Cinema
Cube
Vincenzo Natali · 1997
Synopsis
Six strangers wake up, without knowing how or why, in identical cubic rooms linked by hatches: an authoritarian policeman, a mathematics student, a woman doctor, a prison escapee, an architect and a young autistic man. Some rooms are booby-trapped and kill; the numbers engraved at the entrances seem to give a mathematical key for recognising them. The group moves from room to room, calculates, tears itself apart, and discovers that the rooms are moving.
Context
The film was shot on a single set, a room fourteen feet on each side whose coloured panels were changed to stand for all the others. The characters bear the names of prisons: Quentin, Holloway, Rennes, Leavenworth split between Leaven and Worth, Kazan. The film never explains the device. Presented in Toronto in September 1997, it enjoyed great success in France and Japan. A sequel and a prequel were made without its author, and a Japanese remake was released in 2021.
Who it is for
An hour and a half of confinement, with a few bloody scenes; the pleasure is that of a riddle, and it is better to know nothing beforehand.
Prizes and reception
Best Canadian First Feature at the Toronto festival in 1997; Grand Prix at the Gérardmer festival in 1999.
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