Presented in Competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, “Close” is the second film by Lukas Dhont, winner of the Caméra d’or in 2018 for “Girl”. The director signs a drama of stunning power.
There are some obvious facts that impose themselves on us. Like seeing a major movie. On this side, Close by Lukas Dhont leaves little room for doubt. This is the second feature film by its director, winner of the Camera d’or in 2018 for Girl. However, at 31, he is already asserting himself as an accomplished author, capable of overthrowing the viewer with a gesture, a look.
Presented in Competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, Close tells the close friendship of two 13-year-old boys. Léo and Rémi are like magnets. Physically inseparable, glued to each other, without ever the shadow of an ambiguity. As soon as they enter college, the duo face indiscreet questions and humiliating words. When Leo decides to break this closeness, the unthinkable happens.
After exploring a quest for identity in Girl, Lukas Dhont takes hold of the assertion. The one that comes at a delicate age when we build ourselves through the eyes of others. Faced with the hostility of his comrades, one decides to change to protect himself, while the other remains himself. It is these two visions of adolescence and masculinity that the filmmaker approaches – who co-signed the screenplay with Angelo Tijssens.
Kris Dewitte
In “Close”, the flower field where Leo’s parents work is one of the most important settings in the plot.
The story spans four seasons and takes on the appearance of a fresco. A temporality that allows the director to go through the different emotions of his character who bids farewell to innocence. Lukas Dhont embraces the genre of melodrama, films tears and hugs, without ever falling into pathos and easy tears. It is this purity and this power that disarms the viewer.
The filmmaker entrusts the main roles to two impressive young actors: Eden Dabrine and Gustav De Waele. The look of the first is worth a thousand words and the silences of the second offer the film one of its most beautiful sequences. Hard to believe that this is their first steps in the cinema. In the shoes of a mute mother, Émilie Dequenne is overwhelming.
With great visual richness and almost grueling strength, Close signs one of the greatest discoveries of this 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Closesoon in the cinema.