What are we watching this weekend? A punk thriller, a pinnacle of animation, a classic with Michael Caine…
Cinema, streaming, VOD, TV… Find the Première selection every Friday.
The film in theaters: Rays and Shadows by Xavier Giannoli
What trouble has our Xavier gotten himself into? Just think, a film all about the “glory” of a collaborator, carried by a very well-groomed Dujardin and an ultra-slick direction. The film is beautiful and spectral, sad from beginning to end… Never unhealthy, which could have been a quality… Giannoli is not Fassbinder or Visconti… His thing is great style. Dirt wrapped in silk sheets. So much for the Rays. So what should we do with the Shadows that they leave on the polished floors of Occupied Paris? They are everywhere since it is death or so that tells the story, or the sacrificed daughter who still took advantage of it before seeing everything collapse in the light of her father’s compromise! The war and its “real” victims are off-screen. They are the “real “Shadows” of Hugo’s title. In front of the frame, in the light, the puppets move without realizing that the air there is stale. Great movie!
What’s new at the cinema this week
The film in streaming: Peaky Blinders: The Immortal
Tommy Shelby now lives as a hermit, haunted by his past. World War II breaks out, Birmingham is under bombs, and a Nazi operation threatens the British economy. To protect his legacy and his son, he dives back into the business, facing enemies and personal ghosts. Cillian Murphy plays a Christ-like Tommy, between myth and decline, in a poignant final chapter which completes the Shelby saga, offering a finale that is both grandiose and moving. The conclusion we deserved.
Watch Peaky Blinders: The Immortal streaming on Netflix
The film on TV: Caught Stealing by Darren Aronofsky
We can easily imagine Darren Aronofsky sniggering as he imagines the faces of his fans discovering Caught Stealinga film located in the exact opposite of all his films. A punk trip to a grimy New York, where Austin Butler plays a former New York athlete who finds himself unwillingly at the heart of a criminal imbroglio after agreeing to do a favor for a neighbor. Very After Hours in the mind, a nervous and chaotic trip of contagious madness. Imperfect but furiously alive.
Watch Caught Stealing – Caught Stealing this Friday on Canal+ (and streaming on MyCanal)
The series: Invincibleseason 4
Season 4 gets off to a strong start, as Mark and Eve continue to carry the weight of a world that awaits them around the corner. The first three episodes posted online are enough to plunge back into their titanic battles, still as bloody, as violent as ever. But the most exciting thing is that the series finally sheds light on the Viltrumites, this absolutely implacable simi-Kryptonian race, determined to impose its law on the universe. The series continues to mix insane spectacle and powerful emotional issues. We’re delighted to still be enjoying it.
Watch Invincible on Prime Video
The film on VOD: Arco by Ugo Bienvenu
The action begins in 2932 when Arco, an intrepid kid, refuses to wait until he is old enough to travel back in time. But he, who dreams of finding himself in the age of dinosaurs, ends up in 2075, where he is taken in by a little girl who, like Elliott with ET, will do everything for him to find his home. In a year of exceptional French animated cinema (from Castle Life: my childhood in Versailles has Slocum and me), Arco was the most acclaimed (Cristal in Annecy, two Césars, a theatrical success, an Oscar nomination). Logic ! This first feature film by Ugo Bienvenu is a marvel. A marvel of 2D animation, under the digested influence of Miyazaki. And a wonderful storyline that will delight fans of Amblin as well as lovers of Wall-Efor his ability to speak to all audiences. A tour de force.
Watch Arco on VOD on Première Max
The pleasant surprise: Strange Darling by JT Mollner
Journalist problem: Strange Darling is the kind of film that is best discovered knowing nothing of its story. So if you trust us 100% (thanks to you!), go watch it immediately, you shouldn’t regret it. Otherwise, just know that we come across a serial killer and a hunted woman, and that this game of cat and mouse is divided into six chapters, presented out of order… Preceded by incredible word of mouth since its presentation in festivals in 2023, the second feature by JT Mollner (screenwriter of Walk or die) is a pure puzzle that is very – very – generous in terms of twists and turns. Superbly shot in 35mm, Strange Darling reverses the codes of the thriller and even imposes a new point of view on the genre.
Watch Strange Darling streaming on Paramount+
The documentary: Stéphane Audran, Claude Chabrol’s accomplice
One day she is a redhead, the other blonde, her eyes painted blue or her lips red. Through jostling archive images from the INA, in black and white or in color, Stéphane Audran, the actress behind Claude Chabrol’s Hélène, reveals herself. Actress or wife of? Shot after shot, the film explores the strange status of the performer: a muse, full of humor and lightness, sometimes stifled by Chabrol’s fame, sometimes free. Without a voice-over, the film moves forward purely through the power of images and delivers the performance of a lifetime. Between poetry and realism, the documentary Stéphane Audran, Chabrol’s accomplice routed and seized.
Watch Stéphane Audran, Claude Chabrol’s accomplice streaming on Arte
The classic: The Hound by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1972)
The great Mankiewicz (1909 – 1993) left us with this. Which is no small thing when you have a choice of: The Adventure of Mrs Muir, Eve, The Barefoot Countess or even Cleopatra. Film partitioned, confined and well tied, The Houndadapted from a play, brings face to face two behemoths of British cinema but also two conceptions of the game: the Shakespearean Laurence Olivier and the relaxed Michaël Caine. Here one tries to humiliate the other in a duel which ends in one of the most legendary twists in cinema… Proof of its effectiveness, we allow ourselves to be caught each time in a tacit agreement with the film. If you’ve never seen it, glory to you! If you only know it through its remake, shame on you!
Watch The Hound in streaming on Arte.tv
