The Most Precious of Goods, Diamond in the Rough, Piece by Piece: what's new at the cinema this week

The Most Precious of Goods, Diamond in the Rough, Piece by Piece: what’s new at the cinema this week

What to see in theaters

THE EVENT
THE MOST PRECIOUS OF GOODS ★★★☆☆

By Michel Hazanavicius

The essentials

By adapting the work of Jean-Claude Grumberg, the director of The Artist signs a moving tale about the Righteous and the Shoah.

The action takes place in Poland at the heart of the Second World War. On the train taking his family to the death camps, a man throws his newborn out of the window to give him hope of life. A woodcutter will then take in this little girl and raise her against the advice of her husband, who was corrupted by the anti-Semitism of the time before becoming the greatest defender of this child when his workmates, driven by hatred of the Jew , will decide to eliminate it. The great success of Hazanavicius in this adaptation of the work of Jean-Claude Grumberg is to have been able to translate into images the irresistible power of this story and its dimension of tale which contrasts with the horror of this period. All accompanied by the voice full of humanity of Jean-Louis Trintignant in the role of the storyteller. Hazanavicius once again proves his ability to never lock himself into any comfort zone.

Thierry Cheze

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PREMIERE LIKED A LOT

MEMORIES OF A BURNING BODY ★★★★☆

By Antonella Sudassassi Furniss

“Finally free!” » could be the subtitle of this film. Like the cry from the heart of her heroine Ana who, at 70 years old, can live detached from the diktat of the different men (father, brother, husband, etc.) who have always ruled her existence and violated her body. Memories of a burning body opens with this woman cleaning the dust on photo frames which will constitute the backbone of the back and forth between this nightmarish past and this present of all possibilities, including that of finally discovering orgasm. In the manner of Daughters of Olfa and of little girl blueAntonella Sudassassi Furniss interweaves documentary and fiction to tell the story of Ana and make the voices of other women victims of the same abuse heard through her, in an inventive staging populated with poetic moments that keep the film on a tightrope between harshness and tenderness, telling the story of a woman refusing to feel sorry for herself but impatient for the beautiful moments to come. Impressive.

Thierry Cheze

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DIRECT ACTION ★★★★☆

By Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell

What do we know about the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes and where does this information come from? Rough ideas, edited (i.e. doctored) images? This is what you want to break up with Direct Action. In a little over 3h30, the two documentarians show these citizen-activists and give them back their humanity at the same time as they explain their anger, their way of life and action. The sequences last but are never the same: we share with our comrades the psychological mechanisms used during a police interrogation, but we also prepare a snack, a birthday, a rock concert… or a line of defense against the police. The camera, serene, patient, gradually grasps its subject, even if it means waiting for the smoke of a grenade to dissipate, so that the truth, always full of life, finally bursts forth. This searing documentary is undoubtedly the most political film of the year.

Nicholas Moreno

FIRST TO LIKE

ROUGH DIAMOND ★★★☆☆

By Agathe Riedinger

Rough Diamond arrives at the cinema after the series Worship. The latter left us with a promise, that of the meteoric development of reality TV in France after the success of Loft Story. Agathe Riedinger’s first film takes place in its terminal phase because today, reality TV is part of the PAF furniture, populated by young women who perfectly master its codes despite feigned ignorance. Liane, 19, is one of them. An influencer with a strong character, she corresponds in every way to the stereotypical “hood” figure. She lives in Fréjus in precarious conditions, with her mother and sister on her back, and has the crazy hope of being selected for the show. Miracle Island after a casting. It is this waiting in the dungeon that Agathe Riedinger likes to film, aware of the objectification of these young, ultra-feminine girls from the working classes, and of their devaluation and therefore groping forward.

Leon Cattan

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PASSION ACCORDING TO BEATRICE ★★★☆☆

By Fabrice du Welz

Conceived as a “traveling documentary”, this hybrid film by Fabrice Du Welz (Vinyan) shows Béatrice Dalle surveying Italy in 2022 in the footsteps of the great Pier Paolo Pasolini, filmmaker and poet who died in 1975 to whom the French actress has unfailing admiration. Speaking openly about his love for the life and work of the Italian artist, Dalle also exchanges with the actor Clément Roussier and with Pasolini specialists, so that this trip also becomes a portrait of the actress and of his conception of a committed existence. If the rhythm of the film can sometimes be confusing, the splendor of the black and white images (not far from evoking the cinema of Carl Theodor Dreyer) and the ancestral beauty of the Italian countryside generate a rare sentimental intensity. And resurrect the spirit of the director of The Gospel according to Saint Matthew in a way that is almost miraculous.

Damien Leblanc

THE PANACHE ★★★☆☆

By Jennifer Devoldère

At 14, Colin entered a new school with a lump in his stomach. Aware of the cruelty of teenagers his age, he worries about his ability to integrate because of his stuttering, which he experiences as a shameful handicap… Until he meets a French teacher who will confront him with his fears. by challenging him to play Cyrano de Bergerac in the school’s annual show. The shadow of Circle of Dead Poets and his professor Keating who likes to break the codes to the great dismay of his administration hangs over the new Jennifer Devoldère (Mid-man). And she shares with Peter Weir this desire to mix laughter and tears in a story that assumes its first degree side, without trying to finesse or add to it, helped by a group of amazing actors, including José Garcia who, in this role of mentor, completes a great year of cinema, after We, the Leroys And At full speed. An antidote to kingly cynicism.

Thierry Cheze

37: THE SHADOW AND THE PREY ★★★☆☆

By Arthur Môlard

A tormented truck driver picks up a pregnant woman who is hiding a gun and a dark secret. It’s a first feature film, a concept thriller which has many youthful cracks (isn’t it also because we know that it’s a first film that we allow ourselves this kind of sentence ?), but whose charm ends up working. Thanks to the duo formed by Guillaume Pottier and Mélodie Simina (terrific as a knocked-up and smoking gunslinger), well cast and well directed on which all the tension rests. But also because we sense in Arthur Môlard a desire to do well and a real know-how in writing as well as in visualizing rather than focusing on flashiness at all costs. Brief, 37: The Shadow and the Prey This is not a clever film and its solidity makes you want to watch what its director prepares for us right away.

Sylvestre Picard

Find these films near you thanks to Première Go

FIRST TO MODERATELY LIKED

PRODIGIOUS ★★☆☆☆

By Frédéric and Valentin Potier

The prodigious women who give their title to this first feature by the Potier brothers are two virtuoso pianist twins entering a prestigious music university run by an infectious professor, taking perverse pleasure in creating a rivalry between them, while another much more deaf evil eats away at them. An orphan disease that weakens their hands and therefore their artistic future. The film hits the mark when it focuses on them (Camille Razat and Mélanie Robert, impeccable) and the unbreakable bond that unites them. But he gets lost when he tells their relationship to a father who sacrificed everything to make them the best, obsessed with a success that eluded him. The writing of the character and the direction given to his interpreter Franck Dubosc combine heaviness and caricature. The film being inspired by a true story, this may be true to reality. But a documentary would then have been a more appropriate form to tell it.

Thierry Cheze

STORMS ★★☆☆☆

By Dania Reymond-Boughenou

In a countryside around Algiers, a strange yellow dust alerts the local populations. A journalist haunted by the murder of his wife takes an interest as his past resurfaces. Metaphorical speech on an Algeria tortured by its dead, The Storms vacillates between drama and fantasy but struggles to find a plot. Loaded with images of superstition and mourning, it suffers from an overly present poetry where the characters, although relevant, get lost.

Bastien Assie

KAFKA, THE LAST SUMMER ★★☆☆☆

By Georg Maas and Judith Kaufman

In these times of domination of Wikipedia biopics obsessed with telling the people concerned from the beginning to the end of their existence, this film has the merit of focusing on the final months of the author of The Metamorphosis and his love affair with a teacher who gave him back the taste for writing before saving part of his work that he had asked her to destroy. But the story is unfortunately like the staging, too wise, too academic to convey the torments and complexity of his personality.

Thierry Cheze

FIRST DID NOT LIKE

PIECE BY PIECE ★☆☆☆☆

By Morgan Neville

Piece by Piecea Pharrell Williams production recounting his life, attempts to pass off as an artistic vision (the film is made of bricks like The Great Lego Adventure) quite a series of commonplaces while ignoring a lot of key moments in his career. Why blame the “marketers” for a pre-“Get Lucky” slump with Daft Punk? How can you not cringe when the speakers throw out outrageous things like “Pharrell is the only artist to have worked with fashion designers” or that “before him, there was no star hip-hop producer”? No mention of the trial following Marvin Gaye’s accusation of plagiarism for “Blurred Lines” while the film repeats that “the best ideas come from the future, the bad ones from the past”? In short, a hell of a pile of propaganda where everything fits together as if by magic.

Sylvestre Picard

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THE CHOICE ★☆☆☆☆

By Gilles Bourdos

It’s the story of Vincent Lindon with a construction helmet who gets into a car. The advertising logo indicates that it is a Renault. With his bad days face, his hands on the wheel, vigilante Lindon drives into the night. He has to manage a thousand things at once, switching from one person to another on the phone when he’s not directly addressing his dead father with his eyes in the mirror, in case the father’s ghost is sitting in the back seat. . The Choice is a remake of Locke with Tom Hardy. That’s it, you know (almost) everything. On the staging side Gilles Bourdos (Renoir, Endangered species…) wonders how to bring to life this automobile closed door which is essentially partitioned everywhere. The extreme readability of the image, as flat as a new car, has nothing other to offer than the backlit face of Lindon speaking to himself. The LCU (Lindon Cinematic Universe) has just reached a new milestone.

Thomas Baura

And also

From a distant country, by Simon Gillet

Children, by Rodolphe Marconi

We must save Christmas! short film program

Images of shadows, by Hormuz Key

Play and grow, by Pierre Beccu

Marcel, Santa Claus and the little pizza delivery man, short film program

Van Gogh: poets and lovers, by David Bickerstaff

The Covers

Rita, Sue and Bob too, by Alan Clarke

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