The Passion according to Béatrice – Fabrice Du Welz

Critique : Presented at the 2024 Locarno Festival, The Béatrice Passion was born from Fabrice Du Welz's desire to shoot a documentary on Béatrice Dalle, after not being able to direct the actress in vinyan et Alleluia. Very quickly, the desire to cross her portrait with that of Pasolini emerged, partly due to the actress's admiration for the director of Theorem and on the other hand, common points between these two artists who are so dissimilar in appearance: genre, activity, personality… But the interpreter of 37°2 in the morning et A woman's revenge has experienced, like the poet-filmmaker, a chaotic journey and has also burned her wings in her relationship with others, her risk-taking and addictions. Co-written with screenwriter Clément Roussier, who accompanies Béatrice Dalle on her Italian journey, The Béatrice Passion starts from a pretext that is both unusual and innocuous: to follow in the footsteps of the Italian poet, stopping in a few places revealing his life and work: Bologna, Rome, Venice, but also Ginosa or the Castel del Monte.

© 2024 Saint Laurent Films, Vixens / Carlotta. All rights reserved.

The feature film, which benefits from a beautiful black and white by Marco Graziaplena, is formally elegant, in line with the reports of Cinema, cinemasthe cult show by Michel Boujut and Anne Andreu, in the 80s. The cinephile passionate about the works of Pasolini and the filmography and acting of Dalle can only be interested, especially since the testimony from those close to Pasolini or specialists sheds instructive light, from screenwriter Dacia Maraini to archivist Roberto Chiesi, from restaurateur Sergio Leoni to filmmaker Abel Ferrara, who had narrated the last days of the filmmaker in his Pasoliniin 2014. Béatrice Dalle, inevitably omnipresent in this road movie like no other, is delicious in its frankness, dark humor and sensitivity.

© 2024 Saint Laurent Films, Vixens / Carlotta. All rights reserved.

But, and this is one of the limitations of the documentary, she poses a little too much for the camera and sometimes ends up doing too much, which does not prevent the viewer from appreciating her remarks, which are nonetheless touching, even if the We remain a little frustrated to see her talk so little about her professional encounters, the diva having nevertheless toured with Beineix, Doillon, Bellocchio, Claire Denis, Lelouch or Haneke. A long fixed shot also illustrates the charm and flaws of the system: The actress attends, in tears, the screening of The Gospel of Saint Matthewlike a triple homage, to Pasolini, but also Dreyer (it was clear with the title of the documentary) and Godard. Whether the tears are sincere or artificial doesn't matter: the moment is truly graceful, while still being a bit of an easy idea. In any case, The Passion according to Béatrice deserves a detour and could be a pretext to discover or rewatch, in addition to the films already mentioned, these summits of the seventh art which are Beggar or Salò or the 120 days of Sodom.