Universal Theory
– To see
Drama by Timm Kröger, 1H58
In this surprising black and white work, which is as much a Hollywood melodrama as a film noir, a metaphysical thriller as a homage to the seventh art as the references are numerous, from Alfred Hitchcock to Fritz Lang, Timm Kröger immerses us in a disturbing love story haunted by the mysteries of quantum physics.
" In what world are we living ?
»
This is the whole question in the preamble to this film, the one that has obsessed Johannes Leinert for years, the main character, an author mocked on TV sets for his theory on multi-worlds.
Back twelve years earlier, in 1962, where it all began.
Leinert, then a young student passionate about the multiverse, accompanies his austere thesis director to a conference of scientists in a hotel perched at the top of the Swiss Alps.
In this very serious assembly of gentlemen in black headgear and overcoats gathered in the middle of the Cold War, like a nest of spies, the threat rings out.
Johannes falls under the spell of Karin (magnificent Olivia Ross), the hotel pianist, who seems to know everything about him but constantly escapes from him, in the middle of the night in a deserted chapel or at the edge of a ski slope, mysteriously accompanied by men observing the clouds with binoculars.
A researcher is killed but reappears elsewhere, other disappearances take place, the lights of the lamps flicker constantly, reality seems more and more fluctuating... We very willingly allow ourselves to be taken in, even hypnotized, by this dark story of machination and of mysterious plots, bordering on the fantastic.
V.B.
Also readOur review of Universal Theory: welcome to the ghost ball
The General's Pawn -
We can see
Drama by Makbul Mubarak, 1h55
The horns ring out in the courtyard.
The driver is not patient, used as he is to all doors opening immediately.
Young Kib hurries to welcome General Purna, back in his provincial home to run for a local election.
The handyman becomes the silent companion of this ex-soldier.
He sees everything: the servility of the locals who fear his boss, the weight of the social hierarchy, the duplicity of the impassive general.
The discovery of a campaign poster damaged by vandals then accelerates this tight plot, probably a little too much in fact, about the taciturn face-to-face between master and slave.
X-ray of a rural Indonesian society still marked by military power (a former officer has just been elected president), this first cautious but beautifully crafted film illustrates with the help of significant long shots the influence of authority .
At the end, gunshots will ring out in the forest.
But pulled by who?
BP
A life
- We can see
James Hawes biopic, 1h49
We don't know what Nicholas Winton thought that day in 1938, but he acted.
It didn't take long: this London broker left for Prague with the aim of saving as many Jewish children as possible before the catastrophe.
In total, 669 will owe their lives to him.
The man blames himself.
Why not more?
He did what he could, without realizing that his work was already enormous.
This authentic story is told with seriousness by a solid craftsman from television, James Hawes.
A life
is split into two parts.
One shows us the hero in the 1980s being bullied by his wife who can no longer stand his disorder.
In his office, there are boxes everywhere.
In a drawer, the retiree comes across a worn leather briefcase.
It contains a yellowed album in which the entire episode in question is summarized.
List of names, photos, official documents.
The past jumps at his throat.
What happened to them all?
The English Schindler speaks in vain to the local press.
It will take the intervention of Elisabeth Maxwell, the wife of the Czech-born magnate (Marthe Keller, rigid as a chatelaine dressed in Chanel) for him to be invited to a famous television show where the audience is made up of survivors.
The footage went viral on the internet.
The staging, unfortunately, misses it a little, which is a shame, but gives an idea of the emotion that must have overwhelmed this Juste en direct.
The other section focuses on the tragic events of the pre-war period, with its procession of screaming sirens and swastikas.
Bureaucracy does not make the task of this idealistic banker any easier.
Borders risk closing.
It's about obtaining donations, finding host families in Great Britain, chartering trains, thwarting Nazi controls.
Of the nine convoys, only one will remain at the dock.
Hence the remorse.
The film, unsurprisingly, will not revolutionize the seventh art: its quality is to shine the spotlight on an extraordinary event.
It's not so bad.
E.
NOT.
Also read: Our review of Une vie: Jewish children after him
The Empire
- We can see
Comedy by Bruno Dumont, 1h50
The Empire
is neither a parody nor a pastiche.
Dumont is not Hazanavicius.
It transposes an intergalactic war into a village in the north of France.
It mixes professional and amateur actors, Knights of Margat and fishermen, residential areas and spaceships, beheading with a lightsaber and national gendarmerie.
Dumont likes metaphysics and capital letters.
Good, Evil, the Apocalypse… In the mouths of his characters, anchored in ordinary landscapes, the shift produces an unstoppable comic effect.
Jane (Anamaria Vartolomei), Princess in a swimsuit, trains Rudy in the use of a lightsaber in the garden of her pavilion.
Fabrice Luchini plays a tourist guide who is an expert in shellfish.
Beelzebub, who looks like nothing, or rather like a levitating black and viscous ball, vampirizes the body of this miserable human to visit the Prince on Earth.
The Queen chooses Camille Cottin to take on the appearance of the village mayor.
It's market day.
Its citizens have grievances closer to the end of the month than to the end of the world.
“Humans are endearing and so funny,” she says, touched.
We will invade Earth to exterminate the Evil in each of them.
» But humans know the pleasures of the flesh.
The Princess, a sensual complexion, does not hesitate to taste it with the enemy in the person of Joni.
Dumont adds Love to his panoply of concepts.
The shortest jokes are the least long.
Bruno Dumont was unable to make it shorter than one hundred and ten minutes, an unjustified length which ends up diminishing the vital forces of this mutant film.
E.
S.
Also read: Our review of The Empire: Bruno Dumont strikes back
Sleep
- We can see
Thriller by Jason Yu, 1h35
Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jeong Yu-mi) are a united and happy couple.
They are expecting their first child.
He is an actor in TV series but doesn't do much of his day.
He is most active at night, when he begins to get up during sleepwalking attacks.
He scratches his cheek until it bleeds or eats raw meat.
The doctor diagnoses a stress-related sleep disorder.
He recommends not drinking alcohol, going to bed early.
Hyun-su sleeps in a sarcophagus duvet, a barrier that is not enough to allay his wife's fears.
Soo-jin is even more worried when their baby is born.
Her nights also become restless.
She starts having nightmares.
The vision of her baby plunged into a pot of boiling water wakes her up with a start.
She gradually descends into madness.
Sleep
cleverly brings paranoia into a couple's bed.
Jason Yu depicts the end of romantic passion and the beginning of parenthood with a mixture of dark humor and anguish.
But
Sleep
leans more towards
Rosemary's Baby
than
Anatomy of a Fall
.
Yu orchestrates an effective crescendo.
Before concluding with a disappointing final act, where it is a question of possession and exorcism.
E.S.
Also read: Our review of Sleep: a nightmare to sleep on your feet
The Successor
– To avoid
Drama by Xavier Legrand, 1h52
As there are few revelations in French cinema, after Up to the Guard, we watched Xavier Legrand like milk on the fire.
Alas, the pot boils over with The Successor.
However, it starts with a bang, with a fashion show where the models follow a spiral path filmed from the ceiling.
The music is modern, the journalists applaud.
The stylist greets his admirers while running.
All in black, shaved head, three-day beard, rings in his ears, Ellias (Marc-André Grondin) has the full range.
He has taken over the reins of a prestigious house.
He is gifted and capricious.
So he is an artist.
The proof: he is entitled to the cover of a specialized magazine.
The little genius does not respect the rules of marketing since he dismisses the brand's muse.
What a temperament!
Big worries must be weighing him down, because he has a heart attack.
It is unknown whether the two events are linked.
The death of his father - a heart attack, obviously, which worries the son - is not likely to help things.
They haven't seen each other for twenty years.
The only son leaves for Quebec.
Another legacy awaits him there.
This isn't the one he was thinking of.
As soon as we arrive in North America, the film shifts, as if the director had been quietly replaced by a worker fed up with bad B series, generally broadcast in the middle of the night on cable channels.
E.
NOT.
Read alsoOur review of the film The Successor: enough to tailor a suit for Xavier Legrand