“Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1”, “Why Are You Smiling?”, “Meanwhile on Earth” in theaters July 3, 2024

A western with the appearance of an epic fresco, two broken arms in trouble in Bordeaux and aliens invade the theaters this week. Among others…

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 by & with Kevin Costner

1859. The first pioneers to acquire concessions in Horizon, in the (future) San Pedro Valley, are slaughtered by Apaches who do not appreciate the desecration of their sacred lands. A few years later, when a small community has emerged, a new raid razes it. The few survivors are taken in by the Bluecoats while bounty hunters go in search of trophies. At the same time, a young woman flees Dakota to escape the grip of a crime family… and a new convoy of wagons is heading towards Horizon…

It should be remembered from the outset that Kevin Costner gave new vigor — like Leone, Peckinpah, Nelson, Penn or Siegel before him — to the western at the dawn of the 1990s: Dancing with the wolves had largely contributed to saving the genre from its decline. A genre worn out, outdated and then logically shunned by an audience as tired of its summary Manicheism as by the “federal narrative” that it helped to peddle, to the detriment of the First Nations of course. Thanks therefore to Costner who, through a lyrical and humanist fresco, had been able to renew the spectators’ view.

This foray into the western was not a whim for Costner, who subsequently returned as a writer and/or performer with Open Range (2003), the series Yellowstone (2018—) or the unjustly overlooked One of ours by Thomas Bezucha (2020). Nothing trivial put together. But… dare we say that all this was only a preamble to a great work, This western-sum that this first chapter of Horizon seems to announce?

Definitive Western, definition

In essence, the western aims to tell the story of the appetite for wide open spaces and the desire of pioneers to subjugate them; there is a logic in that it early gave birth to frescoes on the (ex)measure of the settings and founding stories that it retraces: globalizing but ideologically very elliptical (The conquest of the West1962), operatic and allegorical via the arrival of the transcontinental railroad (Once upon a Time in the West1969), by opening up to the voice of the First Nations (Little Big Man1970)… The cinematic equivalent of the chanson de geste for nascent America, the western sublimates heroic characters as much as extraordinary panoramas.

Horizon is part of this tradition by interweaving in its broad framework individual destinies covering several strata of the population, several civilizations. More than a painting, the film constitutes a dynamic mosaic — a quilt, one should even write, to stay in the mood — of all the constituent elements of this landscape in formation of the 19th century^e century without making a catalogue. Iconic places appear naturally but freed from folklore; archetypes too (cowboy, prostitute, cavalry, etc.) but freed from clichés; the same goes for canonical situations (duel, raid, etc.) which gain in authenticity here.

Time saving

Allowing us to embrace so many characters is only possible on the condition of allowing ourselves the duration. The first chapter of this saga therefore takes the time to breathe, giving the dramatic threads the time and space to unwind towards their horizon. On this subject, can we imagine such a story unfolding on the narrow diagonal of a tablet or a smartphone? The grotesque has its limits that the panoramic format and the splendid photo by J. Michael Muro should not know. The work on the brightness of the image would indeed be worth the experience of the room: the calibration reconnects with the magnetic brilliance of classic landscapes, with mauve mountains standing out against bright blue skies. The three hours of this show remind us of the indisputable primacy of the room over other screens.

This aesthetic choice also has a price. If reaching the horizon is in absolute terms a utopia and establishing oneself at Horizon is a perilous mission, Costner put his own money into building this Horizonaided by French distributor Metropolitan Filmexport — which had similarly supported Viggo Mortenensen for Till the end of the worldThe current reluctance of American studios, at the end of their inspiration and at the end of their cycle(s), leads them to ignore any risk-taking on subjects that are nevertheless heritage… and to miss today what will constitute their classic catalogue of tomorrow.

*^**

Why are you smiling ? by Christine Paillard & Chad Chenouga

Homeless and jobless, Wisi pretends to be an African illegal immigrant in order to be hosted by Marina, a somewhat gullible humanitarian volunteer. Alas! His scheme is uncovered by Jérôme, who has just been deported after the death of his mother, who forces him to make room for him at Marina’s. The strange duo will then try to get out of the mess by accumulating plans, each one more rotten than the last…

Totally unexpected from Chad Chenouga, more accustomed to social dramas inspired by his career or by news items, this comedy reveals a taste for irritating humor that is all the more caustic because the situations are totally in touch with reality. A taste shared here with Christine Paillard from the script to the direction, through situations leading Wisi and Jérôme to experiment with shenanigans that generate less profit than confusion and ridicule.

Seuls two

Thirty years later The trainees (1995) by Pierre Salvadori, featuring two broke people struggling with roughly comparable difficulties, Why are you smiling ? depicts in parallel the systematization of intermediate exploitation in our society, where the slightest human activity can be Uberized; where “Loachian” solidarity takes time to resurface as it has been dethroned by every-man-for-himself. As in cruel Italian comedies, the authors do not hide the flaws of their characters and even use them to spice up situations. Yes, there are also some unbearable little bosses in the associative world; Jérôme has a real racist background and Wisi seems a bit homophobic. What good is naivety if it disguises authenticity?

Although it follows a duo of misfits transforming into a trio, then a quartet (by integrating a politically incorrect but transgressive old lady), Why are you smiling ? is also a photograph of contemporary solitudes, a leprosy that spares no one. But everything is linked: isolation, voluntary or imposed, prevents the creation of links. Thus, of “making society”, as they say, and promotes its crumbling. By provoking baroque pairings, the film recreates a form of link but sometimes offers tasty backgrounds revealing the “dynamic” effects of these unexpected encounters. Moreover, that of Jean-Pascal Zadi and Raphaël Quenard (who is found here after Cut! by Hazanavicius) contribute a lot to the smiles brought by the film. This is part of the explanation for the title.

*^**

Meanwhile on Earth by Jeremy Clapin

An astronaut, Franck disappeared body and soul in the middle of an interstellar mission. Three years later, his sister Elsa is suddenly parasitized by a mysterious life form that offers her a strange deal: to return Franck to her on the condition that she provides him with other human “hosts” to house hers…

After I lost my body(2019) director Jérémy Clapin has therefore not finished with organic quests or cosmos fantastic. And if he moves here to research individuals “in their integrity”, he nevertheless operates a formal change of size by abandoning (almost) animated cinema for live action. This “transmutation” also echoes with the theme of the film: this idea of ​​exploring and investing in new artistic territories joins the vital need of extraterrestrial entities to colonize human organisms.

Ambitious project, Meanwhile on earth thus summons and confronts in a synchronous manner the invisible infinity of the spatial universe with the unspeakable interiority of beings. Elsa’s innermost self is contaminated by an entity capable of deciding for her, reducing her to the rank of a puppet, a shell stripped of her real personality. The young woman is then hardly different from some of the residents she looks after in the EHPAD where she works. And when she becomes herself again, she finds herself confronted with a metaphysical-Cornelian dilemma: who should she sacrifice to satisfy her selfish desire to find her brother?

In body!

Seductive on paper, the film struggles to fully transform the test. First annoying script stumbling block: why on earth does the “puppeteer” need to ensure cooperation voluntary of his “puppet” if he can control it as he pleases? That’s a lot (too much) consideration from a parasite towards its host. And above all, complicating life for nothing! If we admit the illogical leniency of the extraterrestrial entity, we find Elsa’s scruples and choices unwise — but that’s another debate! As for special effects now, Clapin oscillates between a willingly gory Cronenbergian inspiration and a low tech more suggestive — an alliance that is unlikely to produce coherence. The film’s major asset remains: Megan Northam, who has embodied an interesting renewal of the faces of French cinema for several years. Fortunately, there is the human, in the end.