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If indeed you can go to theaters, when France is now fully back in the era of energy poverty, and you still have some near your home, which unfortunately should not go so well given the poor attendance figures, this week’s cinema program will have some good surprises in store for you. Indeed, we can never repeat enough our admiration for the courage of French distributors, reckless enough to fill our cinephile hearts with joy, Wednesday after Wednesday!
Our top three picks of the week are all French, but their similarities pretty much end there. While Louis Garrel jubilantly revisits the genre of gangster comedy with his fourth feature film as director, The Innocenthis colleague Philippe Faucon remains much more sober, even serious with his historical evocation of the Algerian war in The Harkis. Then, school distress has the right to a small ray of hope in the beautiful documentary A good start by Agnès Molia and Xabi Molia on a class like no other of students in difficulty.
We are almost at the antipodes calendars of the International Women’s Rights Day at the beginning of March. However, the female characters are displayed in force and number in several releases this mid-October. And we are expressly not thinking, on this subject, of the film biography of the feminist icon Simone Veil, weighed down by the emphatic staging of Olivier Dahan. No, the women of cinema as we like them, they are more like this fighter, determined to resist against the rising waters due to climate change in aya by Simon Coulibaly Gillard. Or to the Ukrainian prisoner in Butterfly Vision by Maksym Nakonechnyi. And even to the ultimate last stand in horror by Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween Ends by David Gordon Green.
Opposite, the men are rather pale, although one can feel a certain pleasure in following the exotic adventures of Malik Bentalha in Jack Mimoun and the secrets of Val Verde and to see Petit Nicolas return to his animated debut in the film by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre, after his three questionable detours through fiction between 2009 and 2021.
Fortunately, the lean weeks are over on the side of the films coming out. Thus, four films by the imposing German director Margarethe von Trotta are finally making their comeback on French screens. Admittedly, it’s tough cinema with a marked political conscience, but it’s also a type of committed film like you don’t find so many of these days. The Engagement of French actor and director Alain Cuny was more on the spiritual side. A curious and austere film came out of it in the early 1990s, The Annunciation made to Maryby which you could let yourself be bewitched today.
The other two films returning to the poster are hardly older. Captain Flam’s nostalgia will definitely grip you as you watch Revenge of the Humanoids by Albert Barillé. And the utopia of a peaceful exit from the crisis that Iran is going through at the moment will not seem in any way more probable to you, after having seen or seen again An Iranian woman by Negar Azarbayjani, distributed for the first time in France in May 2015.
aya by Simon Coulibaly Gillard (Belgium, Drama, 1h30, distributed in 20 prints) with Marie-Josée Kokora, Patricia Egnabayou and Junior Asse
Azor by Andreas Fontana (Switzerland, Drama, 1h40) with Fabrizio Rongione, Stéphanie Cléau and Carmen Iriondo
Butterfly Vision by Maksym Nakonechnyi (Ukraine, Drama, 1h47) with Rita Burkovska, Lyubomyr Valivots and Myroslava Vytrykhoska-Makar
Halloween Ends by David Gordon Green (United States, Horror, 1h51) with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kyle Richards and Andi Matichak
The Harkis by Philippe Faucon (France, War, 1h22, distributed in 100 prints) with Théo Cholbi, Mohamed Mouffok and Pierre Lottin (review)
The Innocent by Louis Garrel (France, Comedy, 1h40) with Roschdy Zem, Anouk Grinberg and Noémie Merlant
Jack Mimoun and the secrets of Val Verde by Ludovic Colbeau-Justin and Malik Bentalha (France, Adventure comedy, 1h42) with Malik Bentalha, Joséphine Japy and Jérôme Commandeur
Penelope my love by Claire Doyon (France, Documentary, 1h28)
Le Petit Nicolas What are we waiting for to be happy? by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (France, Animation, 1h22, distributed in 500 copies)
Samurai Academy by Chris Bailey, Mark Koetsier and Rob Minkoff (United States, Animation, 1h37, distributed in 564 prints)
Simone The Journey of the Century by Olivier Dahan (France, Biographie filmique, 2h20, distributed in 620 prints) with Elsa Zylberstein, Rebecca Marder and Elodie Bouchez
Time out by Vincent Dieutre and Julien Thèves (France, Documentary, 1h24)
A good start by Agnès Molia and Xabi Molia (France, Documentary, 1h39)
Covers
The Annunciation made to Mary (1991) by Alain Cuny (France, Drama, 1h31) with Alain Cuny, Roberto Benavente and Christelle Challab
Retrospective Margarethe von Trotta (1976-1986) by Margarethe von Trotta (Germany, Drama): Katharina Blum’s Lost Honor, The Second Awakening by Christa Klages, The Years of Lead and Rosa Luxemburg
Revenge of the Humanoids (1982) by Albert Barillé (France, Animation, 1h39)
An Iranian woman (2011) by Negar Azarbayjani (Iran, Drama, 1h42) with Shayesteh Irani, Qazal Shakeri and Homayoun Ershadi