Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Martyrs
2008 · Pascal Laugier · Martyrs on Sightlines
4 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 4 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch how flatly the film shoots its first burst of violence. (camera)
There is no slow motion, no music swell, no stylish angle. Laugier shoots the first killing exactly like an ordinary Sunday morning, so the ordinariness makes the violence obscene rather than exciting.
Payoff: The film refuses to make killing look like cinema, and it will keep refusing that refusal all the way through.
Listen for how rarely music tells you how to feel. (sound)
The film leans on raw, physical sound and long stretches of near silence instead of a conventional score. When violence happens, nothing swells in to cushion it for you.
Payoff: Without music to guide you, you are left alone with what you are watching, exactly as the film intends.
Watch how differently Lucie and Anna carry their fear. (performance)
Jampanoi plays Lucie as someone whose terror comes from inside her own body, while Alaoui plays Anna calmer, more watchful, holding herself together for her friend's sake.
Payoff: The contrast in how each woman holds her fear tells you who is unraveling and who is still trying to cope.
Notice how fast and rough the early scenes cut together. (cutting)
The first stretch of the film moves in short, jagged, violently paced shots that mimic panic and rage rather than composed action.
Payoff: The cutting puts you inside the characters' urgency instead of showing their violence from a safe distance.
The 4 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Notice how plainly the camera treats violence, with no music and no flourish.