From Australian-Mexican filmmaker and Cannes Caméra d’Or winner (Leap Year) Michael Rowe, Early Winter is a stark but honest snapshot of a marriage set adrift.
David (Paul Doucet) is a janitor at an aged care facility in Quebec. Working odd hours, and often shirking his duties to console residents who are near death, he then returns home to a relationship that is very much in the same state. Emotionally isolated, David and his wife, the disenfranchised Maya (Suzanne Clément), live like two disgruntled strangers forced to interact in a modest home.
Rowe potently establishes this in the first scene. Opening credits – set to the sound of the couple moaning – transition into a sex scene shot at such an impersonal angle that the act seems like nothing more than obligation. Maya’s displeasure comes full circle later in the film when she attempts to initiate after a late night out, leading to a moment that marks the epitome of their dislocation.
The only thing that seems to keep David and Maya connected, beside their two kids, is media: the new 3D television, their youngest son’s proficiency in a mobile game, or the old radio that David adapts for modern usage (“I love when you do things like this!” exclaims Maya, before selfishly changing the song). Indeed, the unemployed Maya is attached to her devices, and late night text messages rouse David’s suspicions, and memories of infidelity six years prior.
David is dealing with his own ghosts too, ghosts that seem to haunt his reasoning for staying committed to an unhappy relationship. The audience doesn’t fully learn what happened in his past until near the end, but even at that point our understanding of these two people is limited. Some viewers will be frustrated by this, but within this subtlety lies the strength of Rowe’s storytelling ability as both writer and director. As with Leap Year and The Well prior, Rowe only offers a glimpse into a crucial period of a distressingly normal household, and that makes Early Winter feel all the more truthful in its portrayal. The director himself describes the film as “a long first act”, and the description is fitting; though it is certainly slow, added drama would only come at the cost of the movie’s integrity.
Early Winter ends the only way it can: with a sense of forlorn reluctance. Our time with David and Maya has come to an end, and any questions the film leaves us with can only be answered within ourselves.
If you aren’t afraid of what those answers might be, and appreciate a film that makes you stop, contemplate, and appreciate the minutia of daily life, Early Winter is a film for you.
In collaboration with FilmInk, Michael Rowe is currently touring the film around Australia and holding Q&As following the screenings. This might be your only chance to see Early Winter on the big screen, so don’t miss out.
Click the cinema names to book your tickets:
Wednesday, October 5th – Dendy (Canberra), 6:30PM.
Friday, October 7th – New Farm (Brisbane), 6:30PM.
Sunday, October 9th – Dendy Newtown (Sydney), 6:30PM.
Monday, October 10th – Regent Theatre (Ballarat), 7:00PM.