REVIEWS ❘ FILMS
OFFICE BOX
The top 10 hit fi lms in France
1 Super Mario Bros, Le Film
Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
2 Les Trois
Mousquetaires: D’artagnan
Martin Bourboulon
3 Donjons & Dragons : L’honneur Des Voleurs
Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
CINÉ
REVOIR PARIS Director: Alice Winocour Starring: Virginie Efi ra, Benoît Magimel, Grégoire Colin
After an idyllic date night full of red wine and a late-night motorcycle ride home, Mia (Virginie Efi ra) stops at a Parisian bistro to take shelter from a downpour. Her reprieve is shattered when a gunman opens fi re. Three months later, with a frustratingly hazy memory of the attack, Mia fi nds herself numbed and unable to resume her life. Her friends and partner seek something from her that she can no longer give.
Determined to reconstruct the sequence of events and reestablish a sense of normality, Mia fi nds herself repeatedly returning to the bistro where the shooting happened. In the process, she forms bonds with some of her fellow survivors, including wry banker Thomas (Benoît Magimel) and orphaned teenager Félicia (Nastya Golubeva). When she remembers that a stranger helped her
A RADIANT GIRL
Director: Sandrine Kiberlain Starring: Rebecca Marder
Paris, summer 1942. Irene (Rebecca Marder) is a vibrant 19-year-old aspiring actress without a care in the world. She is rehearsing for the entrance exam to the coveted Conservatory, making new friends and discovering love, without realising that time is
running out in Nazi-occupied France. In turns enchanting and devastating, Kiberlain’s drama, which she also wrote, is not a traditional Holocaust narrative, but a coming-of-age tale about the freedoms of youth amidst a changing world, with a star-making performance by Marder. The fi lm shows the dangers of complacency in the face of fascism, as well as moments of beauty found in the hardest of circumstances.
86 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Jun/Jul 2023
make it through the attack, Mia sets off on a mission to fi nd him, if only to make sure that he is still alive. Revoir Paris is a moving meditation on grief, healing, and the importance of connections forged in tragedy with a breathtaking performance by Efi ra, who won the 2023 César for Best Actress for her performance. Although fi ctional, the fi lm was inspired by writer/director Winocour’s own brother’s experiences as a survivor of the Bataclan concert hall 2015 attacks. “My brother was at the Bataclan on November 13,” she said. “While he was hiding, I stayed in contact with him by text for part of the night. The fi lm was inspired by my own memories of the trauma and by the account my brother gave in the days after the attack. I experienced for myself how events are deconstructed, and often reconstructed by memory.”
THE MAN IN THE BASEMENT
Director: Philippe Le Guay Starring: François Cluzet, Jérémie Renier
Simon Sandberg, a Jewish Parisian architect (Renier) sells his fl at’s unused cellar to a seemingly normal and well-mannered former history teacher, Jacques Fonzic (François Cluzet). But when Fonzic takes up residence, the stranger’s secret life emerges. Slowly and
methodically, his far-right, radicalised beliefs about Judaism and conspiracy theories ensnare Simon’s very existence, driving him to more and more desperate strategies to evict the man. What ensues is a riveting cat-and-mouse game between Fonzic and Sandberg as the increasingly menacing buyer insinuates himself with their naive teenage daughter, turning the family’s idyllic world upside down.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
4 La Vie Pour De Vrai
Dany Boon
5 Notre Tout Petit Petit Mariage
Frédéric Quiring
6 Evil Dead Rise Lee Cronin
7 10 Jours Encore Sans Maman
Ludovic Bernard
8 Je Verrai Toujours Vos Visages
Jeanne Herry 9 Misanthrope Damián Szifron 10 Suzume Makoto Shinkai
CLASSIC FILM
LE SALAIRE DE LA PEUR This 1953 thriller from
director Henri-Georges Clouzot is a nail-biter all right. Four hapless,
down-on-their-luck men are hired to drive two trucks loaded with a
highly volatile cargo of nitroglycerine, which is
needed to extinguish the flames of a US-owned
oil well which has caught fire. Their perilous
journey over mountain tracks is gripping, and the movie, which shot Clouzot to fame, has been described as an “existential suspense
classic”. It takes stress to a whole new level.
IMAGES ©MUSIC BOX, CAROLINE BOTTARO
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