2023-08-27 19:20:00
Is sex stronger than love? Can we love each other with thwarted desires? Are we forever prisoners of our past, of biology, of social determinism, of the weight of secrecy? What is a couple, this “madness for two” whose mysteries Roland Barthes tried to pierce in his Fragments of a love speech ?
These are the many questions posed by Katell Quillévéré (Suzanne, mend the living…) in his new film, time to love (in theaters November 29). Presented in May at Cannes (out of competition), where the critics gave it a good reception, this dense and dramatic film won the Diamond Valois (prize for the best film) at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, the 16th edition of which has just end, Sunday August 27, with the revelation of his prize list – Laetitia Casta chaired the jury
.READ ALSOFabrice Luchini electrifies the Angoulême Film Festival time to love
opens with archive footage – some of which had never been shown – filmed at the Liberation. They are unbearable and abject. Men, most of them resistance fighters of the last hour, or hidden, mow women kept by force in front of a hateful and hilarious crowd. We hose them down, we force them to make the Nazi salute, we agonize them with insults, we disfigure them and we undress them halfway…
Then, in a subtle collage, the film passes without our realizing it from reality to fiction. Madeleine (Anaïs Demoustier) is one of these “boche hens”. Chased by the pack, she rushes home, like a hunted animal, and angrily tries to erase the swastika that has been drawn on her stomach. Color then follows black and white.
Vincent Lacoste best actor
Two years have passed. Madeleine is now employed at the Beau-Rivage hotel, in a corner of Finistère, where she provides services in Breton headdress. She raises her little boy alone, with whom she shares her maid’s room without managing to give him the love he demands. At table 12 sat François (Vincent Lacoste, who won the prize for best actor). An archeology student at the Sorbonne, this son of a wealthy textile industrialist has a lunar charm, despite a slight handicap caused by the onset of poliomyelitis, fortunately caught in time. Everything opposes them (culture, condition, aspirations…), except for the burden of a singular secret that each one carries deep inside, and which connects them. “It’s obvious for both of us,” François told Madeleine. They barely know each other and they get married.READ ALSO Anaïs Demoustier: with her, we go!
“The mystery of the couple, this fiction that we invent together, in which we decide to believe, to dedicate ourselves, for reasons that sometimes escape us, is at the heart of the film”, confides Katell Quillévéré, who inspired by the story of her grandmother to whom she dedicates this fourth opus.
What bonds can weld two beings so different, beyond the principle of pleasure – Madeleine and François are struggling to consummate their marriage, and for good reason? How to live after “that”, when the wickedness of men has branded you with a hot iron? How to love a woman without “that”, when one is a man who desires other men? At the cost of betrayals and painful disappointments, love circulates in spite of everything in the couple. He slowly makes his way through the flaws of the two spouses to weave a fragile but unbreakable bond between them. Yes, love circulates and it carries all the subjects of this overwhelming film.Vincent Lacoste triumphs but could, in all fairness, share his prize with Anaïs Demoustier, who testifies here to a rare depth and with whom he was filming for the third time (Two sons by Felix Moati, andSmoking makes you cough
by Quentin Dupieux, brought them together in 2019 and 2022).
The rest of the list Love is also the central subject ofRosalie , the second film by Stéphanie Di Giusto, which revisits the legend of the “woman with a beard” to paint a portrait of a woman of absolute strength and delicacy. Her film won the prize for best music (Hania Rani) while her heroine, Nadia Tereszkiewicz (César for best female hope for her role inThe Almond Trees
by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, whose double she played), won the prize for best actress.READ ALSOAngoulême Festival: Nadia Tereszkiewicz, disturbing “woman with a beard”, best actress Among the winners of this 16th Angoulême Francophone Film Festival is stillAugur
. This first choral film by Belgian-Congolese musician and actor Baloji Tschiani wins the prize for directing. Four characters considered as witches and wizards will find in mutual aid a way out of their assignment, in a dreamlike Africa where the weight of traditions and superstition remains. The film won the “New Voice” prize in the “Un certain regard” selection at the last Cannes Film Festival. The award for best screenplay goes toThe Poet’s Bride
, a new film by Yolande Moreau, who shares it with Frédérique Moreau. In love with painting, Mireille Stockaert (Yolande Moreau) makes a living from her work as a waitress and supplements her income by fiddling with cartons of cigarettes. To maintain the large family home on the banks of the Meuse which she has just inherited, she hosts three tenants who will upset her routine and allow her to reconnect with love (him again). A hymn to poetry, an ode to crossroads served by a delightful cast (Estéban, Sergi Lopez, François Morel and… William Sheller). From one painting to another (Georges Schwizgebel) et A grain of sand in the universe
(Suki), two animated films, tied for the prize for best short film. The student jury awards its prize toNothing to lose
, by Delphine Deloget, with Virginie Efira and Félix Lefebvre. A mother’s fight to regain custody of her son, who was taken from her. The People’s Choice Award goes toMy Mother’s Life
, by Julien Carpentier, with Agnès Jaoui, William Lebghil and Salif Cissé. The reunion between a thirty-year-old and his bipolar mother, who tumbles into his life after two years of absence.
58,000 spectators
With a selection of high quality, this 16th Francophone Film Festival of Angoulême, which this year paid tribute to Switzerland and its cinema, was a very good vintage. Offering the public the possibility of discovering a number of films, including those of the competition, it gathered in less than a week nearly 58,000 spectators. Enough to reinforce the conviction of its two linchpins, the producer and former agent Dominique Besnehard and the director and television producer Marie-France Brière: alive and well, the 7th art has not said its last word.
Also composed of director Kaouther Ben Hania, actress and director Monia Chokri, director of fiction at France TV Anne Holmes, actor Raphaël Quenard, musician Souad Massi, cartoonist Zep, writer and actress Rachel Khan and author and producer Jean-Louis Livi.
#Time #Love #wins #Film