Chronovisor

The most singular low-budget sci-fi thriller since Pi, Kevin Walker and Jack Auen’s experimental indie casts a weird spell, even though much of the movie feels like rummaging through research library archives in pursuit of a master’s. In fact the film’s multi-lingual heroine, Béatrice (Anne-Laure Sellier) is an academic working on a manuscript about theories of memory (so she claims, though she’s not above a little subterfuge). In the course of her work she’s come across allusions to an intriguing if far-fetched invention from the middle of the last century. According to Vatican sources, the chronovisor could pick up transmissions from any point in history — including the crucifixion of Christ…

She might like to, but Béatrice can’t bring herself to dismiss this idea out of hand. Indeed, as her sources dry up, she becomes convinced there must have been some kind of cover up. But why cover up a hoax? A semiotician’s nightmare, part Borges, part Chris Marker, the movie sucks us in like a particularly insidious conspiracy theory.

Sly, often low-key funny and absorbing.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

A beguiling thriller.

Alison Wilmore, New York Magazine