THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – MUST SEE
The couple, the family, the mechanisms and the perversions that act within them constitute the most inspiring material in Joachim Lafosse’s cinema. The director has been making his way there since his first feature film, Private madness (released in 2004), story of a father who, despite the separation, refuses to leave the house and leave custody of his son to the mother. And in the following ones: Naked property (2006), suffocating camera between a mother and her two tyrannical sons, To lose reason (2012) on the explosion of a family grappling with an evil “benefactor”, and The couple’s economy (2016) in which money corrupts the end of love.
The Unquiet, presented this year in competition at Cannes, is part of the lineage. This time, he stages a family confronted with the bipolarity of the father, alternately hyperactive, charming, downhearted, who refuses to take his treatment and imposes on those around him his changes of mood, his excitement, his outbursts. Relying on a duo of actors at the top of their art (Damien Bonnard and Leïla Bekhti, physically transformed for the needs of the film), the filmmaker abandons himself to a close observation of his characters.
A boxing match
The beginning, however, shows the converse of uneasiness. Holiday decor and summer light. Stretched out on the sand of a beach, Leïla’s body fell asleep while off, that of Damien floats on the surface of the water. He is with his son Amine (Gabriel Merz Chammah), he suddenly decides to swim to the shore, and entrusts the kid of barely 10 years old with the responsibility of bringing the boat back. The initiative may be reckless, but little attention is paid to it. It is nevertheless the first warning sign of the imminent disruption. Back at the villa, Damien gets on his bike, goes shopping, cooks, does not keep still, no longer sleeps. Leïla tries to slow him down. In vain.
As the beautiful season passed, life resumed its course. Damien, who is a painter, spends most of his time in his studio. Leïla, furniture restorer, works and takes care of everything else, the house, the son, the household accounts. Anything but herself – she gained fifteen pounds in a year, dark circles under her eyes. She watches day and night, like a wolf, attentive to the slightest gesture of her husband. She knows he can tip over at any moment, get out of hand. It will not prevent the inevitable, but it will delay it.
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