Dah, the hero of Claire Denis’ S’en fout la mort, speaks in the kind of terse shorthand you might expect from film noir. He talks about his grand plans, and how he can see every angle in his scheme. It turns out this is all posturing, and his work is far less glamorous than he suggested. Indeed, Denis’ second feature is about an underground cockfighting ring, a place that serves as a dense, potent allegory. Like the animals they train, Dah and his partner have their labor exploited by vulgar people who choose to ignore the cruelty of the whole enterprise. Denis’ formal choices invite the viewer to think deeper about the world she depicts, an approach that she continues throughout her impressive career.
Both Dah (Isaach De Bankolé) and Jocelyn (Alex Descas) are from the Caribbean, and now toil in an anonymous part of France that looks like a soulless, concrete exurb. It is easy to see why the pair work so well together: Jocelyn has a deep kinship with the animals, almost like a “cock whisperer,” while Dah is a shrewd businessman who negotiates with Pierre (Jean-Claude Brialy), who owns the mostly abandoned space where the fights happen. Pierre and Dah have some history together, which Dah mistakes for camaraderie. It will not be the first mistake he makes.
At first, the impasses with between Dah and Pierre are typical squabbles over percentages, but then Denis carefully reveals ethical nuance within cockfighting. Pierre wants to heighten the brutality, attaching razors to the animals, which he believes will attract more spectators and larger bets. In a brooding performance as Jocelyn, Descas believes in a more traditional approach, treating the animals like athletes and not things. S’en fout la mort even includes training montages that are both bizarre and quietly moving.
This film cannot be found on streaming platforms and DVDs are rare, perhaps because Denis sometimes depicts the cockfights in shocking detail. Still, a title card at the end of the film reveals that no animals were harmed, which makes me curious what tricks Denis used to preserve an impressive sense of realism. Maybe put masking tape on the talons so they could not really slash each other? Either way, an important way Denis achieves this effect is to create distance between the camera and her subject. She rarely puts the camera inside the ring. When we see Dah and Jocelyn at work, it is often through a doorway or at the edges of the frame. They are outsiders in more ways than one, and the drab cinematography underscores that the onlookers who watch cockfights in formal black tie outfits are just fooling themselves.
Still, resentment exists among the characters, and the cumulative suggestion is that Dah and Jocelyn are seen as second-class citizens, both in terms of homeland and skin color. The racism starts unspoken, then gets more overt as the film continues. By the bracingly cruel final passages, Dah might bare his teeth through epithets and other indignities. Jocelyn cannot compartmentalize so easily, so he drinks himself into a stupor and opts for sabotaging the events altogether.
The impasse between the two lead characters is a bit like what we see between the brothers in the food comedy Big Night, at least in terms of how one attempts assimilation and the other treats his vocation with purity. Denis has little room for comedy, of course, but the dynamics between Bankolé and Descas are consistently fascinating. In particular, Descas is charismatic and a little menacing, as if Jocelyn must nurse obsessions only he can articulate. There is a scene midway through the film where Pierre turns his space into an underground disco, and Jocelyn wordlessly dances with a white woman. He moves differently than anyone else on the dance floor, another recognition he is an “other” to them, but for a moment it makes him more exceptional than different.
S’en fout la mort, Jocelyn’s name for his prized animal, roughly translates as “No Fear, No Die” (the name given to the film in English). It is an admirable creed, albeit an ironic one since Denis depicts multilayered differences between her characters until nothing can be that simple. Virility, exploitation, race and (mostly importantly) the insidious effects of European colonization are her primary interests, themes she would soon explore in films that would earn her countless accolades. While this film is partially lost to history, Denis reveals empathy and intellectual rigor that few directors ever find, let alone in their second film.
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