To have
Dune
, a science fiction film by Denis Villeneuve 2h36
How to succeed where others have failed?
How can we once again tell the odyssey of Paul Atreides on the desert planet Arrakis, otherwise called Dune, as if it were a Homeric story?
By adopting counter-intuitive strategies.
By preparing your shot well in advance.
Read also
CRITICAL -
Dune
by Denis Villeneuve: a fair return to the origins
Fascinated since adolescence by the saga of messianic anticipation imagined in 1965 by Frank Herbert, Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve seems to have patiently bided his time. He closely studied the various attempts to adapt this monument of science fiction. He knows that in the 1960s,
Planet of the Apes
producer
Arthur P. Jacobs became interested in the project, considering David Lean
(Lawrence of Arabia)
to direct it. He followed the fascinating failure of the stillborn version imagined in 1975 by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. No doubt he will have watched the fascinating documentary that revived this incredible adventure,
Jodorowsky's Dune
(2013)
.
Villeneuve also drew the consequences of the commercial and critical semi-failure
of David Lynch's
Dune
.
Released in 1984, this
“big sick film”
as Truffaut would say, produced despite common sense by Dino De Laurentiis and his daughter Raffaella, has become cult for a generation of moviegoers.
Read alsoThe meteoric rise of Timothée Chalamet, icon of millennials
When, after the critical success of
Blade Runner 2049
, he accepts the challenge of a new adaptation of this deemed unsuitable novel-universe, he knows he is playing big.
When you leave the room, you can better understand why the
Dune
de Villeneuve is such a great success.
It is a judicious palimpsest which synthesizes with finesse the previous cinematographic versions.
OD
Read also Rebecca Ferguson, the distinguished warrior
Les Amours d'Anaïs
, a romantic comedy by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet 1h38
What a whirlwind! She is trotting. She runs. It has a flow like Catherine Deneuve in the first films of Rappeneau, a physical energy very Jean-Pierre Cassel in Philippe de Broca. Anaïs doesn't give a damn about everything, like Anouk Aimée in
Lola
. This PhD student at the Sorbonne talks all the time and doesn't listen to anything. She could come out of a short story by Paul Morand or be a heroine of Valery Larbaud who would have grown up. Her boyfriend ditched her, unless it's the other way around, we don't know. On this, his explanations are a bit vague. She's two months behind in rent and a caring landlord. To get by, she sublets to Koreans and moves in with her brother who keeps his girlfriend's lemur to which he makes the mistake of giving a Xanax.
IN.
Read also
CRITICAL -
In the whirlwind of
Amours d'Anaïs
by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
The Collective Affair
, a documentary by Alexander Nanau, 1 h 49
On October 30, 2015, a fire in a Bucharest nightclub left 27 dead and 150 injured.
Many survivors die in hospital in the following months for lack of appropriate care or victims of nosocomial illnesses.
Journalists reveal a health system plagued by corruption.
Director Alexander Nanau follows their investigations before taking an interest in Vlad Voiculescu, the new Minister of Health appointed to manage the crisis.
The edifying tale of a health scandal and national trauma.
S.S.
You can see
Blue Bayou
, a drama by Justin Chon, 1h58
Presented in the official selection at the Directors' Fortnight at the last Cannes Film Festival, present in competition at Deauville,
Blue Bayou
is one of those shocking films that take by the throat.
Directed by actor-director Justin Chon
(Ms. Purple)
, this drastic drama denounces with force and emotion an unrecognized absurdity in the American adoption system, which can even lead to the expulsion from the territory of adopted children who have become adults. This creeping legal vacuum is as devious as ordinary racism. It all starts with an informal exchange between a garage owner and the hero who has come to look for work with his 10-year-old daughter. As he is about to become a dad, Antonio LeBlanc (Justin Chon himself), a freelance tattoo artist, is looking to change jobs. We will never see the face of the mechanic who asks him
"where he got such a name"
and
"where he was really born"
.
The scene involves a series of micro-aggressions unfortunately typical of an underlying racism among Americans in southern Louisiana.
Justin Chon does not flinch, fearless and fatalistic.
Under the curious and innocent gaze of his companion Kathy's daughter (Alicia Vikander, formidable in accuracy and empathy), the man responds simply, with honesty.
And we understand that these prejudices have been his daily life for thirty years.
OD
Read also
CRITICAL -
Blue Bayou
, stifled drama
To avoid
The State of Texas vs. Melissa
, a documentary by Sabrina Van Tassel, 1:38
Detained on death row for thirteen years, Melissa Lucio is accused of beating her two-year-old child to death.
Denouncing the racist biases of the American justice and penitentiary system, the Franco-American director paints a striking portrait of the ravages of poverty, addiction and violence.
But its “old school” presentation is too late.
CJ
The Prey of a Shadow
, a thriller by David Bruckner, 1 h 48
Poor Rebecca Hall.
We do not know whether to pity her because her husband shot himself in the head or because she finds himself in the bill of this chick.
In her house by the lake, the widow hears strange noises, sees strange shapes.
For sure, the place is haunted.
It is not a good idea to go through the missing person's belongings.
All the clichés of the genre are gathered.
Another film that takes place in the heroine's deranged brain.
Not even afraid.
É.
NOT.
The Origin of the World
, a comedy by Laurent Lafitte, 1h38
From beating his heart stopped. To paraphrase Jacques Audiard, the first film directed by Laurent Lafitte,
L'Origine du monde,
begins when his character no longer feels his pulse. Is he still alive? His veterinarian friend (Vincent Macaigne) is categorical: Jean-Louis is dead. His wife (Karin Viard) does not understand anything, but brings him into the office of Nicole Garcia, holistic coach half-witch, half-new age guru. Taken from a 2013 play, the presupposition initially seems comical, even poetic. It recalls the beautiful surrealist hours of
Passe-muraille
by Marcel Aymé. Is a man without a heart still a man? Sébastien Thiéry's short play goes further: the main character, a Parisian forty-something, well-established bourgeois, consults an African marabout. The latter asks him to come back with a photograph of his mother's penis to heal him. This is “the origin of the world”, not Courbet's canvas but this primal place from which human beings emerge ... In the theater, evolving in balance on a crest line between vulgarity, transgressive and squealing laughter, at the limit of wild psychoanalysis, comedy had succeeded in its bet. Alas, its transposition to cinema is a disaster. The nerve of the subject is sadly drowned in a crude humor, never funny. From the outset, it is uneasy.
OD
Ahed's knee
, a drama by Nadav Lapid, 1 h 49
Don't trust the Rohmer title.
Here is one of the most unpleasant things.
Invited to present his latest masterpiece in a small desert town, an Israeli filmmaker speaks out against his government.
This narcissistic logorrhea tires you out.
The actor is baffled.
The gogos find it rough, abrasive, confusing film and pumice stone.
To flee.
IN.
