THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
A joyous disorder reigns at the opening of The Skyline, the first feature film by Emilie Carpentier. It looks like a carnival. And if that’s not the case – we’re in the aisles of an exhibition center where a fair on Japanese popular culture is being held – it’s just like that.
Young people disguised as manga heroes walk around, dance, pass each other and hug each other at all costs. Among them, three girlfriends whom the camera follows closely, as if it were a question of not losing sight of them in the middle of the crowd. The girls are taking a selfie… And now we find them in a car, driving with all the windows open, on a country road. The horizon has widened, something intoxicating is floating in the air, the escape opens up the field of all possibilities. When a dam erected by young environmental demonstrators arises.
The spirit still at the party, the lively verb, the girls get out of their vehicle, the idea being to go and heckle the protesters who, for months, have been fighting against the project to build a huge leisure complex with consequences disastrous for local farmers. Dressed in their incongruous disguise, the girlfriends sneer and waddle. The demonstrators refuse to convince them. They get back in the car. Game over. Or rather, end of the sketch of the painting that the director has just sketched out with a few brushstrokes. Which were enough, however, to reveal a singularity to which the film will remain attached.
New spaces and landscapes
This is due to a few elements perceptible from these first scenes: the vitality of the bodies, the energy of the staging and the dialogues, the juxtaposition of dissimilar atmospheres and places act as the revealers of a world in motion. Or more precisely of a youth on the move – the subject of Emilie Carpentier’s film, whose specific character, and immense virtue, stems from the geography of the place. A suburb. But a suburb observed towards the nearby countryside rather than the city side. This change of perspective, by illuminating new spaces and other landscapes, refreshes the image commonly attributed to peripheral cities. He creates all the salt and the richness of The Skyline.
The places also bring their specificity to the characters. Among them is the heroine of the film, Adja (Tracy Gotoas), 18, who is continuing her studies to become a childcare worker while taking internships in an nursing home. Pretty as a heart, as sweet as determined, not holding still and using outspokenness as a weapon, the girl’s best friend is Sabira (Niia Hall), queen of social networks, which she plays without being dupe, youtubeuse with a beautiful face who will fall in love with Adja’s brother, the professional footballer, handsome kid and local star.
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