Rating: NR | Runtime: 80 minutes
Release Date: December 8th, 2023 (Canada)
Studio: H264 Distribution
Director(s): Denis Côté
Writer(s): Denis Côté

Maybe we’re simply a coat of paint.

Kenopsia (noun): The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

You won’t get a better review of Denis Côté’s Mademoiselle Kenopsia than the literal dictionary definition of the word. It’s an eerie film bathed in the quiet, abandoned liminal space occupied by our lead (Larissa Corriveau) and the cavernous building within which she resides—if, of course, mentioning both separately isn’t redundant since they are really just one and the same.

For seven minutes the screen simply sifts through static images of the building’s empty rooms. That’s when Corriveau comes on-screen with a loud, unknown bang. She calls her boss (Hinde Rabbaj) about it. She calls her about many things, but mostly to consider the weight of existence and the relationship between past, present, and future.

Twenty-seven minutes in and those empty rooms are suddenly filled by (mostly) abstract projections (the outlier is a crab) and piped in noise. An intruder comes to smoke a cigarette (Evelyne de la Chenelière). A handyman comes to install a security camera (Olivier Aubin). Corriveau’s excitement to interact with both is extreme. She yearns for the connection even if she’s also fine with the silence (and phone calls to break the monotony).

Add a dream of being surrounded by people on spring break (Or is it a metaphorical memory of when her hallways teemed with visitors?) and you get the gist of what Côté has created. Like the smoker once heard: film shouldn’t be about life itself. It should be about the space between. Well, here it is. An excruciating experience for some. A blissful sojourn through enlightened philosophical being for others. Not my cup of tea, but certainly effective enough to be another’s.

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Larissa Corriveau in MADEMOISELLE KENOPSIA; courtesy of TIFF.