Nino: a jewel of delicacy and finesse (critic)
This subtle and poignant Cléo from 5 to 7 to the masculine reveals the talent of director of Pauline Loquès and confirms that of her masterful interpreter, Théodore Pellerin.
As Pauline Loquès explained it during her presentation in Cannes, this first long was born from the death of one of her relatives, carried away by cancer, and her need to find a touch of hope by rewriting history. Thus arises Nino, going to seek medical results to renew a sick leave. A trivial appointment that turns his existence when you diagnose Lynx cancer for him and summon him on Monday for his first chemo session. How to collect this information? How to find the words to announce it to your loved ones when you have a strain character?
In this Cléo from 5 to 7 to the masculine, Pauline Loquès seizes these questions by taking the foot of everything we could expect. By telling three days when this young man regularly crossed so far by morbid impulses will paradoxically regain a taste for life. By small touches without first aware of it before his body and his face, suddenly crossed by smiles, betrays him. Delicacy and finesse reign supreme in this story of poignant wandering because punctuated by joyful or even hilarious moments, according to the face to face of Nino with his best friend, his mother or a childhood friend crossed by chance. And in the title role, Théodore Pellerin (Genesis), awarded at the Critique Week, delivers one of the most striking actor compositions of 2025 because evolving precisely according to these exchanges, with a rare capacity for listening and rebound. In a film and in a role, he has just changed status.
By Pauline Loquès with Théodore Pellerin, Jeanne Balibar, Salomé Dewaels … Duration: 1h36. Released September 17, 2025
