After Review Paris, November and You will not have my hatred, a new film on the attacks of 2015 arrives at the cinema this Wednesday. One Year, One Night focuses on a couple having to rebuild themselves, played by Noémie Merlant and Nahuel Perez Biscayart.
What is it about ?
On the evening of November 13, 2015, Ramón and Céline, a young couple, attend the Bataclan concert. They survive the terrorist attack, but fail to return to normal life.
While Céline desperately seeks to forget this nightmarish night, Ramón tirelessly replays the events in his head, as if to find meaning in the horror. However, they must now face the same question: how to overcome the ordeal and turn again, together, to life?
8 years after the attacks of November 13, 2015, the cinema continues its exploration of the subject, via the adaptation of a book: Peace, love and death metal by Spaniard Ramón González.
One Year, One Night is directed by Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta, with Noémie Merlant (The Innocent, Portrait of the Girl on Fire) and Nahuel Perez Biscayart (Goodbye Up There, 120 BPM) in the lead roles. .
This autobiographical account recounts the consequences of the attack on the life of a couple, who were present at the Bataclan on the evening of the tragedy. The heart of the book, and therefore of the film today, is to show the attempt of this couple to overcome what they have been through to find a normal life.
How to recover, when one has not been physically injured, but psychologically affected? How to rebuild? How to deal with the aftermath? The film also shows how such a drama can affect everyone differently, and have an impact on the couple.
An exploration of trauma, identity, love, bereavement
As the director explains in the press kit, the characters of Noémie Merlant and Nahuel Perez Biscayart “evolve in two distinct but concurrent space-times“.
“After surviving the attacks, the couple must face a new enemy: their traumatic past.“. And to sum up: it is “an exploration of trauma, identity, love, bereavement“.
The film therefore adopts the point of view of a couple, and takes care to avoid any “voyeuristic reconstruction of the attack“.”Everything we see is literally observed through the eyes of our protagonists“, explains producer Ramon Campos.”We do not show the point of view of the terrorists“, and we do not see “almost no injuries“.
Like the book from which the film is adapted, the idea is to tell “an ode to life, a cry to terrorists to tell them “Your violence will not reach us”.
Special mention to the two main actors of the film, Noémie Merlant and Nahuel Perez Biscayart. The latter will soon be starring in a film selected for the closing of Cannes Critics’ Week, Her Father’s Daughter, Erwan Le Duc.
Noémie Merlant was recently on the bill for Tar by Todd Field, and Souls Sisters by André Téchiné. She also confided in the microphone of our podcast, to listen to above, on her busy year, marked by her first César, for her role in The Innocent.
Find all the cinema releases of the week
One Year, One Night, directed by Isaki Lacuesta, co-written by Fran Araújo, Isa Campo and Isaki Lacuesta, based on the book Peace, love and death metal by Ramón González, is in theaters this Wednesday, May 3, 2023.