Kristoffer Borgli
(sortie le 01/06/23)
As often happens to me, I decided to go to the cinema to see a film without knowing the plot. This weekend it was the turn of Sick of Myself; Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2022 for which the festival recommended Un Certain Regard. After leaving the cinema, it made me wonder if perhaps the jury did not recommend a certain consideration in choosing to go and watch it. Sick of Myself is a unique comedy because it is not funny and it does not even end well, in the Greek sense of the word. It is a film that knows how to make the viewer uncomfortable from the first to the last minute.
In the first act we follow the mundane life of Signe, a narcissistic and dissatisfied waitress, and her boyfriend, an artist, who is also narcissistic. The two main characters, full of their own narcissism, it bears repeating, live for the attention of their friends and the audience. The feeling for the unsuspecting viewer is that of a dinner party where two friends throw barbs at each other making everyone in the film and outside uncomfortable. Fortunately, this agony soon ends as the film changes course from a romantic comedy to a splatter drama. Signe, poised to become The Worst Person in the World, decides to draw even more attention to herself by giving herself a skin disease and gaining fame. She will get an opportunity to become famous, but she will never be able to take advantage of it because sick, Sick of Herself.
Sick of Myself is a representation, taken to the extreme, of a narcissistic social networking world where we live, in which everyone desires others’ lives. In which others’ attention is an object of value that may be worth even more than one’s own physical, and perhaps mental, health. Kristoffer Borgli’s work is uncomfortable throughout but also makes one think. Even the urge to leave the cinema is strong the desire to discuss what you have just seen, it is even more so. The film, although superficial in the way it deals with the subject matter, makes one think and gives one the desire to explore it further. Is this not the definition of a good film? In being conflicted about my personal judgement, I can only recommend Un Certain Regard for Sick of Myself of Kristoffer Borgli.
- Mario Di Luca
