a film for Mylène Farmer fans who want… always more

Critique It was the final stop on Mylène Farmer's tour: the screening of “Nevermore the film” in 500 cinemas. A show that merges the Dantesque and the intimate to the delight of the singer's fans. “Le Nouvel Obs” was there.

A month after the three concerts at the Stade de France, which brought together more than 200,000 spectators, Mylène Farmer concluded her stadium tour with the cinema, Thursday evening November 7, with “Nevermore the film”. A now unmissable event for fans since since 2010 all the recordings of the singer's shows have given rise to unique screenings. The latest one, just five years ago, was greeted by the impressive score of 155,000 tickets sold, including 130,000 in France (a record broken in 2024 with a total approaching 190,000 seats! ). Because the international is also interested in the beautiful redhead. Thursday evening, 500 theaters showed “Nevermore the film”, for a total of 533 screenings. France but also Mexico, Ukraine, Canada, Spain, Australia, Azerbaijan and Latvia have programmed the cinematographic version produced, as always, by the faithful François Hanss. A success all over the world for the more intimate but no less spectacular version of this Dantesque show.

It is moreover on this paradox that the entire imagery is based: managing to merge the scale of the show thanks to the flights of cameras with tighter shots of the artist but also of the musicians and dancers who accompany him. The editing alternates between immensity and proximity, providing, through a formidable sense of rupture, unexpected moments of emotion.

After seeing the show four times and listening to it several hundred times, we thought we knew the show by heart, but we finally rediscovered it here. Notably thanks to the choices of fetishistic details, frames and axes (superb dives on the decor and the stage) which allow you to experience the vertigo of the scenic design, its formidable geometric precision as well as the beauty of the choreographies, a mixture of raw sensuality and mischievous eroticism. Everything takes on a new dimension here, more lyrical and magical, and offers the singer the setting she deserves.

Magic of images

We guessed Mylène Farmer happy on stage. Here we perceive her as joyful, facetious, complicit and mischievous, playing with her voice with an authority that we did not always suspect and silently murmuring thanks which fit perfectly with her eyes sparkling with pleasure. Until the last second (yes, it was not necessary to leave before the end), Hanss plays with the fragile grace (but ultimately not so much) of the artist, of this body lost in a space which could engulf but which it conquers with a confident and elegant step. Between this delicate silhouette (brought into an explosion of sparkles thanks to the costumes of designer Olivier Theyskens) and the video projections which move in the background, he sculpts lines of deep perspectives which give you the thrill. Particularly during the painting of the song “Que l’aube est belle”, one of Woodkid’s magnificent creations for the latest album.

Mylène Farmer then leaves the suspended and overwhelming intimacy of a piano voice part (alongside Yvan Cassar, faithful accomplice) of which she has the secret to come and get lost in the ruined cathedral which serves as the main setting, then immersed in a tragically suffocating red. An electrifying moment enhanced by a video creation by Woodkid. A moment superbly reinvented by the director, where the singer once again rejects her imitators to embrace the disproportionate space, embrace her fans and dematerialize into a fairyland of images. The only regret was that when we left the room, we learned that the star had made a brief appearance at the Grand Rex (where we were obviously not). This will be the only one, the success of “Nevermore the film” consoling us for this missed meeting.