Golden Lion in Venice, winner of the Golden Globes and the English Bafta, then awarded three Oscars, Nomadland, of Chloé Zhao, will have carved out the best path that can be imagined during the pandemic in an industry that has been practically at a standstill for a year. Born in China in 1982, settled fifteen years later in England, then in the United States, its director quickly forged a reputation in American independent cinema. His first two feature films (The songs that my brothers taught me, 2015 ; The Rider, 2017) were filmed on the Sioux reserve in South Dakota, and play, on the losing side of history (Amerindians in the first, impoverished little whites in the second), with the codes of the western and American pastoral .
Nomadland extends this taste for the origins, both national and cinematographic, of the United States, this time evoking the tradition of “hobos”, these mythical hikers of the nomadic American identity. More precisely, it sets out alongside their heirs, the “van dwellers”, this community of travelers who have taken up residence in their caravan, working sporadically in the towns they pass through, and willingly grouping themselves together. Even more, the film itself is conveyed by its main actress and producer, Frances McDormand, who here plays a woman who, brutally impoverished after the death of her husband, takes the road with her old van to relearn this hard use of the freedom and the philosophy of the few that founded the great American nation.
Real challenge
Three poles monopolize the film: the crossing of immemorial landscapes, the hard-working and supportive community of backpackers, and the bravery act of this great and funny actress that is Frances McDormand, who is here the real novelty, the real challenge of young cinema by Chloé Zhao. Is it won? On the one hand, yes, obviously, the juries are crazy about the great compositions of actress and the film sweeping all the awards in its path. On the other hand, no, since the challenge of such a role for a professional, the mannerism of modesty which is supposed to legitimize it, at the same time as the instrumentalization of the real nomads who surround it by enhancing the prestige of the actor, vampirize the film.
Does this mean that the switch to the star system suddenly betrays this desire to submit to the Hollywood influence that has long worked, in a very ambivalent way, on independent American cinema? Not necessarily, as the last films of the Safdie brothers with Robert Pattinson attest with brilliant insolence (Good time, 2017) and Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems, 2019). This tightrope walk moment in the career of young independents allows in any case to get a little idea of the side towards which they will end up leaning. The question is for the moment settled for Chloe Zhao, that the Disney studio, which directed its Oscar campaign, recruited two years ago to shoot the new episode of the saga of Avengers, Eternals, with Angelina Jolie. The film is finished, it should be visible very soon, and we will quickly know, according to its reception, if Chloé Zhao settles down in the courtyard of the studios or if she returns to nomadic life.
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