If boredom awaits you in these days of confinement, Le Figaro offers you a selection of films released this week on VOD that marked the editorial staff and therefore deserve, at least it is our feeling, to occupy your evenings. From Les Misérables in the French suburbs to one of the most legendary motorsport races, including Georgian classical dance, there is something for everyone to get some fresh air while staying at home.
Les Misérables , a drama by Ladj Ly, 1h42
Stéphane has just joined the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) of Montfermeil, in Seine-Saint-Denis. As an arrest carried out with his teammates degenerates, a drone films the scene. This burr becomes a pinned pomegranate. Cops or thugs, Les Misérables sinks into the spiral of violence. Inexorably. There are neither good nor bad people - only individuals who do what they can in circumstances beyond their control. With his light camera, Ladj Ly follows his protagonists. The director, winner of the Jury Prize at the last Cannes Festival, invented nothing, he lived everything. And it is undoubtedly the force of this film which keeps an open end as if to say that hope, in the suburbs, is not dead. Or at least, not yet.
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Last Christmas , a romantic comedy by Paul Feig, 1h43
George Michael's discography punctuates this idyll, imagined by Emma Thompson, in the middle of Brexit. The film responds to the somewhat bleak codes of the genre but nevertheless manages to surprise us. The energy of Emilia Clarke, ex-mother of dragons in Game of Thrones , is contagious.
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Sweet song , a drama by Lucie Borleton, 1h40
Peter Pan collar and pearl necklace, Louise, the nanny chosen by Paul and Myriam to babysit their two children, 5 years and 11 months old, looks like Madame Doubtfire . Parents do not know that she has the twisted mind of the Snow White witch. Lucie Borleteau adapts Leila Slimani's Goncourt with a velvet glove. Karin Viard excels in her psychopathic clothes.
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Le Mans 66 , a drama by James Mangold, 2h33
Red is put. Ferrari wins all the time. Ford, which is not in Olympic form, decides to launch a prototype capable of winning at Le Mans. She hired Carroll Shelby, an engineer who won the race behind the wheel of an Aston Martin in 1959. The challenge interested her. One condition: hire the fiery, unpredictable Ken Miles as a pilot. James Mangold likes westerns (he made a 3:10 remake for Yuma). The noise of the exhaust pipes replaces the shots. Le Mans 66 is not just for motor sport aficionados. It's a story of friendship. It mixes collective drama and private drama.
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Lola vers la mer , a drama by Laurent Micheli, 1h30
Pink hair and a skateboard in a backpack, Lola, an 18-year-old transgender, has just lost her mother. She has lived in a home since her father kicked her out. She is about to have an operation. Absent mother, toxic father. At Xavier Dolan, it's the opposite. Lola vers la mer recalls the Quebec director's first films. With less affeterie, less hysteria. We also think of Girl , by Lukas Dhont. Which is no small compliment.
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Les Éblouis , a drama by Sarah Suco, 1h39
Camille, 12, passionate about circus, is the oldest of a large family. One day, his parents decide to join a religious community. The girl revolts to assert her freedom and save her brothers and sisters from this sectarian organization. This first film strikes with its quiet strength and its lack of Manichaeism. Tenderness quarrels with returned anger. The director was inspired by her own story, without making it an act of revenge.
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And then we will dance, a romantic film by Levan Akin, 1h50
In today's Tbilisi, where their family does not make ends meet, Merab and his brother are dancers in the traditional dance troupe. Everyone plays the rooster with their dedicated partner. The ambition is to join the national troop, to finally have a decent salary. In the meantime, Merab is a waiter in a restaurant and his trafficker brother. A hearing is being prepared. Merab rehearsals with a new student. Irakli is a brilliant rival but also turns out to be a strange object of desire. Supreme transgression in this radically homophobic Georgia. Music and dance serve as safeguards. They border the story, haunt the film, hard, repetitive, with their imposed figures.
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Promare , an animated film by Hiroyuki Imaishi, 1h51
A huge fire storm devastated half of the world's cities, weakening humans and giving birth to fire-capable mutants, the Burnish. 30 years later, a group of terrorist mutants, called the Mad Burnish, threaten to destroy the Earth again. The only bulwark of humanity? The Burning Rescue, a new kind of firefighting team. Galo Thymos and his team will do everything to stop the Mad Burnish. Promare is an extraordinary visual and sound experience offered by Hiroyuki Imaishi, the director of the classics Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill . If the work is not the most successful of the filmmaker, it is nevertheless provided with beautiful staging ideas.
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