318) Ne Change Rien (2009)

318) Ne Change Rien (2009) Dir: Pedro Costa Not Yet Released Date Seen: September 30, 2009 Rating: 3.75/5

Pedro Costa handily hypnotized me with Ne Change Rien, a tantalizingly surreal look at the monotony and the ecstasy of French chanteuse Jeanne Balibar's overlapping recording sessions and live performances. Costa lulls the viewer into a daze with sparingly and naturally lit long takes that film various her singing, in its various stages of the creative process, like alien rituals. Costa's cryptic, laconic style of filming courts your boredom but also encourages patient viewers, most immediately in certain scenes where he simulates the feeling of having one's eyes adjust to any given room's darkness (almost none of the diegetic lights are stronger than a desk lamp). Eerie and persistently mesmerizing.