Should you see the film “Le Consentement” with Jean-Paul Rouve? Critics’ opinion

2023-10-11 09:19:58

The film adaptation of Vanessa Springora’s work, which in 2020 denounced the pedophile influence of Gabriel Matzneff, was released in cinemas. Find out what the critics think.

A difficult but necessary work arrives in our cinemas this Wednesday, October 11. “Consent”, directed by Vanessa Filho, adapts the work of the same name written by Vanessa Springora and which caused a real explosion in the literary world in 2020.

In this book, the author denounces child crime and the manipulative influence exercised by the writer Gabriel Matzneff, celebrated in the cultural world. In this work, she recounts having been the lover of the fifty-year-old writer when she was only 13 years old, and describes the destructive mechanisms of control that he was able to exercise over her.

The feature film released in cinemas this Wednesday returns to this story, with Kim Higelin in the role of young Vanessa Springora and Jean-Paul Rouve in that of the pedophile writer. While the subject is undoubtedly painful, critics are divided on the quality of the film. “Consent” received a press rating of 2.8/5 according to Allociné, which listed 18 titles.

Among those convinced, let us cite franceinfo culture, which hails “a faithful adaptation” and “a strong and chilling film”. For Le Parisien, Vanessa Filho signs “a film as powerful as it is subtle”, while CNews, which deplores the tone of the feature film, considers that it “remains of public utility”.

Jean-Paul Rouve’s performance praised

Conversely, Première denounces a “shaky staging which strays too far from the height of view of the book and does not find the liberating glow of Vanessa Springora’s text”. Same observation of failure at Libéraion, which deplores a film “riddled with excesses and painful archetypes, relieved of the finesse of the original text”.

Most of the reviews, both positive and negative, praise the acting performance of Jean-Paul Rouve who gives “an incredible, terrifying performance as a perverse manipulator” for franceinfo, while Paris-Match describes “a staggering incarnation”. Libération also salutes “the self-sacrifice of Jean-Paul Rouve in Gabriel Matzneff”.