Else is Something Magical @TIFF 2024

FERNTV did not know what to expect of this film except that it premiered under Peter Kuplowsky’s Midnight Madness programming during the Toronto International Film Festival. Undoubtedly, we should leave it up to the experts of programming genre cinema and trust their selections from any film festival we attend. Director Thibault Emin’s debut feature Else is said to be comparable to the iconic classic Eraserhead. The film is loosely based on Emin’s experience during the COVID-19 epidemic which the audience can only draw assumptions on.

Else focuses on Anx, played by Matthieu Sampeur, who gains much confidence from a one-night stand with Cass, who Edith Proust plays. Little do they know that one magical night can turn quickly into a long-term nightmare when they find out that a disease has spread throughout the world. The disease is deadlier than COVID-19 where the infected submerge with anything they touch. Anx and Cass are forced to be quarantined in their apartment as they find their love for each other to grow under dark circumstances. Because they only have each other, they have to get through this deadly outbreak as it does have some serious consequences for those who are infected.

Much of Else‘s cinematic portrayal of Emin’s experience of the COVID-19 epidemic is experimental. Since everyone’s perspective of COVID-19 is different, you can tell that director Thibault Emin’s experience was one that was imaginative yet dark. It is almost as if he is showing you his insides that are being reflected in this outside world that Anx and Cass are living in. Else becomes this body horror of a film where we experience Emin’s insides rotting away slowly during this unique pandemic.

The amount of worry, anxiety and paranoia that Anx and Cass go through shows through Emin’s experimental images and sequences that are controversial, misunderstood and hard to depict. Images and atmospheric moods that remind you of the latest version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But the audience sees this slow gradual deterioration of Anx and Cass’ relationship as well as Anx’s sanity.

It is up to the audience to depict whether or not this film is a reflection of what is going on inside the mind or the body of director Thibault Emin. There is so much from this film that is left for interpretation which makes the audience dig that much deeper into this madness. But it is quite the journey for the audience because just like everyone who went through COVID-19, it just became so complex at its latter stages. Nevertheless, what you see that is happening to people in the film Else is what you also see that is going on inside them.

Can Else fall under the New French Extremity genre? It certainly can seeing how it has all the cinematic elements of making it follow under this classification. Since it’s a reflection of what a unique pandemic would look like based on COVID-19, Else has raised the bar in that aspect. It may not be violent like Irreversible and Martyrs but it is gory and controversial when it comes to the sequence of images which makes up for that violence.

In any instance, COVID-19 was not a violent time amongst others it was a violent time that we had with ourselves and what we had to do to maintain our sanity. If Else is a loose interpretation of the COVID-19 pandemic, then director Thibault Emin weaves the film pretty tight. We need to see more of this because everyone has a different story to tell during COVID. Our blind eye or third eye will finally begin to see.