OFFICIAL SELECTION – IN COMPETITION
Should we see a sign? In the last film of the Cannes competition, The Unquiet, by Joachim Lafosse, the main actors kept their first names to embody their characters. As if this thread linking them to civil status allows them to keep their feet on the ground, when the cinema takes them far from their world, on the verge of mental breakdown. Damien Bonnard therefore plays Damien, and he is barely recognizable with his extra pounds and his recalcitrant, bipolar painter’s beard, refusing to swallow his tablets and making life unbearable for his little family. Leïla Bekhti plays Leïla, her companion, furniture restorer, of rare psychology, of infinite patience containing the ball of nerves.
Pursuing her husband like a nurse, she spends her life checking if he would not have committed yet another “bullshit”, as one would say about a child. The couple’s son, in fact, Gabriel, aged around ten, who sometimes seems more mature than the father, is remarkably played by Gabriel Merz Chammah – especially in a scene full of humor where the child pretends to be ‘to be affected by paternal “madness”. Let us add the grandfather, Patrick, who keeps a good distance from the toxic cell while lending a hand if necessary, a beautiful supporting role entrusted to Patrick Descamps.
The subject is risky, and the cinematographic adventure not devoid of pitfalls, which the spectator watches for in the first minutes of the film, the eyebrows a little furrowed, before abandoning the track, relieved not to be taken on an “organized trip” in the land of madness, with its lines of dialogue explaining the “problem”. Joachim Lafosse, who likes to observe the romantic relationship to the bone of separation – The couple’s economy (2016) -, films the daily life of Damien, Leïla and Gabriel, as if nothing had happened, leaving the viewer to appreciate the microderegulations induced by the father’s behavior.
Between Depardieu and Cantona
The film opens with a sequence at the beach, golden light at a time when the sun is content to enhance the colors of the landscape. Leïla fell asleep on her towel, a sarong covering her legs – magic of a beautiful fixed shot which we will understand the interest, this need to decompress, much later. When she wakes up, she scans the horizon. Damien is at sea with Gabriel, the boat at a standstill. The father dives and starts swimming, leaving the kid to bring the boat back on his own. ” You know how to do it ! “, he told her in substance. Gabriel does so, turns on the engine, focused like a rocket pilot with no room for error. The mother does not blame, it is better to save energy for other occasions.
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