An original look at Parisian babysitters, Gad Elmaleh’s revelation for Catholicism, a trip to the 1980s at the heart of Les Amandiers theater school, created by Patrice Chéreau… What should we see this week? The selection of Figaro.
The women of the square – Have
Comedy by Julien Rambaldi, 1h45
Angèle, a young Ivorian woman, accepts a job as a nanny with a divorcing mother to escape a boss who is extorting her. She discovers a community of child minders at home, these “women of the square”, often undocumented, docile and forced to work. Angèle the rebel will come to the aid of one of them, exploited by her employer. We think of Toledano and Nakache. Not so much because Eye Haïdara was from sense of celebration (the angry daughter then in love with Gilles Lellouche), only because the comedy is here matched with a real sociological acuity. It highlights invisible women from upmarket neighborhoods, in the cinema as well as in the street, where the gaze of the hurried passer-by ignores them. Julien Rambaldi’s film takes an original and relevant look at Parisian babysitters. Its excellent cast makes it a very embodied comedy. IS.S.
Read alsoOur critique of Femmes du square: avant-garde nannies
The Almond Trees – Have
Dramatic comedy by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, 2h05
Not all young people want to go to Sciences Po, HEC, or even the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. In the 1980s, there were a few of them who wanted to join the short-lived school of Amandiers de Nanterre (two promotions). Actress-director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was one of them. She joined in 1986 and discovered theater with directors Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans. Today she revisits this apprenticeship and this period. She remembers the hearings, the joy of the lucky ones and the sadness of the rejected ones. “This school is too egocentric, too hysterical… Anyway, I will work with Francis Huster”, said an annoyed boy. Yes, this school is not made for well-behaved children. VBT has chosen Nadia Tereszkiewicz to play Stella, her fictional double. She lives in a private mansion. We never see our parents but we sometimes meet the butler. To a friend of Stella, also a budding actress, this reasonable man gives the choice to lead a normal existence, have a job, a husband, or become an actress, burn her life, and die sad and mad. Within the walls of the Amandiers, everything is stronger, more intense. The boys and girls of Les Amandiers are moving, funny and horrifying, as one can be at this age. No need to have walked the boards with Chéreau in the 1980s, or even to have a passion for the theater, to be touched by this group portrait. IS.S.
Read alsoThe film The Almond Trees by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi seen by the young cast of actors
Read alsoOur review of Almond Trees, live fast and carefree
Hands down on the city et Exquisite Corpse – Have
Dramas by Francesco Rosi
Two emblematic films by Francesco Rosi are being released in theaters in restored versions. If the most famous, Hands down on the citywith Rod Steiger (Golden Lion in Venice, in 1963) who denounced real estate speculation, has aged a little, however, exquisite corpses (1976) with the excellent Lino Ventura as a stubborn inspector (who dubs himself in Italian) turns out to be as captivating as it is unknown. Behind the plot of this well-constructed, rhythmic and bloody thriller, Rosi spins the metaphor of the “strategy of tension” put in place by the Italian state during the “years of lead”. Exciting. O.D.
Who’s afraid of Pauline Kael? – Have
Documentary by Rob Garver, 1h35
She made the law. Pauline Kael (1919-2001) was the Calamity Jane of American criticism. His first article demolished The limelight by Charlie Chaplin. The tone was set. His tastes, just them, dictated his pen. This Californian made the heyday of New Yorker from 1968. She had broken up with a man because of West Side Story, wasn’t crazy aboutHiroshima mon amour. Jerry Lewis called her “old skin”, while recognizing her talent. William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, considered that she “needed an enema”. Norman Mailer nicknamed her “Madame Vinegar”. The documentary Who’s afraid of Pauline Kael?, by Rob Garver, captures the excitement that reigned at the time, the importance of these columns in the prestigious magazine, when films were passwords. Journalists followed his advice to the letter. She compared The Last Tango in Paris au Rite of Spring, praised Robert Altman, supported John Boorman and Paul Schrader. This free spirit exercised his magisterium until Parkinson’s disease prevented him from doing so. We don’t make them like that anymore. It is.N.
Stay a bit – Have
Comedy by Gad Elmaleh, 1h33
s in the Bible there is a beginning. The story, partly true, begins with a 6-year-old Jewish boy who crosses the line. He enters a church in Casablanca, Morocco. He falls into ecstasy before a statue of the Virgin Mary. He cries, scarred for life. This loupiot becomes the humorist Gad Elmaleh. At 51, the showman puts down his celebrity bag and puts the inner film of his life into images. That of a Jew who attended a yeshiva, where one learns Torah and Talmud, but who remains fascinated by Catholicism, who challenged him – he evokes a “love at first sight” – on this morning of Moroccan childhood . By the genius of the humor, this film which could be a pious account is a spiritual and luminous whirlwind which speaks to all. Because no one escapes questions about God, about the hereafter, about the meaning of life. The paradox is that this feature film strums cheerfully on the keys of a successful “comedy”, we are not bored for a moment while, without seeming to be, it is a metaphysical film. J.M.G
Read alsoOur review of Rest a little: Gad Elmaleh caught in his own role
SEE ALSO – Gad Elmaleh, in search of Faith
The House – You can see
Drama by Anissa Bonnefont, 1h30
For two years, Emma Becker worked as a prostitute in a brothel in Berlin before writing a book. For her first fiction, Anissa Bonnefont transposes it to the screen. Sometimes catchy and in bad taste (the sequence of passes and positions like a clip), the film finds its raison d’être in the description of the clients, from the shy to the perverse. And shows the limit of such an approach which confuses licentiousness and prostitution. IS.S.
Just one night – You can see
Drame d’Ali Asgari, 1h26
A student raising her baby in secret in Tehran is devastated by the news of her parents’ surprise arrival. The young mother goes in search of a good soul who will take care of her daughter for just one night. The Iranian Ali Asgari sets up an implacable obstacle course in the city, between cowardice, refusal and lack of female solidarity. In its inexorable mechanics, the film is reminiscent of Scorsese’s Kafkaesque After Hours. But the whole remains too anecdotal to be completely convincing. O.D.
Ariaferma – You can see
Drama by Leonardo Di Costanzo, 1:57
In a Sardinian prison, twelve prisoners and their guards look at each other like earthenware dogs. The tension rises between these dilapidated walls, in these cells with rusty bars. The head guard, Toni Servillo, leads his troops with a hand that he wants to be iron. Opposite, there is the mafia boss looking down on him. A hunger strike will make it possible to forge links between these men who are opposed by everything. Here, the cuisine softens manners, even if it takes its time a little too much. IT IS. No
More than ever– You can see
Drame d’Emily Atef, 2 h 02
Vicky Krips has cancer. She leaves for Norway to recharge her batteries. His companion, Gaspard Ulliel, loses the north. Between Paris and the fjords, a slow and luminous agony unfolds with grace and gentleness. The film suffers from the sudden disappearance of its actor. It is she who dies, but we have the impression of witnessing his last moments. Is.N.
SEE ALSO – Gad Elmaleh carries atheists on France 5: “To believe in nothing every day, you have to have faith”