Calvaire

(2004) ***

Marc Stevens, a traveling singer's car breaks down in the woods on his way to a Christmas gig. He follows a local man looking for his dog to a nearby inn. He's greeted by Bartel, a friendly old fellow who provides him with a room for the night. In the morning he wakes to find Bartel towing his van back to the inn. He tells Marc that he will call the mechanic for him and see about getting it fixed. After 2 days of Bartel putting him off Marc begins to get a little suspicious.

He investigates Bartel's room and finds his cell phone(of course there is no signal) and some photos of his their. He investigates his van and sees that the back doors have been pried open. The phone that Bartel was using to call the mechanic is not working and when he traces the cord back he finds the wire has been cut. Suddenly he hears smashing sounds and looks out the window to see Bartel smashing his van and dousing it with gasoline. He tries to stop him but Bartel hits him with the car battery and knocks him out. When he awakens he is wearing a dress, tied to a chair and Bartel is shaving his head. The disillusioned man thinks that Marc is his wife Gloria who abandoned him some years ago and this is just the beginning of Marc's nightmare.

The film was a familiar story of getting trapped with a crazy local in the boonies yet it was unique in so many ways. Poor old Marc landed himself in the worse possible situation that a heterosexual man could be in. I won't give any more away but believe me it gets a hell of a lot worse than one poor disillusioned old fart. Good film just not a great film but I'd recommend it just because it was so different. Poor, poor Marc.