A CEO of a large company who begins a torrid affair with her intern, a young gendarme in charge of an investigation into the disappearance of two girls, a semi-autobiographical drama in the style of The Fabelmans on childhood memories and films… The cinema selection of Figaro.
The Maldoror File – To have
Thriller by Fabrice Du Welz – 2h35
Little girls disappear. Their innocent faces appear on posters, on television screens. In 1995, Paul Chartier, a newly minted gendarme, got involved in the investigation. His job devours him. He will fall from a height. Revolt and disbelief can be read in his eyes. Anthony Bajon, mustachioed, plunges into a darkness that hardly bothers to hide. Soon, his chubby angel smile will change into a grin of suppressed rage. So the others don't see anything? There is a suspect. It's him, Paul is sure it's him. This hypermnesiac – he remembers the slightest license plate in the second – can't believe it. We cannot say that his hierarchy makes his task easier.
The Maldoror File is a song of horror, the story of a fall. A man collapses in slow motion, no one listens to him. His superior – Laurent Lucas, one-eyed and scarred – takes the file away from him. That's not possible. What a waste of time! The director describes a mess, shows an obsession, acting with the meticulousness of David Fincher in Zodiac. We come out of there defeated, exhausted. AND. N.
Also read
Our review of Dossier Maldoror, the disturbing thriller inspired by the Dutroux affair
I'm still here – To have
Drama by Walter Salles – 2h17
Based on tragic and proven facts, I'm still here begins with a carefree dive during a bohemian summer in the early 1970s. The freshness of the ocean, the light and contagious joy of a large upper-middle-class family from Rio de Janeiro enjoying the warmth of the fine sand while playing beach volleyball. Rubens Paiva, the father, is a former Labor MP and a prominent architect. His wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres), has chosen to stop her studies to devote herself to her family life. Their five children are vaguely thinking about their future. The atmosphere is warm until the sudden arrival of a group of militiamen in leather jackets. His wife was arrested but released five days later. This will be followed by the obligatory evacuation of the family home and installation in São Paulo.
Over the decades, Walter Salles' meticulous camera clings to the figurehead of this heroine in the midst of a storm. It is she who revives good humor in the household. She who chases away fear with laughter, she who prevents illusions from collapsing. Portrait of a luminous and ardent woman, Walter Salles' film shows Eunice Paiva in all her righteousness and resilience. Actress Fernanda Torres has just won the Golden Globe for best actress, beating favorites Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie. Who knows if the Oscars will not in turn succumb to the charm of this Brazilian ode to resistance? O. D.
Also read
Our review of I'm still here, a Brazilian ode to resistance
Spectators! – We can see
Drama by Arnaud Desplechin – 1h28
Sometimes you have to be wary of the exclamation point. This punctuation mark tends to overplay emotions, to highlight joy or amazement, enthusiasm or fear. Spectators ! lack of drive. Arnaud Desplechin, a cinephile and cerebral filmmaker, is not, however, a sad sire. His cinema is full of affects, moods, feelings. Romantic. And Spectators !a hybrid object at the crossroads of documentary, autobiography, exercise of admiration and essay, does not lack lyricism in its fictional part. The director of How I argued… andAnd Christmas story brings his alter ego, Paul Dédalus (the young Milo Machado-Graner fromAnatomy of a fall), to recount his childhood and cinema memories.
When Paul's grandmother (Françoise Lebrun) takes him to the cinema with his sister see Ghoststhe light beam of the projector fascinates him. Later he discovers Days of anger de Dreyer with his parents. He lies about his age to see Screams and whispers by Ingmar Bergman: a shock. There will be the school film club, Coppola films to overcome his shyness and talk to the girls at the end of the session. But Spectators ! struggles to convey Desplechin's jubilation in seeing and making films – sorry, « to inhabit the question of cinema ». AND. S.
Also read
Our review of Spectators!, the bland lesson from Professor Desplechin
Babygirl – To avoid
Erotic thriller by Halina Reijn – 1h48
Romy (Nicole Kidman) has it all. She runs a tech company, has an ideal family, lives in a penthouse on the Upper East Side. This is just a facade. Behind the luxury clothes and financial results, something is missing. What ? It won't be long before we find out. In the first scene, she leaves the marital bed where she has just made love with her husband to go and manipulate herself in front of a porn site film on her computer. We see from this that Samuel, the new kid with the crew cut and the shirt with the perpetually open collar who arrives in the offices the next day, is a perfect fit.
The situation is simple. He will dominate her. She agrees to be submissive. What joy, what revelation! This excitement: what if their story came to light? She would lose her job. This thrill of worry drives her crazy. The lovers meet in hotel rooms. The blond guy (the Harris Dickinson of Without filter) shows up at Kidman's house unexpectedly like Glenn Close in Fatal affair. Babygirl is billed as an erotic thriller. These are two lies. Not the slightest suspense (apart from this question: what are HR doing?) and the olé-olé sequences are of Carmelite modesty. AND. N.
Also read
Our review of Babygirl: corny plan
