By Bicycle, Yokai, the Spirit World, Queer... Movies to Watch and Avoid This Week
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An intimate and fraternal epic between two friends, Catherine Deneuve haunts Japan, Daniel Craig in the shoes of a homosexual rebel... The Figaro cinema selection.
Drama comedy by Mathias Mlekuz - 1 h 29
They have good cyclist faces, these two! One is rather plump, the other has all the makings of a skinny guy. And so this pair of friends sets themselves a crazy and very touching challenge: to retrace the journey by bicycle, from La Rochelle to Istanbul, in the footsteps of a son, a clown by trade, who committed suicide at the age of 28 four years earlier. At each new location, they collect precious memories of the young man. They go at their own pace, revisiting the places where the young clown passed. The father's gaze overlaps that of his son. Our two heroes sometimes quarrel, but reconcile immediately afterwards.
A moving two-wheeled road movie, À bicyclette! tells in an authentic and sincere way the intimate and fraternal epic of two friends on the paths of mourning and resilience. A big hat tip to the editing which knew how to subtly order the more than 180 hours of rushes gleaned during the filming. OD
Figaro rating: 3/4
Documentary by Stéphane Sorlat - 1h30
This documentary dedicated to the man nicknamed in Spain as elsewhere "the Painter of painters" closes a trilogy. The one on painting started with The Mystery of Hieronymus Bosch (2016) and The Shadow of Goya (2022). Why did this painting touch the greatest? Why are these canvases still loved today? If the author of The Surrender of Breda remains seated on such a throne in the pantheon of ancient and modern painters, it is not only because he surpassed Rubens when, unlike his elder, he had the honor of holding a sovereign pontiff in front of his easel. Because it is indeed he, Velazquez, the main character of this abysmal capriccio , of this dizzying mise en abyme that is Las Meninas .
It is no longer just a question, as in the compositions of the young Velazquez, of capturing reality precisely from a moral perspective. It is a question of telling life, everything that is and only that. É. B.-R.
Figaro rating: 3/4
Also read Our review of The Velazquez Enigma: a camera to illuminate the “painter of painters”
Also read Our review of The Velazquez Enigma: a camera to illuminate the “painter of painters”
Comedy drama by Eric Khoo - 1 h 34
Catherine Deneuve plays a very popular singer in Japan since the 1960s, Claire Emery, who undertakes a final farewell tour in Tokyo. At the same time, we follow her oldest and greatest admirer, Yuzo. Suddenly dead, the old man turns into a yokai, a sort of ghostly creature from Japanese folklore who wanders in limbo, feeling that his time on earth is not over. After her melancholic performance in Tokyo, Claire Emery escapes and goes to get drunk on sake in a small, seedy bar. It is there that she collapses on the counter... only to reappear as a ghost. The two wandering spirits then meet again for a final mission consisting of preventing Yuzo's son from falling into the depths of depression after losing a woman he was madly in love with.
Yokai, the Spirit World is almost like a documentary road movie about Catherine Deneuve. Death serves as the main theme of the film, but it only touches on its surface. For die-hard fans of the actress only. OD
Figaro rating: 2/4
Also read Our review of Yokai, the Spirit World: Haunted Japan by Catherine Deneuve
Also read Our review of Yokai, the Spirit World: Haunted Japan by Catherine Deneuve
Comedy drama by Jesse Eisenberg - 1 h 29
Late again. It’s not the day. They take a plane to Poland. The trip starts well. The Jewish cousins from New York have signed up for an organized tour of the Holocaust . This will allow them to pay their respects in front of the house where their recently deceased grandmother had lived before escaping the worst. David, with his baseball cap, is the more mature of the two. He is married, has a son, and works in digital advertising. Benji, with a backpack, doesn’t care about all this. He is unemployed, lives with his mother. On site, their group includes a recently divorced woman, a middle-class couple, a Rwandan convert to Judaism, plus the English guide who almost apologizes for being fascinated by these tragic stories.
For his second film, Jesse Eisenberg achieves the miracle of uniting comedy and seriousness. He finds exactly the right tone. Not a single moment of weakness. We can see that this little film has everything of a great one. É. N.
Figaro rating: 2/4
Also read Our review of A Real Pain: Poland through the prism of New York Jewish humor
Horror-horror by Guillermo del Toro - 1 h 33
Jesus Gris is first an ordinary man, an old antique dealer without a story and the protective grandfather of a little orphan girl. His discovery of a box hidden in a statue turns his life upside down. The object, both mechanical and organic, comes to life and injects him with a fluid that makes him younger. A curse. Jesus becomes a kind of bloodthirsty vampire, fleeing the light, pursued by a sick businessman and his low-brow nephew.
Cronos remains to this day the only work of del Toro shot in Mexico. Without crying out to the unknown masterpiece, this film is a curiosity, worthy of interest for anyone interested in the influences of del Toro. É. S.
Figaro rating: 2/4
Also read: Our review of “Cronos”: Guillermo del Toro in search of the lost film
Drama by Luca Guadagnino - 2h16
An American drags his boredom through desolate suburbs. The days consist of getting drunk on tequila, taking drugs and luring strangers into his bed for a few pesos. A typewriter sits in the room of Lee, the hero. The ashtrays are full. He also has a revolver. The rebel's panoply is complete. This routine is disrupted by the arrival of Eugene, a young expatriate with the allure of a model. Will the boy give in to the advances of his elder? A whim seizes this sacred Lee: to go to the jungle of Ecuador to taste a hallucinogen supposed to have telepathic powers. That way, he will know "Gene's" true feelings for him.
Built in three chapters, the film gets lost in superimpositions, in slow motion, multiplies underwater images filled with oxygen bubbles, nightmare scenes with deportee outfits. The overestimated Guadagnino no longer has any personality. É. N.
Figaro rating : 1/4
Also read Our review of Queer: Daniel Craig, triple zero in Mexico
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