Mufasa, The Wall, Sarah Bernhardt, the Divine… Films to see and not to see this week

The Wall – To have

Thriller by Philippe Van Leeuw – 1 h 36

A car drives marauding through the night in the heart of the arid plains of Arizona. At a poorly lit intersection, we can see the closed face of the driver. Khaki jacket, gold medal around her neck, little bun, the young woman appears silent and solitary, without makeup. At the corner of a gas station, she picks up a Mexican migrant before taking him home to make love. In the early morning, the heroine abruptly dismisses the applicant and appears dressed in the uniform of the border patrol between Mexico and the United States. The surprise is big. She joins her father, also a federal agent, who is preparing to leave with colleagues « making headlines about migrants trying to sneak across the border ». Even though she is not on duty, the young woman participates in the beat and arrests an illegal alien with some violence. Her boss lectures her. What happened to him? As a good patriot driven by a spirit of fundamentalist zeal, sprinkled with racism and intolerance, she will set out again to “hunt illegal immigrants”, until an unfortunate gunshot rings out in the Sierra…
Belgian filmmaker Philippe Van Leeuw signs a harsh and minimalist contemporary western. Vicky Krieps is truly astonishing in the role of this American Joan of Arc. The film rests mainly on her shoulders… which she definitely has very strong. O. D.

Also read
Our review of The Wall: hatred without borders

Sarah Bernhardt, la Divine – To have

Drama by Guillaume Nicloux – 1 h 38

It is the portrait of a world-famous actress and a powerful woman who defies convention. There is the Sarah Bernhardt of 1915, having just had a tuberculous leg amputated, using a saw and ether. However, she remains combative. And there is the Sarah of 1896, her jubilee year. She is at the height of her glory. Her friends and admirers celebrate her during a Sarah Bernhardt Day. His close guard is made up of women and men, former lovers and mistresses who love art and partying. Among these, Edmond Rostand, who writes Cyrano de Bergerac for Coquelin. Sarah Bernhardt would have happily played him, without a walking prosthesis but with a nasal appendage. She’s not the type to mope around. She has the art of delivering punchlines. But the independent woman, mother without a husband, bisexual and modern, is also a romantic lover.
With this colorful portrait of the actress, Guillaume Nicloux shows that he is an eclectic filmmaker. And Sandrine Kiberlain, a talented actress. AND. S.

Also read
Our review of Sarah Bernhardt, the Divine, all the shades of scandalous

Oh, Canada – To have

Drama by Paul Schrader – 1 h 35

Too late. Leonard Fife has a nasty case of cancer. The terminal phase is looming. Before leaving, this famous documentarian agrees to undertake a candid interview filmed by two of his former students. In his Montreal home, he sits in front of the camera, not without demanding that his wife (also a former student) be present. It’s worth her time to listen. Richard Gere is no longer the dashing hunk that Paul Schrader hired to American Gigolo. Time has done its work. Makeup doesn’t help matters. The hair has turned white and thinned (chemotherapy). Wrinkles appeared. The look is a little lost. But hey, this cinema verite fan said yes, so let’s go for it. He was young. It was the 1960s. His wife was expecting a second child. He dreamed of becoming a novelist. His father-in-law offered to join the family firm and lend him money to settle in Vermont. He preferred to disappear, leave everyone there, leave for Canada. There were women. What a heartthrob! Giving them up overnight didn’t seem to bother him that much. Their first name often began with an A. Confession gets mixed up. He confuses names, eras, gets lost in his own labyrinth. Is it the fault of the drugs?
Richard Gere is perfect in this role. Joy of finding him again, of scrutinizing his face captured in very close-up shots. Mission accomplished. His confessions have something discreetly moving. AND. N.

Also read
Our review of Oh, Canada: A Hunger for a Difficult Life

At the heart of volcanoes: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft – To have

Documentary by Werner Herzog – 1 h 21

The first images ofAt the heart of the volcanoes: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft immediately strike the retina as they are captivating and beautiful. We discover the hooded silhouette in a metallic diving suit which extends a thumbs up while in the background, an explosion of molten lava rises furiously towards the sky. Werner Herzog speaks in voiceover: “This film honors the memory of Katia and Maurice Krafft, volcanologists from Alsace in France, who were my friends”. Their fate is incredible. And tragic, since they suddenly disappeared in 1991 under enormous pyroclastic flows while wanting to film yet another eruption, without having had time to evacuate the scene in time. Thirty years later, Herzog brings their breathtaking images back to life and pays tribute to these two unique volcanologists. What the film primarily shows is the fascinating beauty that volcanoes have on humans. Almost all of the images in the documentary come from their expeditions carried out over the decades. Cataracts of lava like smoking Niagara Falls, fumaroles suggesting a bubbling of lava tumbling down the slope of a volcano, like an apocalypse in progress… All this is captured with more and more professionalism by the Kraffts who keep playing with fire, the closer they get to the source of the eruption. But beyond this terrifying beauty, Herzog also and above all captures the passion of a fusion couple that has become legendary. And this is perhaps what touches the viewer the most. O.D.

Mufasa : The Lion King – To avoid

Barry Jenkins Adventure – 1 h 58

The film tells the story of Simba’s father’s youth through flashbacks where his friends appear: Timon the smart meerkat, the big-hearted warthog Pumba and the old mandrill Rafiki. These three tell young Kiara the stories of her grandfather. If the plot of Mufasa : the lion king more or less takes up the initiatory story of lion king, the film does not rely on the melodies of the original film and does not exactly transcribe Mufasa’s destiny by modeling it on that of Simba. He navigates between sequel and remake, deliberately creating confusion.
It feels like a wildlife documentary. Technology abolishes the boundary between reality and fiction. It gets tense pretty quickly. We pick up. We get annoyed. Everything then seems artificial, faked, false. Impossible to roar with pleasure. O. D.

Also read
Our review of Mufasa, the Lion King: impossible to roar with pleasure

Everybody Loves Touda – To avoid

Drama by Nabil Ayouch – 1 h 42

The story of a young Moroccan woman dreaming of becoming Sheikha, a traditional singer who performs texts of resistance, love and emancipation passed down for generations. Touda (Nisrin Erradi) performs in the bars of her provincial town where she endures libidinous glances and intrusive hands. She dreams of a better future for herself and her deaf-mute son. Casablanca is his Hollywood dream. But Casablanca is long overdue. For Touda, every day is like the next. Stuck in her unsanitary accommodation, she escapes when she puts on makeup and prepares for her night shift.
Too didactic a film. For the viewer, each scene is a repetition of the previous one. Nabil Ayouch is not the first and will not be the last director to experience a decline. It happens to the best. F. V.

Also read
Our review of Everybody Loves Touda: the song of the impossible

Kraven the Hunter – To avoid

Action by JC Chandor – 2 h 07

Coming out of Kraven the Hunterthe sketch of Unknown running insidiously through the head. “How do you know a good hunter from a bad hunter?” “The bad hunter, he sees something, he shoots.” And the good one? “Well, a good hunter sees something. He shoots… But he’s the good hunter!” Alas, JC Chandor’s blockbuster belongs to the category of bad hunters. How did the director of Margin Call or from All is lost could he have gone astray by creating this nonsense? Yet Kraven the Hunter is a formidable Marvel character, flamboyant, fascinating, brutal, theatrical and so leonine. By wanting to tell the origins of a great supervillain from the Spider-Man universe, without having the authorization to show our dear Web Weaver, the film plunges into big nonsense. A story of siblings at the heart of a family of very mafia-like Russian oligarchs. A roaring papa bear played by the gargantuan Russell Crowe, more histrionic than ever. Aaron Taylor-Johnson dons Kraven’s lion skin, but he doesn’t have the shoulders. During a safari that goes wrong, an ancestral African elixir saves his life after a lion attack and gives him his superhuman powers. But it takes more than a common potion to embody the true Marvel character. Kraven the Hunter in the comics has so much more presence, strength and charisma. As for the film, it is intended to be violent. He’s pathetic. Grrrr! O.D.