‘Alpha’ Review: 2021 Palme d’Or Winner Julia Ducournau’s AIDS-Era Horror Parable Is Arrestingly Original and Numbingly Over-the-Top

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Four years ago, French filmmaker Julia Ducournau presented her second feature film, “Titane,” at Cannes. This movie left audiences astonished and awestruck, and it further stunned some by securing the Palme d’Or, an honor that has only been bestowed on a woman twice before, with Jane Campion being the first 30 years earlier. What made “Titane” truly unique was its storyline: for the first time, a film about a girl engaging in intimate activities with a Cadillac, and subsequently becoming pregnant from it, achieved such a prestigious award.

The film Titane began with an automotive sex scene that was nothing short of exhilarating, and it continued to get more outrageous as it went along – a feat I never thought possible. It seemed like watching three or four movies at once, each playing out in its own chaotic symphony. While Raw, the impressive debut of director Julia Ducournau, was both captivating and somewhat restrained, Titane is like a non-stop DJ set where the music never stops or lowers its volume. The DJ keeps changing tracks in the middle of each song to keep the crowd dancing wildly.

The director employs the same method for the film titled “Alpha“, an extravagantly melodramatic allegory set in the era of AIDS, brimming with innovative concepts and drenched in gore, special effects, pulsating musical segments, and performances that significantly intensify. It boasts an impressive level of originality and technical skill, but its sheer abundance and prolonged duration may leave numerous viewers drained by the halfway mark, if not sooner. While it’s commendable for the director to resist toning down or following the Hollywood path after winning the Palme, one can’t help but question whether this latest production will appeal to anyone other than herself.

Alpha doesn’t shy away from addressing numerous profound issues that resonate with many, but it packs so many themes densely into one narrative that they end up overlapping and neutralizing each other, much like flavors in a sandwich served on a delicious French baguette becoming indistinct.

Primarily focusing on the subject matter, the film is a dramatization delving into the terrors of the AIDS crisis, portraying HIV-positive individuals whose bodies metamorphose into marble statues, reminiscent of the X-Men combined with ancient sculptures at the Louvre. This concept is visually striking, converting the iconic images of ’80s AIDS sufferers’ lesions into chilling masterpieces of body horror. However, the execution leans heavily towards the dramatic, bordering on the absurd: One might argue that portraying the raw reality would have a greater impact than any special effects team could create. (Still, kudos to makeup artist Olivier Afonso for achieving such realistic marble transformations.)

In the films by Ducournau, it’s as if every event is a first, each demanding attention. The film unfolds as a poignant coming-of-age story revolving around a 13-year-old girl named Alpha (played memorably by Mélissa Boros). In the initial scene, she receives a tattoo using an unsterilized needle, raising the possibility that she may have contracted a fatal disease. Throughout the narrative, we are left guessing whether she is ill or not, which results in multiple scenes showing Alpha bleeding from various injuries and causing alarm among those around her. Notable moments include two striking school sequences: one featuring a gruesome volleyball match, and another swimming class where Alpha bumps her head and causes quite the stir, reminiscent of the shark in Jaws.

Lastly, Alpha is a heartbreaking tale of a family grappling with drug addiction and loss. The mother character, portrayed by Golshifteh Farahani, is a dedicated doctor, serving both her community at a run-down hospital and privately tending to her brother Amin (Tahar Rahim), a sickly addict who constantly seeks refuge in their home. Amin’s presence becomes increasingly persistent, shifting from moments of friendly camaraderie where he interacts fondly with Alpha, to harrowing incidents when he teeters on the brink of overdose, requiring emergency intervention from his sister using adrenaline. The film showcases a multitude of syringes due to the frequent drug use, needles and injections, reminiscent of the scenes in Panic in Needle Park.

Since her debut film Raw, director Julia Ducournau, whose parents are both doctors, has been known for portraying intense medical discomfort and graphic bodily invasions. In her latest work, Alpha, she blends the unsettling habit of Amin’s character, which could or could not have led to his condition called marble disease, with the terror and hardship endured by children during the dawn of the AIDS era. It’s important to note that in France, it took several years for the government to acknowledge the full extent of the AIDS epidemic.

As a fan, I must admit that these concepts are intriguing, but they seem to pile up so rapidly that it’s becoming challenging to keep track. At one point, it strikes me that Amin’s skeletal form might be a manifestation of Alpha’s hallucinations – like a scaffolding swaying in the wind or a ceiling collapse in a bedroom. Suddenly, we’re whisked away, without any forewarning, between the past and even deeper recesses of time, as if Alpha itself is caught in a time-travel loop, adding another layer to the many elements it has already thrown at us.

As a gamer, I must admit that Ducournau is undeniably skilled at crafting and executing her horror films, leaving me jolted with hyper-realistic scenes reminiscent of Cronenberg, Carpenter, and Gaspar Noé. However, it seems like she’s always pushing the boundaries without taking a moment to let us catch our breath. Overloading us with graphic imagery such as marbled body parts or blood dripping on an overhead projector in a classroom can sometimes be too much, making it challenging for us to fully absorb and appreciate the visual feast she offers.

She truly earns recognition, as she possesses the ability to think creatively and envision those ideas effectively. For the third collaboration with Belgian cinematographer Ruben Impens, the director skillfully captures striking images, starting from the very first shot where the opening title morphs into a sewn wound, to the finale where Alpha appears in a powerful urban dust storm. Production designer Emmanuelle Duplay (known as Emilia Perez) manages to make all interior settings, ranging from bedrooms to hospital wards, feel eerily claustrophobic. Meanwhile, costume designer Isabelle Pannetier successfully replicates the casual, rebellious fashion trends of that time period.

Among the three main characters, Rahim undergoes the most dramatic transformation, channeling Jared Leto’s role in “Dallas Buyers Club” to portray a drug-addled character at his breaking point. Without relying on makeup, he effectively conveys a sense of terror, yet his warmth shines through whenever Amin flashes a smile. Farahani, consistently impressive, delivers plenty of intense shouting scenes convincingly, but occasionally oversteps the mark in too many repetitive scenes of similar intensity.

Lastly, Boros, the fresh face, leaves an impression as a feisty young lady who experiences numerous trials, barely escaping the film without significant damage. She joins Garance Marillier in Raw and Agathe Rousselle in Titane as actresses discovered by Ducournau and coated in blood, becoming the unexpected heroines in her increasingly bizarre cinematic world, which becomes more extraordinary with each new creation.

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2025-05-20 01:25