What are we watching this weekend? A nugget with Emma Mackey, Romy Schneider at Sautet, the best film of 2025…

Cinema, streaming, VOD, TV… Find the Première selection every Friday.

The film in theaters: The Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt

A shake away from the tumult. In a town in Massachusetts where not much is happening, a young man (Josh O’Connor) organizes the theft of four paintings by a “small” master of US painting. We are in the America of the 70’s, that of flower power and great protest movements. This tumult remains off-camera here, only the shock caused by our young man without quality who is looking for a way to hide his loot and more generally a meaning to it all… Reichardt signs a fake heist film to better understand the extreme fragility of our actions! It’s modest in appearance, immense in reality!

What’s new at the cinema this week

The film on VOD: One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson

While he is one of the favorites for the next Oscars (neck and neck according to the bookmakers with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners), One Battle After Another, by Paul Thomas Anderson, has just been released on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray. The biggest fans of the film, those who have already seen it two or three times in theaters, are delighted to now be able to watch it over and over again – this is the Big Lebowski side of the film, a stoner comedy to be enjoyed in a dressing gown on your sofa, like Ghetto Pat watching The Battle of Algiers. Unless the chilling news that has reached us in recent weeks from Minneapolis on the contrary adorns the film with a darker veil, and accentuates its “visionary” and chilling dimension, this far-fetched dystopia about a fascistic immigration police is in reality not so dystopian, nor far-fetched, as that. In all cases, a review is necessary.

Watch One Battle After Another on VOD on Première Max

The film streaming: Ella McCay by James L. Brooks

Its failure, as unfair as it was violent, in the USA deprived us of its theatrical release in January but we strongly encourage you to discover the new gem from James L. Brooks in streaming. This master of sophisticated dramatic comedies – from Tendres passions
to For Worse and for Better which won 2 Oscars for Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson – once again deploys all the mastery of her writing of characters and situations through the (mis)adventures of a young politician propelled to governor of her State whose idealism finds itself hit by a succession of personal problems that quickly become unmanageable. There is some Capra in this well-executed political fable where Emma Mackey once again bursts onto the screen

Watch Ella McCay streaming on Disney Plus

The series: The Lionesses

A crazy rereading of the Gang of the Amazons driven by crazy energy and a resolutely electric tone. Five women living in a city and in great precariousness decide to rob banks, disguised as men. They embark on a criminal spiral that is as crazy as it is irreversible. The series manages the gap between hard-hitting comedy, social thriller and raw emotion. Around the crew led by Rebecca Marder, the cast has a field day: François Damiens as a corrupt mayor in love with a rooster, Jonathan Cohen as a grotesque bank boss or Olivier Rosenberg as a lit mafia godfather. Eight frenetic episodes that transform an old news story into modern, euphoric pop chaos.

Watch The Lionesses streaming on Netflix

The short film: The Beautiful Scars by Raphaël Jouzeau

A month after separating, a couple meets again in a bar. While Leïla analyzes their story with a distance, Gaspard rushes into the nostalgia of their love. In the middle of the crowd and the noise, the young man’s emotions emerge, brought to life by the magic pencil stroke of Raphaël Jouzeau. Colors and movements blend into his memories, allowing him to escape reality. A poetic and immersive film on the universal theme of rupture, nominated for the 2026 Césars in the best animated short film category.

Watch The Beautiful Scars on Arte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvYbEY8OFH4

The classic: A simple story by Claude Sautet

Something simple is inherently bound to become complicated. Especially in the cinema. At Sautet, it gives the story of a woman (Schneider) pregnant by a man she no longer loves (Brasseur). Superimposed on these vagaries of love is the violence of a French society which is plunging headlong into an economic crisis and foreseeing soaring unemployment curves. The film dates from 1978, between the oil crises that shook the world. The intimate in the face of generalized chaos. In the middle flows a river of tears, arguments and muffled cries. Romy had written to Sautet to convince him to write her – finally – a major female role. The story was ultimately simple.

Watch A Simple Story streaming on France.TV