At the North American premiere of Jack Auen and Kevin Walker’s directorial debut, Chronovisor, the atmosphere felt electric as the crowd sat on the edge of their seats, waiting for the film to start. Created under the Cosmic Salon production company co-founded by the directors, Chronovisor defies all expectations of what a New York City noir can be. While the film does stem from an ambitious and heady premise, you will not fail to follow the conspiratorial clues down the rabbit hole.
In the film’s opening shot, Columbia professor Béatrice Courte (played by real-life professor Anne-Laure Sellier) delivers a loquacious monologue about mental maps and niche psychological discoveries to her aloof colleagues over a nightcap. Across the minutes-long spiel, her passion flows through the screen and implants itself in your heart, mainly because you can tell that her entire life revolves around her scholarship. The dim lighting, enhanced by the 16mm film, also casts a textured shadow across Sellier’s face, accentuating her signs of emotional and physical exhaustion and solidifying her restless nature in the pursuit of truth.
Once Auen and Walker pull us out of the suffocating Upper East Side bar, the first taste of the film’s wonderfully 80s-inspired score hovers over a picturesque shot of the Manhattan skyline. Gustav Holst would tip his hat to how his music introduces such a menacing tone here, as it remains a pivotal aspect of Chronovisor’s world-building. Even when Béatrice sits isolated in a New York library, you feel each track buzz in your ears and tingle your other senses — which, frankly, is necessary for a movie that spends lengthy scenes on over-the-shoulder shots of her conducting research.
Chronovisor will test the audience’s patience with the amount of on-screen text it asks you to digest, but once you settle into the film’s format, you too will feel like you are solving the puzzle at the center of the story. Legend has it that a Benedictine monk named Father Pellegrino Ernetti claimed to have invented a device called the Chronovisor that could transmit past events as if on live television. What makes this rumor interesting, however, is that no one knows whether the device is real or whether what Father Pellegrino Ernetti said it captured was true. To Béatrice, the he-said-she-said does not matter as much as locating the Chronovisor, and the constant roadblocks inhibiting her research only stoke the fire burning inside her to lay eyes on the device herself.
As Béatrice reviews VHS tapes covering the Chronovisor, she learns that the device may have far more sinister effects on those who use it than she thought. In one tape, a researcher notes that the device can melt your mind when you look at images from the past, often causing users to confuse the past and present as their memories merge with the collective memories stored in it. This warning aligns with Father Pellegrino Ernetti’s controversial statement that he saw Jesus’ crucifixion through the Chronovisor. Yet, none of his peers can corroborate the images that he produced as proof. The film often explores this gray area of peer review in academia, sometimes treating it like insider baseball that does not quite hit a home run. However, it never feels condescending or impenetrable to the average spectator, and that’s why the film functions so well as a pseudo-research project.
It is hard to talk about a film like Chronovisor without addressing the ending, especially as the story works towards Béatrice finding the device. While I refuse to reveal Béatrice’s fate, I will say that the images that Auen and Walker produce when she uses the Chronovisor will sear themselves into your eyeballs and torment your psyche. A pin could drop during this film’s finale, and no one would bat an eye, as the experimental sequence stuns you into submission. Since the film’s screening at New Directors/New Films, I have not gone a single day without seeing flashes of anonymous faces staring back at me or the vague outline of a man carrying a cross through static interference. Like those who use the Chronovisor, I am trying to decide whether what I saw was real.
When Grasshopper Film releases Chronovisor later this year, see it on the biggest screen possible to immerse yourself in this singular debut. Jack Auen and Kevin Walker will undoubtedly catch the industry’s attention with their avant-garde flair, but their focused vision will grant them a long and fruitful filmography.
Review Courtesy of Kyle Saavedra
Feature Image Courtesy of New Directors/New Films