thus attributed to “Anonimo” on Italian prints and “Anonymous” on English-language prints, though certain publicity materi- als identified “John O. Hellman” as director. Since Assonitis fre- quently used the pseudonym “Oliver Hellman” (or “O. Hell- man’), as on his international demonic possession hit BEYOND THE DOOR (1974), many com- mentators wrongly assumed him to be the real director, or at least co-director. LAURE—which, astonish- ingly, was banned from UK distribution by the BBFC in 1976—shares the novel’s cen- tral dilemma, being unable to satisfactorily resolve those con- tradictory elements which make the published version both fasci- nating and infuriating. Its one major variation from the text oc- curs at the end. Whereas the book concludes with Laure de- parting to seek out the Mara, the film follows her as she joins the tribe, participates in a ceremony of rebirth, and awakens the fol- lowing morning with her memory
erased. This expanded ending comes across as both desolate and hopeful, leaving us with a sense of disturbance lacking from the novel’s finale.
On the whole, Louis-Jacques’ direction is confident and expres- sive, resulting in some richly evocative imagery. The opening shot, for example, introduces Laure and Nicolas as they run to catch a jeepney [bus], the cam- era tracking past foliage which partially obscures them from view. Nature is thus immediately established as the screen through which we will view society, and this kind of shot, in which artifi- cial social activities are obscured by signs of natural growth, will become a recurring motif: see especially the tracking shot (15:55-16:26) following Lance as he talks to guests at his birthday party. Perhaps the finest scene is the one in which Laure and Nicolas make love in a cutting room while sexually explicit im- ages from Nicolas’ documentary roll on a screen in the back- ground. This juxtaposition of real
intercourse and filmed inter- course underlines these charac- ters’ inability to live in the moment, to stop using the past as a “screen” against which to play out their lives (all of which connects with the ethnologists’ determination to preserve the past on the one hand, and the Maras’ determination to forget it on the other). This scene even tentatively addresses that mask of anonymity the writer/director chose to hide behind, having Laure tell Nicolas “This film that we’ve made. Nobody will under- stand it’s our love story. Because you’re never seen. I know you’re present in every image, but no one except me can see you. And people only believe what they can see.” LAURE does, however, bear the marks of a troubled produc- tion. The fate of Arawa, the Mara guide, will be incomprehensible to anyone unfamiliar with the novel, in which Arawa, about to murder an unsuspecting Laure, is attacked by birds and falls to his death. In the film (77:14- 78:32), birds swoop down on
Annie Belle in a very EMMANUELLE-like moment from LAURE.
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