SCIENCE-FICTION.
Aliens have a message
At 9.15 p.m. on C8.
Suddenly they are there.
One fine morning, twelve extraterrestrial vessels appear, in a stationary position a few meters above the earth on several points of the globe, from the United States to Japan via Greenland, the United Kingdom or Australia.
Their gigantism, their oblong and very smooth shape, their black color add to the mystery: what do they want?
In the United States, the army recruits Louise Banks, expert in linguistics and in translation, to penetrate inside the vessel which is stationed in Montana so that it interprets the intentions of the "visitors".
She will find herself facing them, a sort of dark octopus who communicate by expelling ink drawing shapes.
But between experts around the world who, like her, are trying to translate these messages, differences emerge: most of them believe that aliens want to provide weapons to humans, while Louise thinks they are talking about " tools ”.
A closer contact with the creatures will bring Louise to have visions, on the future of the planet and on herself ...
The first big-budget Hollywood film by Canadian Denis Villeneuve, “Premier Contact” is astonishing at first sight with its technical mastery, both in directing and special effects.
But the more the film advances, the more interest is focused on the way in which the filmmaker refocuses the story on his heroine through his personal story and his psychological flaws, reinventing the concept of “intimate science fiction”.
It is remarkably served by Amy Adams, formidable of accuracy and sobriety in the role of Louise ...
EDITOR'S RATING: 4/5
“First Contact”
, American science fiction film by Denis Villeneuve (2016), with Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker… (1h56)
DOCUMENTARY.
A life in black and white
Johnny Clegg, "the White Zulu" was the author and performer of the planetary hit "Asimbonanga" ./ Screenshot Productions / DR
At 10:40 p.m., in Arte.
Johnny Clegg died of cancer in 2019, aged 66.
And the fans mourned the author and performer of the planetary hit "Asimbonanga" by the South African group Savuka, dedicated to the future president, Nelson Mandela, then a political prisoner for more than 27 years, until 1990. It is thanks to this disc, sold in 1987 to more than 2 million copies, that the whole world discovered the immense talent of the artist and his commitment of a whole life, him “who danced, played and sang like the blacks”.
Throughout this nearly hour-long documentary, the singer and his black and white traveling companions tell each other, and reveal how Clegg, from the 1970s, was able to invent and impose his unique style, mixing rock and African rhythms, English words and expressions in Zulu.
Few know the details of his relentless struggle.
The film is also a salutary reminder of the dark history of South Africa plagued for decades by its segregationist policies.
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EDITOR'S RATING: 4.5 / 5
"Johnny Clegg, the White Zulu"
, French documentary (2019) by Amine Mestari.
(53 minutes)
ANIMATION.
Friends like the elephant and the cat
At 9:05 pm, on France 4.
In a quiet town, the inhabitants adore their mayor who does everything to make their life easy.
But one day he disappears, and his assistant, a terrible man who wants to build a tower obscuring the sun, succeeds him.
When the elephant Sebastian and the kitten Mika discover a message from the city councilor in a bottle thrown back by the sea, the two friends decide to investigate to find him and venture out on the ocean aboard a pear giant ...
“Mika and Sebastian” is a very good animated film.
A little green and quirky, very cute thanks to its colorful graphics and its scenario full of twists and turns.
EDITOR'S RATING: 4/5
“Mika and Sebastian: The Adventure of the Giant Pear”
, Danish animated film (2017) by Jorgen Lerdam and Philip Einstein Lipski.
From 4 years old.
(1h20)
COMEDY.
Kad Merad makes his ranges
“Monsieur Papa”, Kad Merad's first production leads to a nice comedy. / PATHÉ FILMS / Arcadia / Eskwad / M 6 Films
At 9:05 pm, on Chérie 25.
Marius, 12, does not have a dad.
His mother (Michèle Laroque) invented a great one for him, an explorer evaporated in nature, but this ideal figure has turned into an obsession.
Determined to kill the imaginary father, Marie, an entrepreneur addicted to control, hires an unemployed person to embody the genitor and disappoint Marius.
The wall pass is called Robert Pique, he holds a sort of black laundry in his small apartment in the 13th arrondissement, and it is also one of the highlights of the film, this tower in Chinatown, an urban landscape that comes out off the beaten track.
The whimsical man will have to forge links with Marius and his mother ...
This nice scenario turns out to be a little stingy with surprises and strong emotions, with good feelings calibrated for the general public.
But, finally, this first realization of Kad Merad leads to a nice comedy, sufficiently entertaining for a winter evening ...
EDITOR'S RATING: 3/5
“Monsieur Papa”
by and with Kad Merad, (2011), with Michèle Laroque, Gaspard Meier-Chaurand, Vincent Perez, Myriam Boyer… (1h30)
COMEDY.
Dubosc takes it for his rank
At 9 p.m., on Canal +.
It almost starts off as a commedia dell'arte.
Everyone has their own mask and costume.
Antoine (Franck Dubosc), director of human resources for a large DIY store, is self-focused on his navel and the prospect of rising in rank.
His wife Isabelle (Aure Atika) remained frozen on an all-terrain smile suited to her condition as a stay-at-home mother.
As for the children, everything is owed to them, and Mom is there to solve the problems.
Until the day when Isabelle's smile tightens.
When her sister offered to accompany her for ten days in Greece, she packed her bags.
For Antoine, threatened by a new arrival (Alexis Michalik, excellent), things are bad.
Disasters lurk ...
Remake of an Argentinian film ("Mum is gone on a trip", by Ariel Winograd), this squeaky comedy is one that dots the i's.
She is softened by the character of Alice David, a nanny victim of the system.
This oil is welcome in a mechanism that might otherwise have suffered from being a little too Manichean.
EDITOR'S RATING: 3/5
“10 Days Without Mum”
French film by Ludovic Bernard (2,020) with Franck Dubosc, Aure Atika, Alice David, Alexis Michalik… (1h40).
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