Presence: Soderbergh’s winning return to theaters (critic)
After 7 years of absence on French screens, he delivers his own version of the ghost film through a subjective camera that makes the anxieties of a family brilliantly palpable.
Outstanding artist, Steven Soderbergh is as famous for its golden palm obtained at 26 years old (Sex, lies and video In 1989) that for his ability to vary from genres and film styles. Having produced several works in recent years for platforms, he had not had a visible film in French theaters since Paranoia in 2018…
And the wait is rewarded since the filmmaker returns in great shape with Presencea personal rereading of the cinema of terror and haunted house, where an American family (two parents – played by Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan – and their two teenagers) moved to a large house in the heart of a posh suburbs … Before a mysterious invisible presence seems to observe the youngest.
The originality of the formal device consists here of filming the action entirely from the point of view of this ghostly presence, so that the subjective camera becomes the incarnation of a character-spirit which has its own temperament. Already in the grip of anxieties and secrets of all kinds, the family unit thus appears to us in its full intimacy – and the immersion is amplified by the fact that Soderbergh itself holds the camera itself.
The vivid tension also stems from the scenario of David Koepp (author of The dead end,, Snake Eyes Or Panic Room), which multiplies thematic tracks and deploys a malicious labyrinth of contemporary insecurity. Beyond the aesthetic master stroke, Presence In the end, a trying and fascinating mirror in America of 2025 in the end.
Presence. Of Steven Soderbergh. With Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang… Duration 1h25. Release on February 5, 2025
