Ìý User Rating 
From the Jura mountains in France via the Korean port of Pusan, in The Intruder director Claire Denis takes us on a startling journey across the hemispheres, in the company of a mysterious loner (Michel Subor). The quest of this ailing protagonist is as much internal as external, with Denis conveying her themes of intrusion, isolation and detachment through images and sounds rather than dialogue and conventional storytelling. Prepare to be baffled but mesmerized by a brilliantly imaginative piece of cinema.
Loosely inspired by Jean Luc Nancy's account of his own heart transplant, The Intruder features contributions from many of the filmmaker's regular creative collaborators, with the key role of Louis Trebor going to Beau Travail's Michel Subor. The latter, a still vigorously athletic sixtysomething, spends much of the time here gazing into space, as Agnes Godard's camera focusses on his inscrutable face. The film represents this emotionally distant character's dreams and nightmares, his longings and regrets, not least for his estranged relationship with his son (Gregoire Colin). Certainly many of the supporting players such as Katia Golubeva's avenging angel and the 'wild woman' roaming near his dwelling appear to be manifestations of Louis's unconscious.
"DISSOLVES THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN FANTASY AND REALITY"
Backed by Stuart Staples' dissonant guitar score, The Intruder uses recurring symbolic images, whilst dissolving the boundaries between fantasy and reality: hence the shots of hearts, semi-tamed wild dogs, border crossings (legal and illegal), coffins, ships, landscapes and oceans. It's certainly hard to resist a film in which a laughing Beatrice Dalle, credited as the 'Queen of the Northern Hemisphere', powers a team of huskies across the snow-covered wilds.
In French with English subtitles
The Intruder is released in UK cinemas on Friday 26th August 2005.
