Un homme différent

L'un des moments forts du festival de Karlovy Vary cette année m'aura demandé de patienter jusqu'au dernier jour, mais ça en valait la peine, parce que la production multigenre présentée par le studio A24 m'a vraiment épaté. Sebastian Stan y livre une performance captivante, pour laquelle il a été récompensé par l'Ours d'argent à Berlin cette année. Après le récent The Substance, voici un autre film qui explore la dualité de la personnalité après un changement radical de son apparence physique, et cette fois encore, ça en vaut vraiment la peine. Il semble que Cronenberg, Lynch et Kafka aient laissé une empreinte profonde sur Aaron Schimberg et que celui-ci, à son tour, leur rend hommage à travers A Different Man à l'écran. Un film étrange et emballant, précisément du style de ce que je veux voir plus souvent dans les festivals ! [KVIFF 2024] (07/07/2024)

Amazing filmmaking, which (literally) has a face and can work with directorial baton precisely, strongly, and originally. I will echo others, but names like Lynch, Cronenberg, Gilliam, Polanski, and Burton will come to mind while watching this film. Mix the styles and forms of these directorial giants and you will get a blend in the form of A Different Man, which takes the best from their films but offers a cohesive, coherent, and atypical experience with a dose of mystery, absurd humor, existentialism, as well as the search for oneself in the absurdity of everyday New York life and finding one's own voice. The incredible Sebastian Stan and his very powerful acting. I will be following the direction of Aaron Schimberg in the future. Just a pity about the weaker final third. KVIFF 2024 (04/07/2024)

5.5/10. Original and bizarre, but also weird and rather boring. Visually the film has quite a TV feel to it, without any bright colours, it's got an arty feel to it, and even though there are five sub-genres tagged, Drama dominates 90% of the time. Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson both play their parts and the facial deformations are pretty creepy, but it's a shame that it doesn't really escalate properly. The tension is absent, likewise with the violence, and the plot didn't really grab me either. It's intriguing with its unconventional subject matter, but with its TV and tame approach, it didn't grab me at all, unfortunately. Story 3/5, Action 0/5, Visuals/Production design 2/5, Gore 1/5, Music 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Pacing 2/5, Acting 4/5. (12/11/2024)

A quietly brilliant film with gentle humor, A Different Man dives deep into the irreversible transformations time brings and explores how, over the course of our lives, each of us becomes “a different person” several times over—new on the inside, with those shifts eventually showing on the outside too. Here, "a different man" means a real, qualitative shift—becoming someone who can only view his former selves from a distance, as people he no longer is, interpreting them from the perspective of who he's become. The film reflects this in all sorts of ways: moving a typewriter that no longer holds its old meaning, changing lovers, feeling emotional distance from people or passions that once defined us, retelling our own stories differently. While Ingrid and Oswald are open, embracing new experiences, and naturally adapting to change—both in themselves and in others—Edward stays inwardly the same: passive, indecisive, and cautious. Unlike them, he rarely takes risks or shows interest in the world or those around him, passively accepting whatever life brings his way, always taking the path of least resistance. When an unexpected physical transformation forces him to confront his unfulfilled life, he stops blaming his face for his lack of fulfillment and starts to realize he does have desires—yet somehow lacks the drive to pursue them. At first, Edward envies Oswald’s freedom, only to eventually realize that what he’s missing isn’t his old face’s uniqueness but the courage to shape his life uniquely, no matter what he looks like. By the end, it’s as if he’s found peace with himself, accepting his passivity and hesitation as elements of his own way of being. This surprising film makes time jumps that mirror the characters’ transformations, capturing the natural flow of life in perfect unity of form and content. It’s an original, unassuming reflection on the essence of existence—moving and changing through time and space in a way that’s both eccentric and natural, humorous and contemplative, ordinary and full of life’s absurdities. It delighted me in the most personal, resonant way. (01/10/2024)