"First there was nothing. Then there was music and then He made the sun." Jaco van Dormael's The Eighth Day begins by charting the creation of the earth seen through the eyes of Georges (Pascal Duquenne), who has Downs Syndrome. "On the third day He made records, and on the fourth, TV." It is Georges' irrepressible imagination which lies at
the heart of van Dormael's original and inspired film.
A chance encounter one night between Georges and overworked businessman Harry (Daniel Auteil) sets the scene for a carefully-crafted examination of love, loss and the rediscovery of life. Here are two people who would never normally meet; a clash between order and anarchy, blindness and perception. Harry has one reality: his alarm clock, The Future Bank, the fact that his wife has left him. Society has moulded him so thoroughly that he has lost himself. Georges meanwhile has a whole universe of realities and an infinite capacity for love.
Duquenne and Auteil deservedly shared the Best Actor prize at Cannes earlier this year for their emotive performances in The Eighth Day. While the film is at times almost overwhelmingly poignant, it is also brilliantly funny - after all, in a previous life van Dormael was a clown with Belgium's 'Big Flying Circus'. The scabrous humour so vociferous in Toto le Héros has been reigned in here, but is equally eloquent. Charming and utterly moving, see The Eighth Day now, before the Hollywood remake with Dustin Hoffman.
Reviewed by Monika Maurer
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