One week before the American elections, films are released Juror #2 of Clint Eastwood, and Anora by Sean Baker (Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival), which each depict in their own way an America that is their own. Eric Libiot, author of Eastwood and me (JC Lattès), talks about Juror #2 like“an absolutely magnificent film, of terrible classicism.” Recalling that the American elections are fast approaching, he sees this exit “as a response to Trump and his way of seeing the world”.
In his film, the director represents the workings of American justice, and defends a libertarian vision of society, believes Eric Libiot. “[Clint Eastwood] is a libertarian, that is to say he is a man (…) who has the idea that the collective is a sum of individualities.” Which does not prevent the filmmaker from positioning himself against conservative and Trumpist ideology, from defending the importance of justice in American values, and from paying tribute to it.
“We realize that Clint Eastwood holds values, […] he balances the good and the legal, the just and the truth. It’s like what he’s done all his life, he digs into human complexity.”
This vision of human nature and society is found through the different protagonists who succeed one another during the director’s different films, where the figure of the libertarian hero is embodied in an increasingly progressive manner throughout the films. nuanced, explains Eric Libiot. “From the age of 40-50, Eastwood began to say to himself, ‘Maybe it’s more complex, maybe we have to doubt (…)’. [À partir de là]he decided to tell stories where he had to try to decipher the world. And I think that [Juré n°2] is exactly in line with his great filmography.”
The other release of the week which comes to us from the United States is the Palme d’or 2024, Anora by Sean Baker, whom Eric Libiot also considers to be “a great Palme d’Or”. The latter does not hesitate to draw parallels with Clint Eastwood’s film, the two films being the story “of characters who are a little elsewhere, who try to follow their path”and who seem not to want to fit into the mold defined by society.
Sean Baker is also the resurgence of American independent cinema, which has been struggling more and more to see the light of day in recent years, given the increasingly high cost of making films in the United States. Receiving the Palme d’Or is therefore a consecration for the 53-year-old director.
Juror #2 de Clint Eastwood, et Anora by Sean Baker, available from Wednesday October 30, 2024 at the cinema.
In his new novel Eighth sectionMarc Trévidic remembers the young man “revolt” that he was in the 1990s, when the 8th section of the Paris public prosecutor’s office still existed and he was part of it. Through the character of Lucien Autret, who seems to embody his double, the author takes us into this section which brings together all the misery of Paris, and which deals in particular with the corpses which no one seems to care about. It is this indifference that the author opposes, defending the fact that “everyone, even if dead, be treated in the same way”expressing the desire to put in place what he calls a “post-mortem equality”. Indeed, he explains that “the specialized criminal brigade services (…) tend to be more interested in ‘noble’ bodies.” Thus, writing allows Marc Trévidic to make this type of treatment public, but also to remember this time spent in this section of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“[Ecrire ce livre] allowed me to return to the man I was before, that is to say, to rediscover my rebellious state of mind at the time.”
Marc Trévidicfranceinfo
The magistrate still says he has “relativized” with age, which is not “not so bad”he admits. However, this does not prevent him from pointing out the dysfunctions of French justice and the deterioration of public service, while emphasizing the attachment he has to his profession. Despite “completely catastrophic means” according to him, “there is also the interest of the work (…), which is always very interesting”. The one who is now President of the Assize Court speaks of a “real public service”which he claims to find very “valuing”.
Eighth section (Série Noire de Gallimard collection) by Marc Trévidic, now available in bookstores.
A program with the participation of Thierry Fiorile, journalist in the culture department of franceinfo, and Gilbert Chevalier, presenter of the podcast “À livreouvert” on franceinfo.
