The bloody revenge of a young Viking prince, a news item that plunged Australia into mourning, a Robin Hood who steals a Goya painting in London… What should we see this week? Discover the cinema selection of Figaro.
The Northman – To have
Action by Robert Eggers, 2h17
Robert Eggers places the action in the Vikings at the Xand century. And it moves. The young prince watches helplessly as his father is assassinated by his uncle. The kid will swear revenge. For this, he will have to go by boat on a raging sea, colonize distant territories, pass himself off as a slave before returning to his native land. You follow ? On the screen there is mud and blood, molten lava and sweat. Eggers does not give into minimalism. Welcome to mythology. The cast is on point. Queen Gudrun hides her game: it’s the unalterable Nicole Kidman, on whom the years pass without leaving a trace, but it’s the role that wants that. Ethan Hawke dies on the first reel. Willem Dafoe makes a hothead. Björk turns into a clairvoyant (her outfit already is). Anya Taylor-Joy (The Ladies Game) walks her alabaster complexion in this universe of savagery. IN
Read alsoOur review of The Northmanfrom Robert Eggers: The Great Invasion
Nitram – To have
Drama by Justin Kurzel, 1h50
It’s nothing to say. He is, shall we say, weird. Martin has freckles, long fluffy hair, a strangely pale, almost translucent body. His buddies call him Nitram, swapping the letters of his name. Obviously, the boy is off the mark. He doesn’t listen to anything. People call it ” slow “. Translate: delayed. The family is distraught: the father, dilettante or spineless, seems overwhelmed by events. The mother is more fart-dry. She smokes cigarette after cigarette, watches the teenager sink into a universe to which she does not have the keys. A dull anger boils in him. Nitram will cause a fatal car accident on a whim. With NitramJustin Kurzel (Macbeth) traces a news item that has bereaved Australia. He describes an unbalanced immured in his loneliness that nothing would perhaps have been enough to save. The astonishing Caleb Landry Jones lends his soft figure to this poor hero. We will not recount the only way he found to erase these traces of childhood which lit up his face at times. The film is poisonous. It rustles with terrible evidence. IN
Read alsoNitramtragic bullets in Australia
The Duke – To have
Comedy by Roger Michell, 1h35
A true story that ended in a James Bond. The hero is a Robin Hood of the 1960s, a sixty-year-old taxi driver as funny as he is eccentric: Kempton Bunton embodied with great charm and playfulness by a Jim Broadbent at the top of his game. From the working class, this eccentric pensioner lives in Newcastle with his wife Dolly (excellent Helen Mirren). In the district, vans equipped with radars control the households which have a television set, so that they fulfill the television license fee. An intolerable injustice for this man with altruism pegged to the body, who gets carried away at the slightest unequal treatment. One day, the National Gallery in London orchestrated a thundering hype around the portrait of the Duke of Wellington painted by Goya, finally bought for 140,000 pounds sterling by the Crown in order to prevent the painting from falling into the hands of foreigners. It’s too much for this modern Don Quixote. Led with panache and volubility by the late Roger Michell (1956-2021), The Duke mixes with a totally British know-how the social cinema of a Ken Loach with the irresistible carelessness of English comedy. OD
Read alsoOur review of The Duke: a masterpiece
turn to live – To have
Documentary by Philippe Azoulay, 1 h 45
As surprising as it may seem, there is Tintin in Claude Lelouch. In any case, this is how Philippe Azoulay depicts him in Turn to live, tasty and endearing documentary where he follows like his shadow the director ofA man and a woman for seven years, during the shooting of three films. Like Hergé’s tireless reporter, Lelouch travels the world in search of adventure. The route of this spoiled child of cinema goes through highs (very high) and lows (abyssal). Azoulay tames this filmmaker who pulls out all the stops, with insatiable curiosity, who improvises his films, shakes up Johnny Hallyday, Jean Dujardin or Elsa Zylberstein. From a tamed eagle that escaped to spiritual and disconcerting India, we run after this octogenarian director who believes in the incredible fertility of chaos and who will never stop making cinema, even if it means dying a camera in hand. O.D
The school at the end of the world – You can see
Drama by Pawo Choyning Dorji, 1h49
In this first film, director Pawo Choyning Dorji walks between the two sides of Bhutanese society by sending a teacher, not to Australia where he would like to immigrate to become a singer, but to the most remote village in the country at 5000 meters above sea level. . In the village, we wait for him with great pomp. And besides, the inhabitants of the village of Luana play their own role here, during this filming which was not easy. About sixty mules and horses were needed to transport the equipment. On site, the director had only one camera and not enough electricity to view the images of the day… This may explain the sometimes clumsy staging. For schoolchildren, it is more natural to go and pet the yak at recess at the back of the class. This one, moreover, died of old age at the end of filming, just after entering the light… He will not have tasted the success met by The School at the End of the Worldselected for the Oscars in the best international film category in 2022. A first for a Bhutanese production. BP
Read alsoOur review of The school at the end of the world: lifts mountains
Valiant Hearts – You can see
Drama by Mona Achache, 1h25
Between historical narrative and fable, the latest feature film by Mona Achache tackles the fate of Jewish children hidden under the Occupation during the summer of 1942. A group of young Parisians arrive at the Château de Chambord, which has become a conservation center housing Mona Lisa and whose children took advantage of a transport of boxes of works to leave the capital. The adult characters are inspired by figures of the Resistance: Rose Valland (Camille Cottin), curator at the Jeu de Paume museum and Pierre Schommer, responsible for the deposit of works in Chambord. Freed from historical constraint, even if she draws on the memories of her own grandmother who was herself a hidden child, Mona Achache manages to give grace to her words. The adventure of “Valiant Hearts” will make the youngest aware of the fate of those who had to go into hiding during the war, and will remind parents of the role that the castle played in the conservation of works, from 1939 until 1945. CB
Read alsoOur review of Valiant Hearts: war at the height of childhood
Karnawal – You can see
Drama by Juan Pablo Felix, 1:37
A pre-adolescent in pain, Cabra indulges in a small smuggling business to afford dancing boots. This stupidity brings his hoodlum father, his slightly absent mother and his stepfather whom he can’t stand to meet. This first Argentinian film, fairly accurate in its description of family relations, takes a hybrid form, borrowing from documentary as well as thriller. Surprising but uneven, due to the naturalistic vein sometimes a little too exploited. BP
Utama: The Forgotten Land – to avoid
Drama by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, 1:28
On the Bolivian highlands crushed by an immense Riviera sky, an old couple watches over llamas. Life is hard, drought is cracking the earth, progress is entrenched in the cities. Their 20-year-old grandson comes to try to convince them to join the family. Distinguished at Sundance, this first Bolivian film does not lack appeal, but sins by its postcard side. The majestic landscapes, as beautiful as they are, are not enough to catch up with an agreed plot. OD
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