This Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 9:10 p.m., Canal + is broadcasting a holiday film by Alexander Payne. A little nugget which earned one of its performers the 2024 Oscar for best supporting actress.
D-22 until Christmas! For the occasion, Canal+ is broadcasting Winter Break this Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 9:10 p.m. A dramatic comedy, a real little nugget for the end of 2023 which brings together the excellent Paul Giamatti, Dominique Sessa and Da'Vine Joy Randolph (in photo). The filmmaker Alexander Payne whose latest production is Downsizing with Matt Damon immerses us in America in the 1970s, in the month of December where students and teachers from the private Barton school are preparing to return home for the end of year holidays. But a few are exceptions: the grumpy Paul Hunham, professor of ancient civilizations, finds himself obliged to stay on site to take care of the students who will not be able to join their loved ones for the holidays. Among them, Angus, a young man uncomfortable in his skin, as gifted as he is insubordinate. Mary Lamb, the school's cook, whose son had just died in Vietnam, also stayed behind.
One of the best American films of 2023
Winter Break is certainly one of the most beautiful cinematographic surprises and one of the best American films of the year 2023. The work captivates with its finesse and accuracy of writing. Screenwriter David Hemingson also claims to have drawn on his experiences to write the script: “My parents divorced when I was 5 and I didn't see my father much anymore. My father was a teacher at a private school in Hartford, the Watkinson School, and my mother said to me, 'We should enroll you there, it would give you the opportunity to know your father better.' I spent six years there and many of the characters in the film are composites of people I met there. It's such a unique universe, we are confronted with a lot of wealth and privilege, but also with a lot of suffering. Adolescence is a difficult phase. he tells the American media Screenrant. Sensitive without ever falling into harshness, the film is a true explosion of humanity from which a deep warmth emanates. Ideal for relieving the ambient gloom. Winter Break is to be discovered urgently!
Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar winner for the film
The success of the film also rests on the talent of its three actors. There is of course Paul Giamatti, nominated for the 2024 Oscar for best actor for his character as a grumpy professor, and two revelations: Dominique Sessa, but especially Da'Vine Joy Randolph whose performance as a cook undermined by the death of her boy in Vietnam is critically acclaimed. She was thus rewarded with the 2024 Oscar for best supporting actress, notably ahead of Emily Blunt and Jodie Foster in the running in the category. Well deserved!
