By John Corrado
Fear of “the other” seems to be one of the prevailing themes throughout Quebec filmmaker Alexandre Franchi’s mix of dark comedy and psychological thriller L’Autre, a title that literally translates to “the other.”
The film opens with our protagonist Stan (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) undergoing surgery to remove cancer from the bone in his leg. This unsettling sequence sets the tone for L’Autre, with Franchi not shying away from showing graphic closeup shots of the surgery, as Stan seems to come awake during it.
Much of the film takes place with him confined to a hospital bed, experiencing the delirium of the recovery process. Stan’s hospital experience includes dealing with a litany nurses and healthcare works who range from indifferent to incompetent, and obligatory visits from family members and co-workers. But things take a dark turn when another patient, Darius (Bilel Chegrani), who is recovering from a gunshot wound, is wheeled into his room. Stan becomes convinced that this patient in the bed next to him is out to get him.
Franchi’s film, which was born out of his own experience in the medical system undergoing cancer treatment, mixes elements of absurdist, surrealist dark comedy, body horror (there are traumatic flashes of the surgery throughout), and indictment of our overburdened Canadian healthcare system. It’s carried by Cardinal’s locked-in performance as an increasingly paranoid man who is either slowly losing his grip on reality, or being conveniently ignored by those meant to help him. It’s a delirious, unpredictable watch, as unnerving at times as it is darkly funny.
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