symbolism but, rather than being distracting or opaque, it’s the kind of accessible symbolism that is makes a useful point without being condescending. Paintings on the wall show how people are often seen only in parts rather than as whole by the people around them. A silly argument on how to slice an apple tart becomes a metaphor for who is willing to share and how.
The movie relies on a dinner party setting and has all the ingredients for a titillating one. It can be enjoyed simply for the sexual overtones and the murderous undercurrent. However, like being given a wedding present of a toaster that is gift wrapped in the pages of a porn magazine, there is a lesson of real domestic utility underneath the sexy exterior. Never forget how tempting it is to blame someone else when you don’t get what you want.
