“Monsieur Aznavour”, “Three kilometers to the end of the world”… At the cinema from 23 October

2024-10-23 06:28:00

♦ Mr Aznavour ***

by Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir

French film, 2:14

Five songs, five chapters. Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir, directors of Mr Aznavourtook on the romantic destiny of the singer, born one hundred years ago to Armenian parents. Tahar Rahim takes on the main role with total commitment and newfound balance, accompanied by the brilliant performances of Marie-Julie Biaup (Édith Piaf) and Bastien Bouillon (Pierre Roche, pianist and Aznavour’s partner at the beginning).

This fascinating, unsympathetic biopic depicts Charles Aznavour‘s dogged quest for recognition and glory with finesse. If the film does not hesitate to show an angry and money-hungry man, it also inspires respect for the artist, author of over 1000 songs.

» READ THE REVIEW: “Monsieur Aznavour”, his romantic life

» READ THE INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTORS: “We wanted to explain how the myth of Aznavour was born”

♦ Three kilometers to the end of the world**

of Emmanuel Parvu

Romanian film, 1h43

Returning to his parents’ fishing village for the summer, seventeen-year-old Adi is attacked outside a nightclub after being caught kissing another boy. A complaint is filed but an attempt is made to cover up the fact: the two responsible, who don’t even bother to deny it, are the sons of Zentov, the local potentate. Gradually, the victim of the beating becomes guilty.

Presented at Cannes, this film was unfairly left in the shadows. In the style of a western, Emmanuel Pârvu paints, starting from a banal act of homophobia – whose violence leaves the protagonists of the investigation indifferent – the portrait of a society corrupted by corruption and turned in on itself.

» READ THE REVIEW: “Three kilometers to the end of the world”, a chilling indictment against obscurantism

♦ Chinese Chronicles *

de Lou Ye

Chinese film, 1h45

Let’s take the same ones and start again. When director Xiaorui comes across scenes from an unfinished film, shot ten years earlier, he convinces the old actors to shoot the ending. Filming resumes in a Wuhan hotel, but is quickly interrupted by Covid-19. Directors, actors and technicians are trapped and many of them remain prisoners in their rooms.

The effect could have been fun, but the connection between the unfinished film and the filming of its sequel struggles to excite. If we can relive the amazement of the drastic confinement, Chinese Chronicles would have benefited from giving a more political tone to his story.

» READ THE REVIEW:“Chinese Chronicles”, filmed in the epicenter of the pandemic

♦ Fario *

by Lucia Prost

French film, 1h30

Léo, a young engineer exiled in Berlin, returns to his native Jura to sell his deceased father’s land to a rare metals drilling company. Supported by the village mayor, this open-cast mine which disfigures the landscape and corrodes agricultural land is strongly contested by the local population. Torn between the desire to leave as soon as possible and reuniting with his family and childhood friends, Léo finds himself immersed in a painful past and begins to observe the strange behavior of the trout he once fly fished.

Between an environmental fable and an intimate drama about mourning, director Lucie Prost, for whom this is her first feature film, does not choose and intertwines the two in a tortuous scenario that navigates between fantasy and reality. While the film contains some nice discoveries, particularly when it flirts with the fantastic and alerts us to a world in danger, it becomes more powerfully demonstrative in its evocation of the father’s disappearance.

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