Love
is the most persistent ghost, because it can haunt you forever. A
twentysomething man and a thirtysomething woman will prove just how true that
is. Technically, he died about ten years ago, but they still have powerful
romantic chemistry in Stephane Batut’s Burning Ghost, which screens
during the 2020 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.
Juste
died through some sort of misadventure, but Kramarz, the gatekeeper to whatever
comes next, allows him to stay in the realm of mortals, to guide recently deceased
souls to her. He lives with a foot in both planes of existence. He can interact
with mortals, as long as he never gets too involved. However, caution goes out
the window when he crosses paths with Agathe.
She
knew him when he used a different name, but he still looks exactly the same. Juste
initially tries to deny it, but their passion for each other has also remained
unchanged. Soon, he tries to pick up where they left-off, but that will somehow
upset the cosmic balance of his supernatural existence.
Burrning
Ghost could
be the best ghost movie since Personal Shopper. Fans of Assayas’s foray
into the supernatural should also appreciate the elegant tone Batut achieves,
even though his film is not the slightest bit horror, while also being far less
ambiguous. Instead, it is an exquisitely melancholy meditation on love and death,
the two most fundamental themes art can address.
