Somewhere between Robert Altman’s Images and Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse lies Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men – an intentionally ambiguous psychological horror about mental illness, past traumas and the handling of grief. I also believe this movie touches on the psychological effects of long-term loneliness and isolation. The story takes place in the early 1970's but the residue of Covid is all over this. If “post-Covid cinema” is a thing then this definitely falls under that label (it was shot during the back end of the first wave of the Covid-19 lockdown).
Enys Men also belongs to the semi-recent “Persona-sploitation” category next to movies like Always Shine, Slow Machine, The Clouds Of Sils Maria and more…
Persona was the first Bergman film I saw. It blew my mind then, and I keep going back to it - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
Persona / Enys Men
I think it’s lazy to write this movie off as simply “pretentious” or “lo-fi horror” (these are things some critics have written about it). I understand not liking something. It’s completely understandable to not like Enys Men. But there’s more to it than just pretentiousness which seems to be the go-to critique when something is slow or doesn’t follow a set rules. Personally, I just find myself drawn to “complicated” movies and Enys Men is certainly that…
On one hand, this is the kind of horror/psychological drama one would expect from Neon studios. The type of horror story made for folks that like to romanticize trauma and connect everything back to grief. If I wasn’t aware that this was a Neon film beforehand I would have assumed it was put out by A24.
There’s a lot of recent talk about the look and overall aesthetics of modern independent cinema and Enys Men is a prime example. It plays right in to that lane of modern horror movies that’s more interested in being mysterious rather than outright terrifying. Instead of quick jolting jump scares we get a lot of slow jump scares (?) if that makes any sense. I can’t quite put in to words - which is hilarious to say within a written piece - but so many movies under the A24 & Neon banners have that same aesthetic/vibe. Men, It Comes At Night, Lamb, Woodstock, Saint Maud, etc etc. Droany music, ambiguous plots, small casts, sometimes-beautifully shot minimalist settings/backdrops, etc.
Images / Enys Men
The Lighthouse / Enys Men
Enys Men is so vague and abstract that it can have an infinite amount of meanings. As the film unfolds we get a series of unreliable edits & flashbacks of some tragedy that took place in the past. Because the “plot” is so evasive I find myself drawn to the imagery more than anything else. And that’s fine. I’m not too caught up in the “meaning” of things. But even with the short 90 minute run time, after a while it feels like this should’ve just been a short film (imagine a 90 minute version of Maya Deren’s Meshes Of The Afternoon).
But…if Enys Men was a short film then we wouldn’t see all of the intentional Deren-esque/Akerman-esque repetition that Jenkin tries to highlight. Throughout most of the movie we see our female protagonist perform the same daily tasks over and over...
Meshes Of The Afternoon / Enys Men
Meshes Of The Afternoon / Enys Men
Meshes Of The Afternoon / Enys Men
Jeanne Dielman... / Enys Men
Jeanne Dielman... / Enys Men
Jeanne Dielman... / Enys Men
In addition to Altman’s Images, Persona, etc, Mark Jenkins takes a few visual cues from Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. The red coat worn bout the film’s protagonist comes off as an homage…
Don’t Look Now is the obvious choice. Roeg’s influence runs through everything that I’ve done as a filmmaker - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
Don't Look Now / Enys Men
I also love his use of zoom lenses, which informed the way I shot Enys Men - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
Don't Look Now / Enys Men
Don't Look Now / Enys Men
Don't Look Now / Enys Men
Don't Look Now / Enys Men
An entire separate comparative study could be done on Takovsky's influence that flows all throughout the film...
For me, Tarkovsky’s films exist outside of time and space. I can’t imagine how a film like Mirror sat within the cinema of its time - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
The Mirror / Enys Men
The Mirror / Enys Men
Stalker / Enys Men
The Sacrifice / Enys Men
Stalker / Enys Men
Ivan's Childhood / Enys Men
Solaris / Enys Men
The Mirror / Enys Men
We’re only a couple hundred words in to my thoughts and I cant even make it this far without a bunch of comparisons. This could very well be a case of lazy writing/analysis on my part but if you’ve seen Enys Men and are familiar with my reference points thus far – I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Before the 10 minute mark you’ll be able to catch every reference I’ve called out and more. But that's part of what draws me in. Anyone familiar with this blog knows I'm a sucker for homages & references and this movie has plenty. Also - Mark Jenkin does not shy away from shouting out his influences (read Mark Jenkin’s criterion picks for a better understanding of how open he is about his influences).
It’s a bit of a cliché, but I tend to connect Bresson, Tarkovsky, and Bergman - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
Persona / The Mirror / 4 Nights Of A Dreamer / Enys Men
L'Atalante / Enys Men
Now…there were reference points I did not catch until reading about the film afterwards which helped me to reappreciate what I had just seen.
I like to normally use a single 26mm lens on a 60mm camera, so the equivalent of a 50mm lens like Ozu or Bresson – Mark Jenkin, Ukfilmreview.co.uk
Woman Of Tokyo / L'Argent / Enys Men
I like the idea of a horror film being influenced by non-horror reference points like Ozu and Bresson…
Early Summer / Enys Men
The opening shot of Enys Men is an homage to a composition of an ATM that appears in L’argent. It’s the kind of thing that no one would ever pick up on but that I know - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
L'Argent / Enys Men
Jenkin instructed his main actors to perform in the deadpan/Bressonian style:
What I try to take from Bresson is his attitude toward performance - Mark Jenkin, Criterion
Pickpocket / Enys Men
I can’t articulate what effect Bresson’s films have on me, that’s the beauty of it – Mark Jenkin, Ukfilmreview.co.uk
Diary Of A Country Priest / Enys Men
Mouchette / Enys Men
L'Argent / Enys Men
And I hate doing this but there are some legitimate Shining comparisons. But it’s not what you’d expect. Instead of creepy children and endless shots of hallways – the film’s use of communicating through transistor radios reminded me of The Shining.
The Shining/ Enys Men
There are some other vague Shining-isms throughout the film...
The Shining / Enys Men
The Shining / Enys Men
With reference points like Akerman, Ozu & Bresson – you can imagine this movie tests the audience’s patience. It didn’t test mine because I like slow movies more and more these days, but I wouldn’t fault anyone for complaining that this was too “slow” or “boring”. But to be fair to the director – this isn’t exactly the kind of movie that someone just blindly watches. Some movies are intentionally alienating and made with an exclusive audience in mind. I think Enys Men is one of those films. If you're a fan of all the movies I namedropped in this review - then perhaps this is something for you to check out.
Was The Northman an unfortunate case of the film-twitter hive-mind killing something before it even officially came out? I remember there being some light controversy about the film having subconscious connections to white nationalist ideology and toxic masculinity which couldn’t be fully shaken. White nationalists will find symbology & metaphors in anything. I wouldn’t put too much weight on a group of folks who look up to a cartoon frog. If they don’t hijack The Northman it’ll end up being something else. Why give them the power to essentially ruin a somewhat interesting movie?
Unfortunately that’s kind of what happened…
As for the Toxic masculinity - this is a violent Viking tale about revenge (a loose adaptation of the source material for hamlet mixed with a pinch of Conan The Barbarian). We all knew this from the trailer. Vikings were violent. Let’s not rewrite history. Just don’t watch this if it isn’t your thing (there is quite a bit of incoherent yelling & war chanting courtesy of the almost all- male cast). But at the same time there is a bit more to this movie than just violence. (it should be noted that Nicole Kidman steals the show in this predominantly male-heavy film).
I had zero expectations going in to this which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. I don’t put Robert Eggers on a pedestal like a lot of today’s blind A24 loyalists do, but I still enjoy his movies for the most part. The Northman is Eggers’ largest scaled project and it strays pretty far from the horror genre like his previous films. Something tells part of the reason this “flopped” is because folks wanted him to stay in the horror genre. For the folks that wanted something more like The Witch or The Lighthouse, Eggers still pulls from the same playbook referencing the same types of silent films and painting that he always does…
Witches Sabbath / The Northman
The Hands Of Orlac / The Northman
The Thief Baghad
/ The Northman
And there are elements of horror throughout. It just isn’t a “traditional” horror film like this previous works (and I don’t even know if I would consider those traditional horror movies either). The Northman still feels like a Robert Eggers film.
Kurosawa was another influence on Eggers…
Throne Of Blood / The Northman
I think it’s really the Soviet Medieval epics and Kurosawa’s work that I turned to most as cinematic inspiration as well as John Milieus’ Conan - Robert Eggers, Indiewire
Throne Of Blood / The Northman
Seven Samurai / The Northman
Conan The Barbarian / The Northman
Conan The Barbarian / The Northman
Conan The Barbarian / The Northman
Conan The Barbarian / The Northman
Seven Samurai / The Northman
This is me trying to do Conan The Barbarian by way of Andrei Rublev - Robert Eggers, Little White Lies
Andrei Rublev
/ The Northman
Eggers also once told Far Out magazine that Andrei Rublev was; probably just the best thing in cinema history.That love of Tarkovsky certainly shows up in The Northman...
"The court jester" Andrei Rublev
/ The Northman
Andrei Rublev
/ The Northman
In addition to the unfair pre-judgement I mentioned earlier, I wonder if The Northman fell short because it wasn’t deemed an immediate masterpiece. It feels like now more than ever when a movie isn’t immediately considered a masterpiece (or meme-worthy), it’s disposable. It’s as if when something is just an entertaining mid-budget popcorn movie it gets tossed aside as soon as the credits roll. It’s ok for movies to be fine. Very few movies are masterpieces. The “good”, “solid” and/or “fine” movies are what keep the lights on.
The best part of The Northman is Eggers’ use of Alexander Skarsgard. He’s an in-demand actor but with the exception of True Blood, no film had utilized his true Viking-like presence prior to The Northman. With all these smaller-framed leading men nowadays I think we should embrace an actor like him in a role like this who can tap in to his primal side.
To reiterate - The Northman doesn’t push the art of cinema forward but very few films actually do. It is a solid movie that was unfairly pre-judged that deserves a reassessment (which insane to even say because we’re still in the same year that it was released).
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