“The Most Precious of Goods”, “Direct Action”, “Rough Diamond”…

THE MORNING LIST

This week, spectators will be able to discover an animated film about the Shoah, The Most Valuable of Goodsby Michel Hazanavicius; a fascinating cinema experience in the ZAD with Direct Actionby Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell; the dizzying portrait of a bimbo, Rough diamondby Agathe Riedinger, in competition at Cannes; or the wanderings of Béatrice Dalle in Italy, in the footsteps of Pasolini, in The Passion according to Béatriceby Fabrice du Welz.

Not to be missed

“The Most Precious of Goods”: the Shoah from a child’s perspective

In this animated film, Michel Hazanavicius – the same one who invented the universal antidepressant Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, the hero of OSS 117 – adapts the eponymous book by Jean-Claude Grumberg, published by Seuil, in 2019: the story of a little girl thrown from a train and taken in by a couple of poor lumberjacks. The title of the work, which turns the Nazi neolanguage like a glove − the ” merchandise “ designated the Jews destined for the industry of death −, is quite enlightening on his spirit. Here, no Jews or Nazis, we speak the language of the story, which evokes “cursed race” or the “train gods”.

Faithful to the spirit and letter of the text, the film is not only that. He transubstantiates it into the world of animation, with all the sobriety, sensitivity and talent required. Rather than embroidering on the refined narrative of the tale, Hazanavicius has the intelligence to work on the motif. The Polish forest, dark, disturbing, wintry, and yet saving. The train, like a blind, howling beast that never ceases to cross it and tear the world apart, screaming. The death camp, an elective place of human disfigurement against the backdrop of a transfigured Yiddish lullaby. J.Ma.

“Direct Action”: plastic work on the ZAD

The zone to defend (ZAD) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique), in fixed shots and in 16 millimeters: the documentary Direct Action is a fascinating cinema experience, capturing the daily life of Zadists and the experimentation of modes of production consistent with environmental struggles. The American Ben Russell and the French Guillaume Cailleau filmed, between 2022 and 2023, after the abandonment, in 2018, of the airport project. They show a little-known part of this territory, where men and women work the land, gain autonomy… So many activities which could not have existed if the airport had been built. On camera, Ben Russell captures dazzling images of the protest march against megabasins in March 2023.

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