REVIEWS ❘ FILMS
OFFICE BOX
The top 10 hit fi lms in France
1 Avatar: la voie de l’eau
James Cameron
2 Le Chat Potté 2: la dernière quête
Januel P. Mercado, Joel Crawford
3 Tempête Christian Duguay
4 M3GAN Gerard Johnstone
5 Chœur de Rockers
Ida Techer, Luc Bricault CINÉ
FRANCE Director: Bruno Dumont Starring: Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay
The France in question is TV journalist France de Meurs, played with delicious wit and nuance by the excellent Léa Seydoux – although it could just as well refer to the country itself. At turns funny and moving, this satirical tragicomedy by Bruno Dumont is a commentary on the relationship between the media and social media and the fi ctions fomented therein. It follows France as she unravels from
unfl appable anchor and war correspondent to a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It all starts when she accidentally knocks a delivery driver off his bike, kicking off a chain of events that see her marriage strained to the limit, her career go off the rails and… well , let’s just say there are some surprises along the way. The noxious nature of fame is examined as France tries desperately to rebuild her life.
UN PETIT MIRACLE
Director: Sophie Boudre Starring: Alice Pol, Jonathan Zaccaï, Eddy Mitchell
Juliette is not having the best time of it: the school she taught in has burnt down, and her class will have to be split up and found places at other schools across the département. Determined not to let that happen, she comes up with a plan: to move her class to Les
Coquelicots, the local retirement home. For the children and the elderly residents, it’s going to be one heck of a learning curve – but it’s a lesson that will transform them forever. Director Sophie Boudre was inspired by a true story in which a nursery was set up in a retirement home in the United States and decided to explore the idea in this charming, funny and very defi nitely heartwarming movie.
104 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Feb/Mar 2023
Dumont, who wrote the fi lm as well as directing it, said: “France is the story of a star woman journalist on a 24-hour news channel against the backdrop of a world thrown out of whack by the ‘almost parallel world’ of media and social networks. […] France de Meurs is the embodiment of this star journalist of the media system, a real cinema heroine, a tragic conscience, all illuminated, completely human.” Alongside Seydoux’s captivating performance, a shout-out must go to Blanche Gardin for her delightful portrayal of Lou, France’s well-meaning but hapless (and slightly batty) producer. Also turning in a moving, gently underplayed performance as Fred de Meurs, France’s long- suffering writer husband, is the laconic singer- songwriter Benjamin Biolay. Quirky, dark and utterly absorbing, France is one to watch out for.
AMORE MIO
Director: Guillaume Gouix Starring: Élodie Bouchez, Alysson Paradis
The movie opens on the day of Raphael’s funeral. His wife, Lola, is beside herself with grief and doesn’t know how to cope with her own sorrow or that of her seven-year-old son. Her sister, Margaux, from whom she has been estranged for years, turns up
for the funeral, but on their way to the ceremony, Lola persuades Margaux to fl ee and take them away from it all. An impromptu trip to Italy follows, during which the two sisters rediscover their love for each other and begin to rekindle the childhood relationship they once had and all the freedom that entailed. Expect laughter and tears in this life-affi rming movie about death and, ultimately, love.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
6 Ernest et Célestine: le voyage en Charabie
Julien Chheng, Jean- Christophe Roger
7 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Ryan Coogler
8 Le Royaume des étoiles
Ali Samadi Ahadi
9 Les Banshees d’Inisherin
Martin McDonagh
10 Caravage Michele Placido
CLASSIC FILM
SHOAH One of Sight & Sound’s
greatest films of all time, Shoah (1985) is nine and a half hours long and
took 11 years to make, and is essential viewing. In it director Claude
Lanzmann’s interviews Holocaust survivors
and former Nazis about their experiences in the death camps of
Chelmno, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau
and the Warsaw ghetto. Described by Simone
de Beauvoir as a “sheer masterpiece”, it is an
astonishing oral record of one of the darkest episodes in our history.
IMAGES © COHEN MEDIA GROUP, NETFLIX, AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
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