The Lure
Trying to adapt to a whole new world can be an exercise in destruction--for yourself and others. The Lure is the story of two young mermaids--the kind-hearted Silver (Marta Mazurek), and the fiercely independent Golden (Michalina Olszańska)--who come to shore in Warsaw, Poland, and join a new wave rock group--called "The Lure"--where they perform in a nightclub as singers and dancers. Silver falls in love with the guitarist, Mietek (Jakub Gierszał), although the feelings are not wholly reciprocated. Golden cautions her lovestruck sister of the sea to avoid falling in love with a human, because if he marries another, she will be turned into sea foam.
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The Lure is difficult to categorize, dancing between genres with abandon. It is described as a "horror musical", although it is also a coming-of-age story for the young mermaids, and a melodrama. The Lure begins with Mietek and his married bandmates--singer Krysia (Kinga Preis) and the unnamed drummer (Andrzej Konopka)--performing alone on a beach, when the curious heads of Silver and Golden pop up from the black water of the night sea--with a kind of inquisitive yet reptilian blankness in their eyes--and begin to compliment the trio's melody with their own song. The introduction of the girls at the nightclub is awkward by design, and has exploitative suggestions to it, not least of which is the implication that their sex organs are accessed via a cavity in their tails, and are explored by the dubious-looking nightclub owner. The mermaids are exploited by their guardians, although the relationship remains mutually beneficial--they bring in customers and have a place to stay while they are on land. In keeping with myths about mermaids, Silver and Golden have a genuine passion for singing and performing, and become a hit attraction among the patrons of the club. They are exposed to the modern, human world, and frolic in the cities, breaking out into elaborate song and dance routines while shopping with Krysia. The mermaids find a kind of surrogate family in the members of "The Lure", one that fosters them while they are on their vacation before they make the trip to America. Although Silver and Golden try to look out for one another, they have their own needs and desires that they secretly try to fulfill without involving the other. Silver's attraction to Mietek forces her to go to extremes to try to win his affection, even mutilating herself to try to be more human like him, hoping that will make him love her. While Silver abandons her heritage to try to pursue love, Golden becomes more antagonistic and violent. She pursues a murderous urge, employing her siren-like allure to isolate men and women, seduce them, and then feed on them in a bloody tableau. This is where the two sisters begin to grow apart in their new domain; Silver wishes to become a part of this new "family", while Golden associates with dissident elements like the former merman and punk rocker, Triton (Marcin Kowalczyk), her songs filled with sorrow and rebellion. The Lure is loosely adapted from the story of "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen; Silver embodies the more traditional interpretation of the fable, whereas Golden represents a commentary on the inequality of the mermaid's tragic fate, and resists mankind's efforts to subjugate her and treat her as inferior.
The Lure is a metaphor-laden movie, where the events on the screen do not necessarily correlate with reality...sometimes an expression of the feelings of the characters. For instance, a vignette involving the members of "The Lure" seems to depict them in the throes of drug withdrawal, leading to a sorrowful song and a woman attaching intravenous needles into them. This is not revisited in the theatrical release of the film--the deleted scenes found on the recent release by The Criterion Collection offers some background--but it is best viewed as a psychological manifestation of the guilt and shame they feel at an earlier confrontation between the drummer and the mermaids which turned violent. Vivid and bright scenes of song and dance are sharply contrasted with somber scenes in darkness, with the color washed away--as if the tone of the film were filtered through a manic depressive sensibility. What appears as erratic tonal shifts really speak to the kind of culture shock and sense of displacement that Silver and Golden are forced to cope with in their life away from the sea. This is also a metaphor for the setting--early 1980s communist Poland--and the feelings of disestablishment that was a part of the national identity for Poles at that time. This multifaceted collection of styles and influences makes The Lure a buffet of stimuli, and a deliberately illogical, dreamlike experience. It has moments of hyper-real melodrama, like the cabaret performances they perform--opulent with color, immersing the audience in music, and recalling the works of Pedro Almodóvar. The introspective songs by Golden and Silver--their music being a kind of inner monologue revealing their doubts and insecurities--is reminiscent of moments from Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. And the 1980s-era motifs and pop music flowing through the veins of The Lure also recalls a pair of thematically similar films: Splash and Flashdance. It has been suggested that the experiences of Silver and Golden are a metaphor for illegal sex trafficking and the exploitation that follows. There is that in The Lure, but I find more similarities in the migrant crisis throughout Europe, with the mermaids representing refugees fleeing their homeland, hoping to find solace in a new world, only to discover resistance and existential crises. At times, the symbolism of The Lure is staggering in its directness, such as when Silver decides to sacrifice her tail for human legs. This grisly scene--while Silver is singing no less--depicts her like a carved up frozen fish on a bed of ice at a market, and juxtaposes both the sterile brightness of an operating room with the gore of a slaughterhouse. Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, The Lure entrances its audience by a one-two punch of catchy music and melodrama to "lure" the audience into complacency, then putting the audience's emotions on a proverbial roller coaster by shocking you with vivid imagery--beautiful and horrifying, and sometimes both at once.
Recommended for: Fans of a vibrant and alluring musical about acceptance and identity in a strange new world, combining seemingly incompatible genres to tell a poetic pop rock tale, one that is both grisly and glamorous.
The Lure is a metaphor-laden movie, where the events on the screen do not necessarily correlate with reality...sometimes an expression of the feelings of the characters. For instance, a vignette involving the members of "The Lure" seems to depict them in the throes of drug withdrawal, leading to a sorrowful song and a woman attaching intravenous needles into them. This is not revisited in the theatrical release of the film--the deleted scenes found on the recent release by The Criterion Collection offers some background--but it is best viewed as a psychological manifestation of the guilt and shame they feel at an earlier confrontation between the drummer and the mermaids which turned violent. Vivid and bright scenes of song and dance are sharply contrasted with somber scenes in darkness, with the color washed away--as if the tone of the film were filtered through a manic depressive sensibility. What appears as erratic tonal shifts really speak to the kind of culture shock and sense of displacement that Silver and Golden are forced to cope with in their life away from the sea. This is also a metaphor for the setting--early 1980s communist Poland--and the feelings of disestablishment that was a part of the national identity for Poles at that time. This multifaceted collection of styles and influences makes The Lure a buffet of stimuli, and a deliberately illogical, dreamlike experience. It has moments of hyper-real melodrama, like the cabaret performances they perform--opulent with color, immersing the audience in music, and recalling the works of Pedro Almodóvar. The introspective songs by Golden and Silver--their music being a kind of inner monologue revealing their doubts and insecurities--is reminiscent of moments from Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. And the 1980s-era motifs and pop music flowing through the veins of The Lure also recalls a pair of thematically similar films: Splash and Flashdance. It has been suggested that the experiences of Silver and Golden are a metaphor for illegal sex trafficking and the exploitation that follows. There is that in The Lure, but I find more similarities in the migrant crisis throughout Europe, with the mermaids representing refugees fleeing their homeland, hoping to find solace in a new world, only to discover resistance and existential crises. At times, the symbolism of The Lure is staggering in its directness, such as when Silver decides to sacrifice her tail for human legs. This grisly scene--while Silver is singing no less--depicts her like a carved up frozen fish on a bed of ice at a market, and juxtaposes both the sterile brightness of an operating room with the gore of a slaughterhouse. Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, The Lure entrances its audience by a one-two punch of catchy music and melodrama to "lure" the audience into complacency, then putting the audience's emotions on a proverbial roller coaster by shocking you with vivid imagery--beautiful and horrifying, and sometimes both at once.
Recommended for: Fans of a vibrant and alluring musical about acceptance and identity in a strange new world, combining seemingly incompatible genres to tell a poetic pop rock tale, one that is both grisly and glamorous.