Visionary cinema by James Cameron, a “very pop Sissi” by Marie Kreutzer, a poetic animated film… What should we see this week? The selection of Figaro.
Avatar: The Waterway – Have
Science fiction by James Cameron, 3h13.
In 2009, the Smurfs lose the blue monopoly. A people from an exo-moon planet have the same skin color. The Na’vi, imagined not by Yves Klein but by James Cameron, much larger than Peyo’s creatures, triumph on Earth. Avatar confirms the audacity of a visionary filmmaker, always one step ahead in Hollywood (the terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, The Return, Abyss, Titanic).
From film to film, Cameron pushes the limits of gigantism and technological innovation, constantly renewing the invention of the Lumière brothers in the manner of a modern-day Méliès (digital special effects, 3D). Avatar thus brings “performance capture” into another dimension, anticipating in passing the advent of metaverses. OD
Read alsoJames Cameron: “I worked on the story of Avatar 2 based on my own life”
Bodice – Have
Drama by Marie Kreutzer, 1h53.
From the top of these crinolines, 40 centuries of tradition contemplate her. You have to be up to it. In 1877, Elisabeth of Austria, who was also Queen of Hungary, celebrated her 40th birthday. The heart is no longer there. The sovereign feels her beauty escaping her, her body betraying her. This exalted soul breaks apnea records in her bathtub, calls a valet a “big asshole”, suffocates in the rituals of the court.
Her husband François-Joseph is never there. The couple is falling apart. The lady takes refuge in her dreams. This distinguished rider gallops in the early morning, jostling her ladies-in-waiting, whose bulk of the work consists of tightening the cords of her corset. His waist thickens. The regimes follow one another. Respecting propriety becomes an increasingly difficult task for this free and modern woman before the letter. In Bodice, anachronisms therefore do not frighten Marie Kreutzer who uses songs by Camille for the soundtrack We are dealing here with a very pop Sissi, whose attitude evokes the destiny of a Lady Di. E. NOT.
Read alsoOur review of Corsage: Elisabeth de Scène
Ernest and Celestine: The Journey to Charabie – Have
Animated film by Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Robert, 1h19
Ten years ago, we met them thanks to a poetic and facetious film, adapted from the illustrated books of Gabrielle Vincent. The badly licked bear is called Ernest. Poet and musician, he likes to lead an idle bohemian life, playing the piano and the “stradivariours”. As for Célestine, she is an orphan mouse, in charge of secretly collecting the milk teeth under the pillows of the cubs. Their improbable meeting had sparked, lighting the flame of a beautiful, inextinguishable friendship.
This second part begins when our dear troubadour bear has barely woken up from a three-month hibernation. Lambert Wilson always lends his voice to the grumpy bear who notices only one thing: after such a period, his stomach is in his heels! Unfortunately for him, the playful Célestine (again played by Pauline Brunner) confirms to him that the pantry of their home is desperately empty. O.D.
Read alsoOur review of Ernest and Celestine: A Symphony for Freedom
despedida – You can see
Fantastic film by Luciana Mazeto and Vicinius Lopez, 1h30
Ana’s grandmother has just died. The family of this 11-year-old girl gathers in the country house, on the edge of a disturbing forest, to say goodbye to the grandmother. The unnamed place is inhabited by a sinister great-aunt, a bit megalomaniac; he said to himself that she would have a witch for a neighbour. Ana is bored in this house where the days are half-light and where, on the walls, the shadows move like wild animals. She multiplies the strange dreams, feels sucked by the window of her room and the edge of the wood that she sees through.
One evening, she lets herself be won over by curiosity and finally steps over the doorway. A tale interspersed with a few cartoon dream sequences, despedida throws carnival, dancing and masks into the dreary setting set up in its opening minutes. Despite the lethargy that clouds the film, the Brazilian filmmakers manage nicely with their budget and offer several beautiful tableaux to their dreamlike fable. Fairy if not fabulous. CS
My heroine – We can see
Comedy by Noémie Lefort, 1 h 56
A high school student from Rouen, an aspiring director, flies to New York hoping to hand over her script to her idol Julia Roberts. Improbable, this odyssey is inspired by the true pilgrimage of the director to approach the star of Pretty Woman. Taking up the codes of romantic comedy, this quest multiplies the nods to the filmography of the American star. The energy of her intergenerational trio, Chloé Jouannet, Pascale Arbillot and Louise Coldefy, is in tune with this story calibrated for the holidays. CJ
Mediterranean fever – We can see
Maha Haj Drama, 1:48
A building facing the sea, in Haifa, music by George Wassouf at full volume. Two neighbors become friends: a failed writer who is therefore depressed and a good-humored thug (the excellent Ashraf Farah). The duo could have been funny if the two men had shared more. A very wise scenario. BP
The Super 8 Years – Avoid
Documentary by David Ernaux-Briot, 1 h 05
After the books, the transpositions to the cinema (L’Événement, Simple Passion), here are the family films of Annie Ernaux, presented in Cannes at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. Or rather of her late husband, who hardly ever appears on screen since he is holding the super 8 camera. Directed by the son of the Nobel Prize winner for literature, this montage shows a French family in the 1970s. Birthdays, trips to a holiday village in Morocco, Albania or skiing in La Clusaz. The class defector, then about to release her first book, Les Armoires vides (1974), takes a retrospective and melancholy look at her condition as a wife and her bourgeois marriage through a voice-over text. We are waiting for the musical adaptation for the holidays. ES
Read alsoSuper 8, back to the future
Stella is in love – Avoid
Dramatic comedy by Sylvie Verheyde, 1 h 50
After her college years (Stella), Sylvie Verheyde remembers her high school years. In 1985, Stella (Flavie Delangle) does not care about her baccalaureate, flees her mother (Marina Foïs), bar owner left by her father (Benjamin Biolay), and spends her nights at the Bains Douches, attracted by a silent musician. The club scenes have allure and mystery, the rest is of little interest. It’s all too long. ES
In viaggio – Avoid
Documentary by Gianfranco Rosi, 1 h 20
A golden lion in 2013 at the Venice Film Festival for a film on the Rome ring road, a golden bear in 2016 for Fuocoammare, on the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean and its migrants. This allowed Gianfranco Rosi to meet Pope Francis. Hence the idea of the documentary In Viaggio, on the Pope’s travels. Neither a film nor a documentary, but a series, almost raw, of images, of speeches by Francis, sometimes moving but only guided by the most political themes of this pope, “progressive and more to the left”, according to Rosi . A cold, graphic, reductive, horizontal gaze that has nothing to do with the flamboyant soul of his travels. JM. G.
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