2023-05-14 19:12:00
Agnes Jaoui and Jonathan Zaccai. Tabotabo films and Sombrero films/Jour2fête
In Frédéric Sojcher’s film, the actress portrays a screenwriter who has come to give a masterclass in the school run by her childhood sweetheart. A disturbing reflection on what art owes to reality.
What art steals from life, what everyday life abandons to fiction. Taking place behind the closed doors of a masterclass, The course of life sees Agnès Jaoui give a disturbing and poignant lesson in cinema. In Frédéric Sojcher’s film released this Wednesday, the actress portrays a screenwriter who has come to give a conference in the film school run by her childhood sweetheart. Noémie has not seen Vincent since their breakup almost 30 years ago. Promising director, this one did not turn in the end, choosing instead to take the reins of the National School of Audiovisual in Toulouse.
In front of a reluctant and slightly mocking audience (students don’t appreciate losing a day of editing in class), Noémie will try to give them the keys to a successful script and plot. A challenge that passes above all through the observation of everyday moments and even the most tenuous emotions that run through it. Through this praise of “What if? from the alternate reality, it is also a bit of her past and her wounds that Noémie reveals. Perhaps the occasion for Vincent (Jonathan Zaccai of Legends Office shaggy and subjugated) to understand the reasons for their separation, to bury the hatchet and to turn the page.
After a didactic and too talkative first half hour, The course of life finds its momentum, its subtext and its tenderness. In the arid setting of a lecture, the faces of the students and the piercing eyes of Noémie lead us into a maelstrom of possibilities and things left unsaid. Cameras that capture close-up, medium shot or wide shot capture the slightest flinch.
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A filigree self-portrait
Cinema teacher, the Belgian director Frédéric Sojcher did not choose the easy way by adopting the essay of his friend and counterpart Alain Layrac, Writing workshop: Fifty tips for a successful screenplay without missing out on your life. Deciding to respect the unity of place and time of classical tragedies. Beyond its ode to the cathartic power of 7e an art capable of rewriting reality, of making every second chance a reality with the stroke of a pen, this portrait of a woman without regrets, facing a man drowning in them, invites you to grasp your emotions, to refuse the boxes and labels. Like the reunion between Noémie and Vincent.
They borrow as much from the flashback as from the MEA culpa. Do we even forget those we once loved? From these ashes, from these unlived lives, springs the adult that we become. Actress, director and screenwriter, Agnès Jaoui put a lot of herself (feminist commitment, the twists and turns of the human psyche, self-mockery) in her character and the feature film, assures Frédéric Sojcher. In his melancholic gaze, often lost in memories, in his evocation of the burning void left behind by the deceased, it is difficult not to see the shadow of his former companion, the late Jean-Pierre Bacri. Moving and delicate.
The opinion of Le Figaro: 2.5/4
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