the essential
Every Wednesday, a programmer or theater director from Toulouse or its surrounding area gives us his selection of films of the week. This week, Jérémy Breta, programmer for the American Cosmograph, gives us his choices on the releases for this Wednesday, November 6.
“First, I will mention “The Substance”, a film by French director Coralie Fargeat, shot with American actors and won the Screenplay Prize at Cannes. I really like genre films, but one of this magnitude is rare …Through the story of a TV star presenter, (Demi Moore) closeted on the eve of her fifty years, who to continue to exist, injects herself with a substance which promises an “improved” version of her – herself, Coralie Fargeat speaks about the condition of women, denounces youthism, misogynistic diktats, the tyranny of age and appearance for women… It is treated in a die-hard way, by handling the horror and even gore, with the slider pushed to the maximum, which gives a unique and exhilarating side to the film Demi Moore goes all out and at this stage of her career, herself a victim of the dictates of appearance, It’s very courageous of her to take on such a role and I think she would have deserved (also) an acting award…”
“In their documentary comedy, Gilles Perret and François Ruffin use a stratagem to talk about the precarious in our society. Here, they call on Sarah Saldmann, a media lawyer who, on TV sets, takes aim at what she calls “the assisted”. They take him for a week to meet these workers who do difficult jobs, those who were praised during covid and forgotten afterwards: delivery assistants, food industry professions. Even making her work half a day with them… This gap between the bourgeois lawyer and these employees brings out, implicitly, touching, sometimes funny, moving portraits of these humble workers.”
“This film by Spanish director Iciar Bollain, inspired by real events, takes place at the end of the 90s, when Nevenka Fernández, municipal councilor in Ponferrada, was the first woman in Spain who, well before MeToo, filed a complaint for harassment for months by the mayor, the young woman, despite local public opinion then against her, began a lawsuit against him.
It's a sober and effective film, with a well-done, almost educational, illustrative story on the question of influence. It shows the difficulties to get out of it, the strength it takes to regain the upper hand but it also talks about what we call gray areas, the question of consent and everything that surrounds harassment: the silent witnesses , those who do not want to see, those who do not want to displease…”
