Colourful. Spectacular. Magic. These are the words that ‘Monstrus Circus‘ provokes in the soul of the viewers, throwing them into a fascinating universe, at the limit of fantastic and carnivalesque scenery. By choosing a dynamic narrative formula that takes on many of the attributes of modern fairy tales, director Jordan Inconstant orchestrates, under the pretext of a story populated by “grotesque” characters, taken from the imaginary of the circus world, a parable of the monstrosity of discrimination existing in all times and spaces. Thus, labels such as “normal” or “monstrous” become concepts that are defining and interchangeable as meaning, since the supreme mainstay of this project is unmasking the social hypocrisy that rejects everything that is different from predetermined aesthetic standards. The characters of this fable in the subtext of which we can feel the director’s admiration for the work of directors such as Tim Burton or Jean-Pierre Jeunet (from whom Jordan Inconstant takes not only the parable convention and the moralizing strategy adopting narrative patterns drawn from the valences of the modern fantastic but also the refined aesthetic sense for the proportion of the image and for the chromaticity) function as purifying elements that, like the devilish characters of Mikhail Bulgakov – Woland, together with his acolytes – exorcise social evil by direct contact with the very real essence of people.
When a circus troupe is discriminated by the public due to the “deformed” physical features of performers, the magician Leonard prepares a subtle form of revenge. Soon everyone will find out that the inability of people to accept the differences of others is the real monster.
The contrasts such as normal-abnormal, monstrous-tender, touching-repulsive become the ideal canvas for the overflowing imagination of the director who is the adept of a magical cinema with an obvious aesthetic mainstay, following the current trends of contemporary French films for which colour or the elements breaking the monotony of the daily life are supreme values. Also, in this short film, pure joy, similar to that of a child fascinated by a magician’s dexterity, combines with the bitter taste felt while facing a hostile world, making from Jordan Inconstant’s story not only an escape from the existential banality, but also a lesson of life about the mental and spiritual purification that tolerance provides us. ‘Monstrus Circus’ is an irresistible short film that offers both children and adults a gentle and uncomfortable panorama of a world that tends to reject everything that is different but which we must continue to love to overcome any obstacle together.
For the extraordinary talent with which the director orchestrates a parable about the violence of discrimination specific to our society and for the aesthetic sense with which the Jordan Inconstant a magical universe that fascinates through its chromatic spectacularism, ‘Monstrus Circus’ was awarded with the 2nd Film of the Month distinction in the June 2019 edition of TMFF.
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