The Richest Woman in the World, Smashing Machine, The Stranger: new releases at the cinema this week

What to see in theaters

THE EVENT
THE RICHEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD ★★★☆☆

By Thierry Klifa

The essentials

Thierry Klifa revisits the Bettencourt affair in a deliciously cruel comedy carried by a major duo: Laurent Lafitte- Isabelle Huppert

Thierry Klifa here takes on a tricky subject with finesse: the famous Bettencourt affair and the special bond that united Liliane Bettencourt to the photographer François-Marie Banier. And he takes the side of comedy as the prism of this family story that is as heartbreaking – by the painful buried secrets and the unsaid things that will be released – as well as hilarious – by the cynicism, the cruelty and the keen sense of repartee that the character inspired by Banier deploys, like an elephant in a china shop. But to portray this man who fascinates as much as he is unbearable and his extreme variations of mood and humor, we needed an actor capable of playing excess without precisely adding to it. Laurent Lafitte is of this caliber. And opposite him, Isabelle Huppert plays the sovereign with the assurance and detachment of those who have nothing to prove to anyone in this dance above a volcano which can be enjoyed with delight.

Thierry Cheze

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PREMIERE LIKED A LOT

WHAT THIS NATURE TELLS YOU ★★★★☆

By Hong Sang-soo

The new Hong Sang-soo lasts 1h48; It’s been ten years since one of his films lasted this long (precisely, since Un jour avec, un jour sans in 2015). With a more upset scenario than usual, the tragicomic genius of the South Korean director springs forth here in all its beauty. A young man meets his in-laws for a day and a night, but class differences quickly resurface. Poor behavior, sad alcohol, meals in sequence, we are in a Hong Sang-soo film. On the other hand, the anger that emerges in the young man constitutes what is most unpredictable and brilliant: although legitimate, it remains no less ungrateful for the in-laws who meet the boy. A small revolutionary spirit then haunts the film, the title and the character, who will then rely on the surrounding nature to seek to recognize himself somewhere, far from his habits.

Nicholas Moreno

A POET ★★★★☆

By Simon Mesa Soto

When he wanders the streets of Medellín, Oscar not only gives off the scent of alcohol: he reeks of the poet’s curse. Worse still, he does it without the panache of the great names who preceded him, since his version of the tragic artist appears more pathetic than romantic. Alcoholic, unemployed, immature, suicidal, cowardly, self-destructive: Oscar ticks all the boxes of an irredeemable loser. Even when he tries his hand at philanthropy by transposing his unfulfilled dreams onto a teenager gifted in poetry, he manages to screw up. From this man who presents us with a spectacle of his mediocrity emerges a hilarious black comedy which accentuates the failings of his antihero with jerky shots, a frenzied rhythm and untimely zooms on his slapping face. But if it is enjoyable to laugh in his face, it is even more enjoyable to detect in him the beginnings of redemption.

Lucie Chiquer

FIRST TO LIKE

SMASHING MACHINE ★★★☆☆

By Benny Safdie

For his first solo feature film, Josh Safdie chose to tell the story of Mark Kerr, pioneer of free-fighting in the 90s. He does it with a rather classic approach to the biopic, right down to the “Oscar-worthy” performance of star Dwayne Johnson, but regularly hacks it with poetic stalls, seeking the sublime in a material that could have been nothing more than kitsch. The filmmaker is as much a scion of Cassavetes and Raging Bull as he is of reality TV The Osbournes. He films his hero as a bigger-than-life figure as well as as an anonymous person one might encounter in the supermarket. With a little clumsiness but a heart like that.

Frédéric Foubert

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FIRST TO MODERATELY LIKED

AN ORDINARY LIFE ★★☆☆☆

By Alexander Kuznetsov

It starts with the end, the war, the one that Putin declared against Ukraine in February in 2022. “How could we let it happen? » asked the revolted Russian demonstrators. Flashback: 2009, two young girls Katya and Yulia were placed (wrongly) in a psychiatric hospital. Filmmaker Alexander Kuznetsov follows them between these two time markers to reflect on what independence and freedom mean in today’s Russia. An observation necessarily without appeal.

Thomas Baura

ON FALLING ★★☆☆☆

By Laura Carreira

Imagine A Day Without End, but replace the fantastic context with that of the precariousness of immigrants. Because there is no need for a preposterous scenario to find yourself trapped in a time loop: today, the metro-work-sleep routine is enough. Aurora, a Portuguese immigrant established in Scotland as an order picker in a warehouse, suffers the costs. Every day, she repeats the same gestures, hears the same conversations, eats the same meals, scrolls tirelessly on the networks. An automated daily life that hangs by a thread: her broken phone which requires immediate repair (with money she doesn’t have) plunges her into a depressive spiral. By illustrating the alienation that governs the lives of immigrants and the isolation that results from it, the excessively slow pace ends up doing the film a disservice: we get bored and we yawn. On falling succeeds in its bet, but at what price…

Lucie Chiquer

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FIRST DID NOT LIKE

THE STRANGER ★☆☆☆☆

By François Ozon

Adapting The Stranger into images means hitting the wall of an interpretation condemned to not being sufficient. Visconti had missed it. Ozon too. The Frenchman superimposes layers (immaculate black and white, suavity and eroticization of bodies, etc.) to better impress upon us the subjectivity of his reading. It works a little in the first part with an Antonioesque Meursault (Benjamin Voisin very accurate). But the film shifts in its second part into its “explanation of text” side with trial sequences (failed) and prison (itou). Ozon seeks the fantastic in reality but comes up against the implacability of an inspiration that is too decorative to transport us into the dizziness of this great text which resists everything.

Thomas Baura

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And also

Like hearing through a sheet of metal, by Marianne Béliveau

The Intruders – chapter 2, by Renny Harlin

Regretting you, by Josh Boone

Yoroi, by David Tomaszweski

The covers

female dog Loves, by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The Devil’s Child, by Peter Medak