Three Friends, The Substance, At All Speed… Films to watch this week

Three friends – To see

Romance by Emmanuel Mouret, 1h57

There are three of them. They live in Lyon. Quarantine suits them well. Joan (India Hair) has a problem. She has grown tired of her companion and she finds it honest to inform him of it. This really bothers him. She’s a girl with principles. His friend Alice (Camille Cottin) cheers him up: for her part, she has never been in love with Eric (Grégoire Ludig) and that does not prevent their relationship from being quite harmonious. There’s also the toned Rebecca (Sara Forestier), who has secret trysts with a married man. We see that it is permissible to play with the intermittents of the heart. Mouret does not hold back. Love goes away, tenderness returns. This is the equation to solve. Desire is always the first to leave. That’s how it is. We learn it the hard way, with desolation at first, then with a smile afterwards. A car accident will add a dose of gravity to these collisions. They are numerous and unexpected. The scenario offers itself multiple triple axels and lands on its feet each time. Mouret is a virtuoso. Feelings with their vagaries are his playground. There are things we say, and things we dare not do. Three friends looks like very fine lace. Mouret is an author, a real one. Soon, he will be the one to serve as an example. E.N.

Also read
Our review of Three Friends: wonderful sentimental release

The substance – We can see

Horror by Coralie Fargeat, 2h20

Elizabeth Sparkle has just accidentally learned that the network is considering replacing her. His fitness show requires a new figurehead. However, fifty suited him well. In her tight bodysuit, very Jane Fonda, the energetic presenter maintains her allure. The law of ratings is cruel. His producer invites him to lunch to announce the change. The meal disorients her so much that she has a car accident. His time at the hospital allows him to discover a confidential technique whose aim is to rejuvenate, to be better yourself. The offer is too tempting. So Liz is going to try the substance. Injections give birth to a dark-haired girl like her, barely out of adolescence. Demi Moore contemplates her double Margaret Qualley with suspicion and admiration. The method has its constraints. After seven days, the roles reverse. This involves staying in the bathroom every other week. Naturally, the miracle will be derailed. Liz extracts old age from her body with frightening grimaces, nourishes herself with thick IV fluids. How to paint such madness? Coralie Fargeat, who had already distinguished herself in brutality with Revengepushes the limits of the grand guignol with quite communicative momentum. She doesn’t skimp on boldness and hemoglobin. They flow freely. Prestigious ghosts prowl around this story of possession which recapitulates the distress of a Golum, the monstrosities of Freaksa long carpeted corridor Shining. The whole is rejoicing. E.N.

The Commander’s Shadow – We can see

Documentary by Daniela Völker, 1h47

Finding financing for a film is an obstacle course. The director of German origin, Daniela Völker, is experienced in it. The Commander’s Shadow was no exception. But in the case of this documentary dedicated to the family of the former commander of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss (executed by hanging on September 16, 1947), and that of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, survivor of the extermination camp, the main argument against it was due to the age of the protagonists « all very old ». Certainly. But how can you expect that on the eve of commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army, on January 27, 1945, the witnesses « are not very old »replied Daniela Völker, who therefore began to film with her savings. A chance finally. Because the long time (2020-2023) served the film well. If the director decided from the start to lead the two stories in parallel, that of Hans Jürgen and Kai Höss, respectively son and grandson of the war criminal, and that of the survivor and her daughter Maya, born after war, she could only imagine that in « an organic process », the two routes would come closer together. To the point that Anita agrees to receive the Höss at her home in her small London pavilion. « A historic moment », admet Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. I.S.

Also read
Our review of The Commander’s Shadow, the Long Path of Silence

At full speed – We can see

Comedy by Lucas Bernard, 1h26

There is some Philippe de Broca in At full speed : a supercharged rhythm, a burlesque carelessness, an assumed contempt for the plausibility of situations. And humor full of lines. This perfectly packaged romantic comedy even has something of a childish joy that sparkles in every shot, and it feels good. The plot ofAt full speed resembles the most improbable of romantic confrontations. Violent gusts ground Marco, an airline steward on a stopover. Pio Marmaï, definitely very comfortable in this light register, composes a cabin manager who is as seductive as he is playful. Kind of Bébel 2.0 escaped from an update of The Man from Riohe meets Marianne (Eye Haïdara, dazzling with fierce charm) in an officer’s bar. There is electricity in the air. Between the steward and the naval officer, glances flash. Everything opposes them and yet the current passes between them. An irrational impulse, however, pushes him to follow the woman who lost her necklace in the fight. To do this, he embeds himself in the nuclear torpedo compartment of the submersible, thus becoming the stowaway of a vessel in the middle of a secret operation… Dialogues delivered with machine guns, thwarted banter steeped in humor, extravagant confinement, this incredible epic works wonderfully thanks to the duo between Eye Haïdara and Pio Marmaï: the more it stiffens, the more it softens. O.D.

Also read
Our review of At full speed: love, the only master on board

Trip to Gaza – To avoid

Documentaire by Piero Usberti, 1h07

These images were shot before October 7, before hell fell on Israel and the Gaza Strip. The director specifies this with a card at the end of this film intended to illustrate the distress of the population of the Palestinian enclave. Piero Usberti, a young Franco-Italian filmmaker, had the opportunity to spend three months there in 2018. What he saw there had a profound impact on him. He observed daily life marked by power cuts and the fear of clashes with Israel, the impossibility of traveling, and Islamist pressure from Hamas. But to get to this portrait of Gazans, we have to go through a preamble that is embarrassing to say the least. Piero Usberti, with the candor of an activist, embraces certain anti-Zionist theses, ignoring the complex Israeli-Palestinian history. « Israel is one of the most successful colonial enterprises in the world »assures, without fear, the voice-over. It then compares the Hebrew State to America which savagely wiped out its indigenous populations… These declarations, which in three formulas remove all legitimacy from the existence of the country, testify to an astonishing absence of historical knowledge. Perhaps we should see this – in the best case scenario – as the consequence of the commiseration felt by the young man at the sight of the Palestinians trapped in Gaza. The director pretends to be a redresser of wrongs, and keeps accounts poorly. This partiality ends up giving the film the appearance of a political tract, when it could simply have constituted a rare, poignant testimony, and audible from all sides, on the distress of Gaza. B.P.

Also read
Our review of the Trip to Gaza: partisan letters