Lily-Rose Depp and Natalie Portman star as spiritualist sisters in Planetarium
PLANETARIUM (Rebecca Zlotowski, 2016)
Village East Cinema
181-189 Second Ave. at 12th St.
Opens Friday, August 11
212-529-6799
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www.villageeastcinema.com
French director Rebecca Zlotowski throws just about everything she can think of into her would-be historical epic, Planetarium, a disappointing, confusing movie about making movies (and lots of other stuff). In the 1930s, two sisters are carving out a little niche for themselves, holding séances and making public appearances displaying their remarkable abilities. The younger Kate Barlow (Lily-Rose Depp) is the medium, claiming to be able to contact the dead, while the older Laura (Natalie Portman) manages the séances and the business end. After seeing one of their performances, wealthy movie producer Andre Korben (Emmanuel Salinger) becomes enamored of the girls and takes them in, determined to make a film that, for the first time ever, captures actual spirits or ghosts onscreen, providing incontrovertible proof of the afterlife. Korben hires Andre Servier (Pierre Salvadori) to direct and Fernand Prouve (Louis Garrel) to serve as Laura’s love interest in the film. Kate and Laura have lived a relatively sheltered life when it comes to the real world, so this is all new to them; while Kate seems more interested in all the hoopla surrounding them, Laura is concerned that she is losing control over Kate. She is also worried that Korben might have more than just business in mind with them.
In putting together Planetarium, Zlotowski (Belle Épine, Grand Central) was inspired by the real-life Fox sisters, three siblings who helped create Spiritualism in the mid-nineteenth century, and French-Romanian director Bernard Natan, Zlotowski and cowriter Robin Campillo stretch themselves too thin by incorporating too many subplots, resulting in a jumpy, unfulfilling narrative that bounces all over the place, never achieving any kind of flow. It’s difficult to warm up to any of the characters, who remain cold and distant. The most interesting part of the film is how Zlotowski relates the Spiritism aspect of the story to filmmaking, each able to go beyond reality, creating illusion; early on, Kate spins a stereoscope, linking the two. But the relationship is never fully realized, just as the relationships among the characters are underdeveloped. Zlotowski can’t decide whether she’s making a film about the growth of French cinema, Spiritism, sisterly love, romance, politics, anti-Semitism, con games, family, illness, or history. Portman, in her first French film, stands out too much, while Depp, the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, avails herself fairly well until treacly melodrama takes over. Even at only 106 minutes, Planetarium creaks along at much too slow a pace; you might find yourself trying to spot a ghost in the movie theater just for something to pay attention to.