| Mortem | |
| Director: | Eric Atlan |
| Starring: | Daria Panchenko Diana Rudychenko Stany Coppet Hortense Gelinet Sophie Gelinet Jean-Luc Masson |
| Studio: | Rainbow Melodies Artistic Finances Capson Swap Sylicone Transpalux |
| Distributor: | New Distributors Association (France) R-Squared Films (United States and Canada) Digital Media Rights (United States) BigStar.tv (United States) |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
Mortem is a French experimental film directed by Eric Atlan and first screened at the Oaxaca International Film Festival in 2010 before receiving a limited theatrical release in 2012. Reminiscent of Persona and Mulholland Drive, the film follows a young woman who defies her own death.
Mortem generally received mixed to negative reviews from critics. The Village Voice stated that "The initial scenes, thick with creep-show ambiance, promise more fulfilling madness than what actually transpires once the out-of-nowhere second guest reveals who she is."[1] The New York Times compared the film's aesthetic to that of Jean Cocteau, but gave a similarly lukewarm review as The Village Voice, stating that "Most often Mortem just lacks bite, and the dedicated leads seem at times a little slight for the staging of a struggle at eternity's edge."[2] Time Out New York awarded the film one star out of five and described it as "excruciatingly bad".[3] Slant Magazine gave the film a largely negative review, opining that the film "too readily abandons its noir framework for the sweeping meta-narrative about desire's link to thanatos, and in so doing, leaves too little room for guesswork."[4] Film Journal International stated that "This initially bewitching throwback to the French New Wave and Cocteau turns into a turgid and frequently laughable pseudo-philosophical locked-room argument between a woman and her soul."[5]