Nobody
writes about evil like Thomas Harris, in all its nuances, ranging from fear to
fascination. Also for this reason he is my favourite author, despite (or
perhaps thanks to the fact that) he isn’t very prolific. Therefore, when I
learned that a new book of his was about to come out thirteen years after the
previous one, I was looking forward in anticipation of his reading. Obviously,
I didn’t buy it as soon as it was published. Like all the books of my favourite
authors, I let it mature, I looked around, I read the unflattering reviews that
it collected and, with every bad review I came across, I felt it would be a
great read. And I wasn’t wrong.
“Cari Mora”
is concise. A captivating prose with no frills or unnecessary information. Each
word is a precise brush stroke on the protagonists of this story and on the
ruthless world in which they move, where nobody is good, but everyone is bad or
damaged (or both). Someone more, someone less.
It’s quick.
There are no reflections, pauses. Everything happens very quickly. It looks
like a story designed to be turned into a film. It would be a great film in the
hands of the right screenwriter and the right director.
The title
is nothing more than the name of the main character, but the author doesn’t
just linger over her. He enters deeply the minds of the supporting characters
and in particular of the antagonist. And a shiver runs through your back as you
face, even if only for a moment, the thoughts of the latter. But there is no
time to mull over it, because the story continues, fast and inexorable.
As in all
Harris’s books, you can’t just stop reading. The book calls you during the day,
it demands your attention. I’m not a compulsive reading person who forgets
everything else to read. Only Harris’s books have this effect on me.
The most
exciting part is undoubtedly the ending, in which you feel in serious danger
like Cari, but fight for your life, breathless, your heart racing. Here the
character expresses itself to the fullest and shows a glimpse of the immense
potential it possesses.
If I didn’t
know how much Harris is reluctant to write with a certain frequency, I would
think that “Cari Mora” has the purpose of presenting this character (and that
of the policeman), as the first of a series of books. But perhaps what Harris
wants is only to offer us the elements for our imagination to go ahead on its
own. Or we must expect a TV series inspired by this novel in the future.
I don’t
know. I only know that I hope Harris will write again.
Lately I’m
quite interested in European productions for what concerns TV series, so when
last autumn I found out that Rai 4 broadcast a French science fiction series
set on Mars, I immediately threw myself at it. I admit that I didn’t have
very high expectations, since it was evident that it was a production with a
limited budget, and instead, I had to change my mind.
“Missions”
(whose title can be pronounced in both French and English) is a French series
created by Ami Cohen, Henri Debeurme and Julien Lacombe and produced by
Empreinte Digitale in 2017. So far it includes two seasons, but a third
has already been commissioned and is in the pre-production phase. Each season
consists of 10 episodes of approximately 20 minutes each.
The cast,
mostly French, also includes the Italian actress Giorga Sinicorni, in the
role of Alessandra Najac, which is one of the most controversial and
therefore most interesting characters in the series. Omar Serafini and I had the
pleasure of interviewing
her recently on FantascientifiCast (in Italian).
The series
follows the ESAmission Ulysses 1, the first manned
Mars mission. While the spacecraft is arriving at the red planet, the crew
is informed that a NASA mission, Zillion 1, in which nuclear propulsion
was used, arrived earlier, but there is no more news from the astronauts,
therefore Ulysses 1 has become a rescue mission. In the meantime,
a third mission is coming, Zillion 2.
A
particular aspect is that both missions are financed by private individuals.
That of ESA by William Meyer (Swiss billionaire), who is also part of the crew.
That of NASA by Ivan Goldstein (American billionaire) and is carried out by his
company called, in fact, Zillion.
I couldn’t
help but see in these two characters a sort of “good” and “bad” side of
contemporary public figures in the private aerospace sector. Meyer’s
character, in particular, with the desire to go personally to the Red Planet
immediately reminded me of Elon Musk.
The series
also opens on the story of the Russian cosmonaut Vladamir Komarov, who
died during the Soyuz 1 mission in 1967. It’s an original choice, which
allows the public to know more about this late space hero.
I can’t say
too much about the plot, which is characterised by continuous twists
developed throughout the serialisation. In each 20-minute episode, the plot
goes on seemingly slowly, then accelerates towards the end and leaves us with a
twist.
Fortunately,
three episodes were broadcast by Rai 4 in the same day (then made available on
Rai Play)!
The story
includes a set of elements already seen in Mars and non-Mars science fiction,
but the peculiarity lies in the way they are mixed.
Among the
original aspects there is the character of Komarov, or rather of
something that seems him, which has an important role within the plot. And in
this regard, a series of flashbacks allow us to know more about the real
Komarov, even if he turns out to be marginal in the story. However, it’s
interesting and adds a European touch to the narrative.
The whole
series is full of flashbacks, which provide information on the
characters. In the second season, in particular, they serve to explain what
happened in the past five years after the end of the first.
This
alternation of different timelines allows you to discover the story little by
little, providing unexpected twists.
It’s a
narrative choice that I particularly love, since it is able to surprise the
viewer (or the reader), showing them certain information only when it can
obtain the maximum effect.
The
first season cost 1.5 million euros and was shot in just 27 days. And despite this, the result is
truly commendable. But it’s in the second that, against a budget
increase of up to 2 million (therefore certainly not stellar), we observe the
opening of the story to new possibilities, which are accompanied by more
vivid visual effects and the use of a greater number of settings, which
make it even more realistic.
There is a
strongly mystical element in the story, although a scientific touch is
given to it, or an attempt is made. Here I have found disturbing similarities
with “Red
Desert”, although more in form than in substance. There are connected
minds, a biological element, artificial intelligence that rebels, a protagonist
who secretly comes out of a Martian base and then gets hurt (and then is
saved), people who suddenly die in accidents or in mysterious circumstances,
people who lose it and kill, affairs among the character. But there’s also
something else that has nothing to do with my Martian series, for example,
portals that remind me of Stargate and other supertechnologies of
unknown origin (at least so far).
Despite the
small budget, the visual quality is very good. There are some
simplifications, both scientific and with regard to some technical aspects
(such as the space suits, which are obviously not pressurised), but this does not
negatively affect the result, since we are totally taken by the events
occurring to the characters, that the details have very little importance.
The direction, photography and editing are very well done, and the never
cumbersome music underlines the story effectively. The whole is
characterised by a certain sense of reality. One has the impression of
dealing with a very near real future.
I’ve read,
on social networks and in articles on other blogs and magazines, some negative
opinions on dialogues, but I don’t agree. We are too accustomed to
Anglophone products and this is, instead, a French product. And you can
also see it in the dialogues. Indeed, the excellent work of adaptation and
dubbing, at least in my language (Italian), manages to blur any “theatrical”
excesses and also makes this aspect suitable for everything else.
Maybe Giorgia
Sinicorni’s self-dubbing (in Italian) tends to stand out a bit in the set
of voices, but it’s something inevitable, since she isn’t a voice actress and
at the same time the Italian voice actors are so good that they would make
anyone make a bad impression. In any case, this small detail tends to disappear
in the second season, partly because there has certainly been an improvement in
Sinicorni’s voice performance and partly because we have got used to her voice,
thanks also to the fact that the character has a larger role in the story. And,
let’s face it, being the only Italian character in the series, it makes
sense that she “sounds” different from the others.
However, to
appreciate the performance of Sinicorni, I
recommend watching her show reel, in which there are two clips of scenes
from this series: one in French and one in English.
Perhaps it
would be worthwhile to watch again the two seasons in the original language, as
soon as Rai Play will make them available again (in Italy), which will surely
happen with the release of the third. In the meantime, the French version of the first season is available on DVD and Blu-ray
on Amazon.
Below,
however, you can watch the trailer.
Although
that of “Missions” is a story in which the aspect that goes beyond
science has a role of some importance, I found myself comparing it to the drama
portion of the docudrama “Mars” by National Geographic. The direction it
takes is completely different, because there are different purposes, but
concerning general quality, making the due proportions of budget, I believe
that “Missions” has nothing to envy to the American series.
Also, I
think it looks a lot like (and maybe has been influenced by) “Defying Gravity”, an American series
from 2009, cancelled after the first season, in which the same elements are
mixed (relationships between the characters, a mystery that goes beyond
science, space exploration in the near future) and the same techniques
(flashbacks), but obviously with a different budget. I admit, too, that I was
inspired by it when I conceived the plot of “Red Desert”.
It’s in a certain sense the same type of science fiction, which, starting
from distinctly hard elements, mixes them with something softer, not well
defined, capable of stimulating the spectator’s imagination.
In
conclusion, I really appreciated the imaginative effort of this series,
supported by an excellent script, with a fast pace and capable of
continuously giving rise to new questions. If I’d had both seasons
available since the beginning, I would have seen them in two or three days, so
much was my curiosity at the end of each episode.
In any
case, all this, together with a good cast and a very well-finished visual
component, in my opinion, makes “Missions” a bet won in the context of
European science fiction.
*****
Quick and ruthless
