MOVIE MASQUERADE. What do critics think of Nicolas Bedos’ latest film, Masquerade, released in cinemas on November 1, 2022? Press review and opinion.
[Mis à jour le 2 novembre 2022 à 9h38] After Mr and Mrs Adelman, The good times et OSS 117: Red alert in black Africa, Nicolas Bedos signs his fourth film as a director. Masquerade is one of the particularly scrutinized cinema releases of Tuesday, November 1, 2022. This feature film brings together Pierre Niney, Marine Vacht, Isabelle Adjani and François Cluzet in the cast, in this satirical and cruel scam film. With an average rating of 2.7/5 on Allociné, the press is decidedly divided on this new proposal from the son of Guy Bedos to mimic the superficiality of the ultra-rich on the Côte d’Azur.
Among the conquered critics, let us quote Le Figaro, for which Nicolas Bedos signs “a virtuoso film”, while the daily newspaper 20 minutes salutes “excellent performers”. For CNews, this comedy of manners “cruel and joyfully iconoclastic, amoral and visually superb” is filmed “with rhythm, elegance and efficiency”. For Marianne, Masquerade is “a film for the spectators, a film in which the obvious pleasure [le réalisateur] […] is transmitted to those who follow this story of fraud, passionate love, pettiness and great destruction”, when L’Obs admits that it is an “ambitious film, and too long” (2h14 ).
But not all critics are won over by Masquerade, quite the contrary. Faced with worshipers, we find the ultra-disappointed. In halftone, the specialized magazine Première deplores the fact that “by refusing to choose which film he wants to make, Nicolas Bedos misses his cynical charge against the hyper-rich”. Le Parisien points to the “vulgarity” of the film, calling it a “hateful comedy”. Télérama (“pathetic film where bling-bling is king”) and Liberation (“the film is in the image of what it pretends to ridicule: capricious, fascinated by its fake splendor, megalomaniac”) do not think Not less. Definitely, either we like it or we hate it! It is now up to the viewer to form their own opinion.
Synopsis – When a young gigolo (Pierre Niney) falls under the spell of a sublime scammer (Marine Vacth), it is the beginning of a Machiavellian plan under the burning sun of the Côte d’Azur. Are the two lovers ready to do anything to afford a dream life, even if it means sacrificing that of a former glory of cinema (Isabelle Adjani) and a real estate agent (François Cluzet)? Passions, crimes, betrayals…