Cannes 2022: we saw Pierre Niney at Nicolas Bedos, the documentary on Diam’s and the last two films of the Competition

Masquerade by Nicolas Bedos (Out of competition)

It is no coincidence that Nicolas Bedos reveals Masquerade for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival. For his fourth film, he sets sail for the Côte-d’Azur and recounts the fate of many characters saved by their appearances, their large villas and their beautiful cars. Pierre Niney and Marine Vacth play two escorts who will fall in love with each other, before getting involved in a succession of scams. The consequences, inevitably, will be disastrous.

A choral, ambitious film, Masquerade leans more towards drama than comedy, even if the author allows himself some amusing sequences and a lot of irreverence. In front of this fresco, where each character has two faces – the best and the worst -, we think of many Hollywood films, like Sunset Boulevard. In particular on the side of Isabelle Adjani who embodies an actress recluse in her mansion.

The actress, who has never been afraid of putting herself in danger and risking madness in her previous roles, is irresistible. She plays with her image, has fun with it, makes fun of it and shows a face that she had never revealed before. The other surprise is undoubtedly Marine Vacth. Revealed in Young and Pretty by François Ozon, she plays a furious, criminal and sensitive character. Masquerade has all the criteria to be a great success.

Thomas Desroches

Salam by Mélanie Diam’s, Houda Benyamina and Anne Cissé (Special Screening)

Black Dynamite / Raw / M by M

Moving documentary written and directed by Diam’s, Houda Benyamina (Divines, The Eddy) and Anne Cisse (Vampire), Hello tells the quest for peace of Mélanie Georgiades alias Diam’s, more than 10 years after the end of her musical career. after 10 years of silence. The film draws its strength from Mélanie’s story, which looks back on painful moments in her life and uncompromisingly tackles intimate questions about her story. With modesty but great sincerity, the one who represented the cry of youth in the 2000s confides in her moments of glory, her moments of doubt, her failures, psychiatry, the search for a meaning to give to life. and his conversion to Islam. She tackles tough topics, talks about depression, suicidal thoughts and media pressure. The documentary is punctuated by a neat soundtrack and a slam by Diam’s, whose real name is Mélanie Georgiades, and is also worthy of the beauty of its images, even if very (too?) clipesque. Salam is also punctuated by testimonies from people close to Diam’s, such as his mother, his former manager, his former producer and his dearest friends, who comment on and explain the Stations of the Cross and Diam’s new life. Do not expect to go back in depth on the musical career of Diam’s or to review excerpts or to hear his old sounds, the one who now lives a life far from glitter and showbiz has definitely turned the page. Although she retains tenderness and love for her fans, she has now found the inner peace and happiness she has been looking for since childhood. Megane Choquet

A Little Brother (Official Competition)

Blue Monday Productions – France 3 Cinema

Five years after winning the Camera d’Or at Cannes for Young Woman, selected for Un Certain Regard, the French Leonor Seraille competes with A little brother, the story of a woman who arrived from Africa and settled in the Parisian suburbs with her two sons. A little brother somehow takes the form of a romantic fresco, a form of sentimental education and story of emancipation, on the loves and life of an ordinary mother and her two sons. An ample film with Annabelle Lengronne who impresses in this role which takes place over 30 years. Ahmed Sylla, in his very first dramatic role, also impresses in this register. His character gives the title to the film, adopting his point of view. Release: soon.

Brigitte Baronet

Showing Up (Official Competition)

Allyson Riggs/A24

Member of the jury in 2019, the American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt arrives for the first time in competition with his eighth feature film, Showing-up. And this only a few months after the release in France of First Cow (with great critical and public success).

Kelly Reichardt finds her favorite actress, Michelle Williams, whom she had directed in Wendy and Lucy, The Last Track and Certain Women. She finds there one of her most beautiful roles, far from Hollywood splendor. The story of Showing up follows an artist a few days before the opening of her exhibition. As always in Kelly Reichardt’s cinema, everything goes through the intimacy and the simplicity of what is given to us to see.

Showing up, distributed in the United States by A24, recalls a certain movement of American independent cinema, thanks to its simplicity, its tone, and its touches of humour. This film is undoubtedly the best gateway to this filmmaker if you do not yet know her universe. It should be noted that the latter also received the Carrosse d’or, awarded by the SRF at the Directors’ Fortnight, rewarding her rich filmography as an independent filmmaker.

Brigitte Baronet

Atlantic Bar by Fanny Molins (ACID)

SOLAB PICTURES

Atlantic Bar is the story of a bar. But it is above all that of the people who gravitate there. Between the room, the terrace, a few tables and chairs, the scullery and the floor where the managers live, it’s a whole microcosm of faces, personalities and slices of life that intersect each day around a coffee, a beer or a cigarette to talk, moan, laugh or change the world.

The tidy robber of nonsense, the bad boy who has become a poet or the former homeless man who has found a surrogate family: director Fanny Molins films with sobriety and humanity the regulars who surround Nathalie, tender and “loudmouthed” boss and character center of the house.

Colorful, these protagonists had found their refuge here, now threatened by the end of rental management and the resale of the walls. This film is therefore the story of the end of a small world. Modest and major. Destructive and vital. Funny and sad. There was a life at the counterAtlantic Barand this documentary will keep track of it.

Yoann Sardet