Un Homme qui Dort

A hypnotic solo by its mute hero, a young man who decides to withdraw from the world and whose mental journal of his experience is confided to us by a girl's voice off-screen, Un Homme qui Dort is an astonishing tour de force. What distinguishes it from all those ventures in spiritual navel-gazing is that his decision to not-be is purely practical, and the parabola he traces from boredom to terror - as he gradually detaches himself to float free within an indefinable menace - is brilliantly conveyed by the other leading character in the film: the city of Paris. The influence of Franju is unmistakable, and wholly beneficial.