Club Zero
Mia Wasikowska plays a teacher at an exclusive British boarding school who establishes a programme to combat junk-food consumerism.
Image courtesy of Yume Pictures/Blue Dolphin Films.
This is the second feature film in English to be made by the Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner and it is very much a companion piece to its predecessor, 2019's Little Joe. The latter may not have been a total success but it had an extraordinary and very individual tone which caused me to admire it. I can now say much the same about Club Zero which has won awards at festivals but has also been viewed by many as a disappointment. The extent to which it intrigues the viewer may depend on personal taste, but there is no doubt at all that Club Zero has a character that marks it out as being every inch a film that only Hausner could have made.
This work takes place virtually throughout on the campus of an international boarding school, one that takes on private pupils and is run by a Mrs Dorset (Sidse Babett Knudsen). A new teacher there is Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska). At the outset we see her starting a course on conscious eating which is attended by seven pupils. Two of them will eventually drop out, but the others are central to the tale. Ben (Samuel D. Anderson), a working-class boy living with his widowed mother (Amanda Lawrence), is only there as an aid to obtaining a scholarship but the others in the group are genuinely drawn to the idea of exploring the possibility that everybody eats too much and that food, the supply of which benefits society commercially, is much less needed than we are all led to believe. Amongst those approaching the course with enthusiasm are Fred (Luke Barker) who is also studying dance and three female students, the gymnast Ragna (Florence Baker), the bulimic Elsa (Ksenia Devriendt) and the quieter, serious-minded Helen (Gwen Currant). The way in which they respond as the course develops is central to the film but the pivotal figure is very much Miss Novak herself.
The fact that we are dealing with an idiosyncratic teacher with a mind of her own and a passionate concern for her pupils who play a major role in her life inevitably invites comparison with a classic film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Maggie Smith made Miss Brodie unforgettable, but that was in the context of a standard narrative whereas Club Zero, despite having a storyline that we follow, has a different character altogether. This is a film which continually invites the viewer to interpret it for themselves even to the extent of deciding what the subject matter of the film really is. In time we discover that Miss Novak is promoting her course as part of a plan to persuade people that ultimately the right way to live is to give up food altogether at which point they would be part of a group known as Club Zero. But to what extent is this film really about food?
Certainly, issues around food provide the starting point. The students are drawn to Miss Novak’s course for reasons that range from disapproval of the commercial promotion of what we eat, be it healthy or not, to a belief that changes in eating can help promote climate change. But, while the development towards Club Zero grows out of the issues raised initially, the course can be seen as an example of how ideas that are taken up and attract followers can then be pushed to extremes. This could be a comment on many a cult and indeed after a time we discover that Miss Novak believes that in teaching what she does she is somebody who has been called to undertake a mission. At this point the film is suggesting a parallel with religion and the advocacy of various forms of it. The fact that the production design for the film stresses an impersonal modern world (the campus setting has a sterile feeling comparable to that of the laboratory in Hausner’s Little Joe) suggests a setting in which people might well reach out for new ideas. Furthermore, while Miss Novak’s group is small their acceptance of her ideas breeds a sense of conformity among her pupils which gives them a sense of belonging (early on, when Ben is the one student resisting, viewers are surely drawn to him approving his retention of his individuality and something important is felt to be lost when he caves in).
Audiences attracted to the idea of being encouraged to interrogate a film in order to find its most apt interpretation will be stimulated by Club Zero. Nevertheless, a running length of 110 minutes does result in a work which comes to feel rather stretched out and, although it builds to a climax, one may still be left with a feeling that its resolution is less than fully satisfying. However, there are other pleasures beyond its thematic interest. Hausner chose Martin Gschlacht to photograph Little Joe and he is again her partner here. The two are clearly at one and both in composition and colour design the visuals have a style of their own perfectly suited to the material. Like it or not, Club Zero has all the hallmarks of being the work of an artist. Hausner has also obtained reliable performances from her cast including those playing students, parents and staff although I did find the Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen a little stiff in her portrayal of the school principal. However, the standout performance appropriately enough is that of the splendid Mia Wasikowska as Miss Novak. Never for a moment overplaying, she handles every scene with such precision that you feel that she perfectly understands what Jessica Hausner wanted. She is the firm centre of a film which will mean different things to different people and which may bore some but will stimulate others.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Ksenia Devriendt, Luke Barker, Florence Baker, Gwen Currant, Samuel D. Anderson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Amir El-Masry, Elsa Zylberstein, Mathieu Demy, Amanda Lawrence, Lukas Turtur, Keeley Forsyth, Sade McNichols-Thomas, Andrei Hozoc, Camilla Rutherford.
Dir Jessica Hausner, Pro Jessica Hausner, Philippe Bober, Mike Goodridge, Johannes Schubert, Bruno Wagner and Martin Gschlacht, Screenplay Jessica Hausner and Géraldine Bajard, Ph Martin Gschlacht, Pro Des Beck Rainford, Ed Karina Ressler, Music Markus Binder, Costumes Tanja Hauser.
Coop 99 Filmproduktion/Coproduction Office/Arte France Cinéma-Yume Pictures/Blue Dolphin Films.
110 mins. Austria/UK/Germany/France/Denmark/Turkey/USA/Qatar/Bosnia Herzegovina. 2023. US Rel: 15 March 2024. UK Rel: 6 December 2024. Cert. 18.
