The FIF85 deserves to be better known. Nestled in the heart of Vendée, the La-Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival is a great cinephile event, which combines a claimed eclecticism (arthouse, experimental cinema, but also B series and big American productions) and a desire to open up to the general public.
Far from the “Cannes bubble”, we discover the works presented alongside a varied and transgenerational audience. Schoolchildren, in particular, are numerous there, a reminder of the importance of educational systems through the seventh art such as middle and high school students at the cinema – threatened by budget cuts in local authorities. And on the canvas side? Humanity selected five films that caught his attention.
“A Real Pain”, on the roads of memory
We left Jesse Eisenberg disappointed. His fantastic first film, When You Finish Saving The Worldwas released on VOD to general indifference in 2023, after a good reception at the Deauville festival. His second feature film, A Real Painshould ward off fate and will enjoy a comfortable distribution, managed by Disney.
And that’s so much the better. The actor, revealed in The Social Network by David Fincher, confirms his talent behind the camera, and especially in the script. The story of two Jewish New York cousins, David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benjamin (Kieran Culkin), on a trip to Poland in the footsteps of their late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor.
One is hyper-anxious and frankly distressing, the other is exuberant but harboring severe depression. Mismatched, the two will have to reconnect with themselves as well as with the damaged memory of the Jews of Eastern Europe. A Real Painawarded at Sundance this winter, leaves Vendée with a jury prize. We also came away impressed.
A Real Pain, by Jesse Eisenberg, United States/Poland, 1 hour 30 minutes. Release: February 25, 2025.
“Your Monster”, label and the beast
Laura was diagnosed with cancer. Her boyfriend weighed her down. And, to make matters worse, here comes the monster from the closet who terrorized her when she was little. Enemy ? Friend ? Lover? Feminine and feminist monster film, Your Monster is not afraid to stack genres (romantic comedy, horror, musical) to produce a film that is both wicked and tender, funny and bloody.
The kind of work that will cut through the patriarchy, especially if it involves a serrated knife and splashes on the walls. Special mention to Melissa Barrera, propelled as the new muse of funny horror since she re-oxygenated the franchise Scream. His acting, always a step too far, is one of the charming assets of a film that overflows with it.
Your Monster, by Caroline Lindy, United States, 1:42
“Grand Theft Hamlet”, a UFO documentary you absolutely must discover
Born in the early 2000s, the video game franchise Grand Theft Auto (GTA) has offered players for more than twenty years an amoral sandbox where gratuitous murders and chases against the police multiply. Suddenly, in the middle of Covid, two British actors on the sidelines say that this is the perfect place to put on an “online” representation of the Hamlet of Shakespeare, while the theaters are closed.
Their video game games filmed by his partner Pinny, Sam Crane then sets out, with his friend Mark, to recruit Shakespearean geeks online, to succeed in this crazy (and a bit stupid) bet. How to deploy a dramaturgy within the constrained framework of a game conceived as a ground of uninhibited massacre, the war of each against all? How can we make this strange adventure into a film, where we will only film the pixelated avatars of the protagonists?
These are all these dizzying questions that Grand Theft Hamletpoetic boxon as hell. Between two bazooka shots from players not very hip to old English theater, the gang, hunted by the game’s cops, will gradually succeed in becoming a troop, driven by the same conviction that we can make art out of anything. A middle finger to confinement and culture rejected in the basket of “non-essential activities”, “GTH” is a UFO documentary that is absolutely worth discovering.
Grand Theft Hamlet, by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane, United Kingdom, 1h30
“Kneecap”, overcaffeinated Irish
Rap in cinema often involves autofiction. We think of Eminem recounting his own youth in 8 Milesor closer to us in Orelsan and Gringe, having fun with the lame beginnings of Casseurs Flowteurs (How far is it). Heading to Belfast, where the Kneecap group is at it. Are anti-unionist brats who, to defend the Irish Catholic soul against the British “invader”, deliver their punchlines in Gaelic.
The trio, who had caused controversy in Great Britain because of a concert poster where they were seen tying Boris Johnson to a stake, offer themselves here a supercharged comedy to their glory, with both this surplus of ego specific to hip-hop culture, and real political anger – the name of the group, “kneecap”, refers to the broken knees of Irish republicans, tortured by the royal army.
The film sometimes overloads the boat, the energy and the stylistic effects overflow. We think of Edgar White, which a furious editor would have put on fast forward. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Kneecap, de Rich Peppiatt, Northern Ireland, 1h45
“Planet B”, the future if we entrusted it to Gérald Darmanin
Grenoble, 2039. France has stuck to the Paris agreement and, by criminalizing environmental activists, has quietly drifted towards a cryptofascist regime which locks up “ecoterrorists” in virtual hells where they are tortured with bullets. digital nightmares. Planète B constitutes new proof that there is a great desire for genre cinema in France, as long as we give them the means to deploy.
Supported by two strong actresses (Adèle Exarchopoulos, as a radicalized Camille Étienne; Souheila Yacoub, as a refugee journalist), this first film is certainly full of blunders. Starting with its relationship to science fiction, connected to the 1980s and 90s.
Filmmaker Aude-Léa Rapin digested Matrix et Blade Runner but struggles to leave this canvas to invent an imagination adapted to the time – outside of this virtual prison that looks like a heavenly house on the Côte d’Azur, a truly great idea.
We readily forgive this first attempt its weaknesses and we will rather remember its political anger. Planet B is a punk response to governments, led by Macron, who prefer to track down those who defend the globe rather than those who shoot it.
Planet B, by Aude-Léa Rapin, France/Belgium, 2 hours. Release: December 25, 2024
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