These films prove: how good it is to have French cinema

No fewer than three French films were released in Israel last weekend. "Another World" will make you want to change the world, "Delicious" will send you making potatoes with truffles and "Loyalty"? It is not clear what he is doing here

Avner Shavit

08/14/2022

Sunday, August 14, 2022, 00:43 Updated: 07:29

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"Another World" movie trailer (United King)

No less than three French films were released in our country last weekend - "Another World", "Delicious" and "Loyalty".

It is not clear what the commercial logic is in this simultaneous distribution, since in the best case there will be enough audience for only one of them, but as loyal Francophiles we will review all three.

Unsurprisingly, relative to the place where they were produced, three of them have political undertones, and they express values ​​that are identified with the left, even the radical left.

This is especially true of "Another World", the new film by Stéphane Breeze, perhaps the most politically committed director currently working in French cinema.

The film completes a trilogy that began with "Adam's Value", which was distributed in Israel, and continued with "War", which was limited to cinematic screenings.

What the three films have in common: they all expose the injustices of the corporate world, and they all attack pig capitalism.

All of them star Vincent Landon, and all of them had their world premiere on a prestigious stage.

"Adam's Value" participated in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival, and even won Landon the lead actor award.

"War" was presented in the same setting, but came out empty-handed, and "Another World" premiered the previous summer at the Venice Film Festival.

The French double of Ehud Olmert.

Vincent Landon in "Another World" (Photo: Michel Croteau)

The difference is that in the first two films, the star played a hero of the working class - in "The Value of a Man" he played a newly unemployed man who cannot find a job that suits his skills, and starts working as a security guard at a supermarket;

And in "War" a simple worker who fights against the closing of his factory.

In "Another World", on the other hand, the character he plays is not one of the fired, but one of the fired.

The French star here plays a manager of a French factory belonging to a huge American corporation, who has already demanded that he send dismissal letters to many of his employees, and now demands that he get rid of dozens more employees, even though he needs them and they need him.

Similar to the two previous films in the trilogy, "Another World" also describes how the hero tries to maintain a human image in the contemporary economic jungle.

In "The Value of a Man", the security guard at the supermarket discovered that his managers expected him to mercilessly pursue poor colleagues and customers, who sometimes steal an olive or a coupon because they don't finish the month, and he was faced with a choice - to follow the instructions or return to the unemployment market.

In this movie, the dilemma is similar - the manager knows that if he doesn't blow off the heads of those under him, he himself will lose his job.

"Another world" also describes the personal background of the hero, which sharpens his conflict.

He is going through a complex divorce process - his partner is played by Sandrine Kiberlan, who happens to be separated from Landon in reality, and has already collaborated with him in previous films.

The two have a daughter who swims in Nicher and a son who is suffering from a mental breakdown and needs their support.

In short, the manager really can't afford to lose his lucrative job, since he has a lot of bills to pay, but he also can't afford to keep it at the cost of betraying all the values ​​he believed in and the people who worked with him for years.

"Another World" does not hide its intentions for a moment.

He wants to show us what kind of world we live in - a world where a CEO sitting in America can, in the middle of a Zoom call, order the manager of a factory in France to send dozens of people home and reduce the workforce in such a way that those who remain will collapse from the workload, and all this despite the fact that the company is profitable and only to increase the handsome profits even so of the handful of shareholders.

He wants to stir us up against this world, he wants us to burn with rage - and he is achieving his goal.

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Vincent Landon and Sandrine Kiberlan in "Another World" (Photo: Michel Croteau)

This drama is made up of long scenes and long dialogues, but is never boring for a moment.

Going down to the details allows a fascinating glimpse into the layoff mechanism of the international corporations.

The dialogues help to capture the unique and loopy language that these companies have developed to hide their actions.

The performance is also excellent: Breeze's direction is immersive, and he benefits the cast and works with his actors.

Landon, whom we also recently saw in the Palme d'Or winner "Titan", is one of the best European actors of his generation, and it was not for nothing that he was appointed last spring to serve as chairman of the jury in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival. Here, too, his performance is electrifying, as are the crew members. The others, some of them are not professional actors: Mary Drucker, who plays one of the most senior managers, cold and opportunistic in the corporation, is actually a veteran journalist.By the way, like Landon, she is also a member of a privileged Jewish family.

Will "another world" succeed in changing the world?

Of course not, but you shouldn't underestimate him either.

It points to an existing problem and expresses an existing sentiment.

It was not for nothing that the candidates of the radical anti-capitalist left received a quarter of the votes in the first round of the French presidential elections last spring.

Social democracy is not dead in Israel either, as evidenced by the election results of the labor primaries.

Amnon Abramovich, with his characteristic smug opacity, belittled these results last Friday.

I wish he would watch "Another World" and understand why people vote for Naama Lezimi and not for Nachman Shai.

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When the big drama is related to potatoes and truffles

Unlike "Another World", Delicious is a period film that takes place at the end of the 18th century, and describes the story of the establishment of the first restaurant in the world.

There was a cook named Mansron, who cooked loyally for the duke of Shampur, until one day he made the mistake of his life and dared to serve potatoes with truffles to the table, in the days when foods from the soil were considered inferior.

The aristocracy turned him into a hoka and italula, and banished him in disgrace to the province.

In those days, the aristocracy also assumed that only they knew how to appreciate the wonders of cooking, so there was no point in investing in kitchens outside of palaces.

The people, according to this concept, can make do with thin bread and pressurized water.

But the celebrated chef takes advantage of his exile in the province to cook for the vagabonds who come his way, and with the encouragement of his son and a mysterious woman who arrives on the scene, he becomes convinced that they deserve more, and slowly invests more and more in setting up the feasts and their plates, until he lays the foundations for the modern restaurant world.

The film of course dramatizes and romanticizes the events that really happened, and also plays a little with the schedule.

The establishment of the restaurant coincides with the decline of the aristocracy, and everything reaches its peak just before the French Revolution.

This is how it is possible for "Delicious" to become an allegory: the democratization of food is used here as a metaphor for the democratization of France as a whole, and perhaps even of the entire world.

The pictures are misleading: this film is not "food porn".

From "Delicious" (Photo: Cinema)

When you look at the "Delicious" poster, read its name and see pictures of smiling French chefs, you might suspect that it is a light comedy - but in fact it is a restrained drama, which takes place at a slow pace and has a subtext.

Some of the marketing materials I've come across in old languages ​​also promise that the film will "make viewers drool", but the truth is that there aren't too many tantalizing close-ups of food, and you can survive the viewing even without devouring Robuchon's croissants and mashed potatoes.

Food porn is too mild a stimulus for the director Eric Benard, who also wrote the script with Nicolas Boucrief.

They prefer to dig in deeper places, and bring out under their hands a dish that stimulates the mind more than the palate, and they do it with the help of a witty script, an impressive period reconstruction and excellent acting displays.

The chef is played by Gregory Gadbois and the woman who changes his life is played by Isabel Cara, but the show is stolen by a supporting actor: Benjamin LeWarne, one of the young actors rising in France, as the evil duke who humiliates the groundbreaking chef because of the subversive dish he cooked.

It's hard not to admire a movie where the generative event is the preparation of potatoes with truffles.

What is French cinema for if not for films like this?

What is French cinema for if not for films like this?

From "Delicious" (Photo: Cinema)

What is this movie doing here?

We will finish with a few words about "Loyalty", the minor of the three films.

He came out in France already two years ago and left no mark.

Its distribution in Israel seems random and even puzzling.

So many significant films don't make it to theaters here, and this particular film gets commercial distribution?

Weird and frustrating.

The film was written and directed by Leia Kristen, and here too it is a period drama.

In this case, the scene is Algeria during the struggle for independence in the 1950s.

The protagonist is a woman who fled from Poland to France and then moved to Algeria with her partner, a communist who joins the Algerian struggle and is sentenced to death for it.

As the name of the film implies, his partner remains loyal to him and fights for his release.

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Dare to talk about France's war crimes in Algeria.

From "Loyalty" (Photo: New Cinema)

Only two things in the film are worth noting.

The heroine is played by Vicky Krieps, who since her appearance in "Hidden Threads" has become one of the busiest actresses in Europe, and just recently we also saw her in "Bergman's Island", "Time", "Corsage" and many other films.

As usual with her, her appearance is mesmerizing.

The second thing: French cinema does not often confront the country's colonial past and the war crimes it committed in Algeria.

"Loyalty" dares to do this, and in an acute way.

In one of the scenes, for example, we are told about a French soldier who brutally murdered an Arab boy.

Unlike the two previous films, this film has no special artistic value, but it is also politically and historically interesting.

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Tags

• France

• Vincent Landon

• Cannes Film Festival

• Venice Festival