CANAL + – TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 AT 11:00 PM – FILM
A young poet (Margaret Qualley), still almost unknown, arrived in New York in 1995 to try her luck. In search of a food job, she was recruited by the icy and haughty director (Sigourney Weaver) of a venerable literary agency whose client was the legendary J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), the author of The Catcher (1951), iconic and initiatory novel.
His work ? Respond with invariable elements of language to the voluminous mail received by the writer, withdrawn from all public life since the 1960s (he died in 2010). One day, while answering the phone in the absence of her superior, the young woman has Salinger herself on the phone – with whom she soon maintains a friendly relationship at a distance which will prove to be decisive in her personal development.
Philippe Falardeau adapted the story of Joanna Rakoff, “My Salinger Year”, which gives its original title to this film shot in English
My year in New York (2020), from Quebec director Philippe Falardeau, therefore portrays a talented young woman, assigned to a position that interests her from afar and that hundreds of others would have damned themselves to obtain; of a dreaded “boss” who, on the occasion of a tragic event, splits the armor; of an ally in the place who guides and protects the novice; of a lover with whom the bonds are stretched. All this recalls the characters and the plot of Devil wears Prada (2006), by David Frankel.
In the same way that the latter was inspired by an autobiographical book, Philippe Falardeau – Left half of the fridge (2000), Guibord goes to war (2016) – adapted Joanna Rakoff’s story, My Salinger Year (My year Salinger, Albin Michel, 2014), which gives its original title to this film shot in English, renamed My year in New York in France (where it was not released on the big screen).
Pleasant and boring time
It is not necessary to have studied cinema to understand that many films, comedies or dramas, borrow the same threads, the same figures of speech and “commonplaces”, even in the noble sense taught by the good old. rhetoric, which favored the richness of the variation rather than the singularity of the theme.
Unfortunately, the invention of the Québécois is not sufficiently striking to make us forget the cult comedy that has become The devil wears Prada, on which My year in New York seems modeled. But what results from it is for as much suitable to make pass a pleasant moment and without boredom, with, in addition, some poetic and graceful sequences.
And all the more so since Sigourney Weaver is perfect as an inflexible bittern who has become a sensitive mentor. As for Margaret Qualley, seen at Quentin Tarantino and, most recently, in the hit miniseries Maid (Netflix), his game gives a nice depth to his character with decided naivety and lucid intelligence, alongside Douglas Booth as a protest idealist who looks like a young Steve Jobs.
My year in New York (My Salinger Year), film by Philippe Falardeau (Can.-Irl., 2020, 96 min). With Margaret Qualley, Sigourney Weaver, Douglas Booth, Colm Feore. Available on MyCanal.