Film-within-a-film is nothing new, but Justine Triet's latest Sibyl seems to have crafted a category all of its own. Her third feature centres on Sibyl, an alcoholic therapist who cuts off all her patients in order to focus on her writing.
Struggling for ideas, the arrival of a new patient – an actress who has been impregnated by her co-star, who is dating their director – provides Sibyl with the perfect source material.
It makes for a heady mix of genres, tackling obsession, creativity, desire and perfection, while taking the cinematic tropes associated with writer's block, therapy and filmmaking and throwing them all on to an island.
It results in an often jarring mix of tone and style. Montages come out of nowhere and strike you with a thumping, pulsating score that as quickly returns to silence. Flashbacks are scattered with disorienting unpredictability, some lasting just seconds that makes it hard to find your bearings early on.
Yet the unbalance seems to be Triet's intention.
