You've never seen this at the cinema… This great director revolutionizes a genre that we thought we knew by heart! – Actus Ciné

The first images of Presence, the new film by Steven Soderbergh have just been unveiled.

Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last January, the film takes place in a house inhabited by an unknown force. Its special feature? It is told from the point of view of this unknown spirit. The teaser revealed above therefore puts the viewer in the place of the famous presence.

Like David Lowery's A Ghost Story in which a ghost wandered his house through time, Presence tells us the story of a haunted house from the point of view of the spirit. The presence here never leaves the house and places the viewer as an observer.

Co-written by Soderbergh and his accomplice David Koepp, the film is carried by Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan (This is us), Eddy Maday and Callina Liang. They play the members of the family who buy the house in which the ghost is located.

A stressful movie?

At the presentation of the feature film at Sundance, a large number of spectators were shaken by the new film from the director of Ocean's 11. According to critics and spectators on site, the film has already caused a sensation, even provoking strong reactions. Festival-goers even left the theater. One of them reportedly said as he was leaving: “I can't handle this amount of stress!”

According to Varietythe film's actors themselves were reportedly very shaken by the screening. Lucy Liu in particular told the magazine that she was “devastated” by the screening. “My body reacts as if I'm not in the movie !”

Neon

Never look back

During the presentation of his film, the multi-award-winning filmmaker said: “I had real questions about the choice that was at the center of it all. I was very clear that VR and POV didn't work. It's never going to work as a narrative. People want to see a reverse shot of the protagonist with emotion on their face, experiencing the event. I've been hammering that home for a long time. The only way to do that is to never look back.” So there is no camera flip where we see the presence.

What if I deny everything I've ever said?

David Koeppthe film's screenwriter and long-time friend of the filmmaker, explains: “So Steven thought, 'What if I just went back on everything I've ever said about this and we did it purely from the ghost's perspective. I like it when the story takes place in one place or when we have these arbitrary rules that lock us in.'”

He adds : “When we first met to talk about Presence, Steven said to me, 'Here's one thing you need to know about the family: They're really screwed.' I said, 'That sounds interesting,' and he said, 'No, they're really screwed.' So that was my throughline: Ghost's point of view, I'm in this house, the family is really screwed, and I go from there.”

Shot in three weeks, this concept feature film will be released in American theaters on January 17; no date has yet been announced in France.