THE “WORLD’S” OPINION – MUST SEE
The Belgian Claude Schmitz, born in 1979, made himself known with Rob Poitiers (2018), hilarious and profound medium-length film, Jean-Vigo Prize in 2019. A quasi-documentary story of “broken arms” earning their crust by recovering money from a car wash with the consent of the boss, the latter putting into practice, without speech, the sharing of wealth.
Since then, the director, director and actor, associated with the Théâtre de Liège (Belgium), has continued to renew himself and surprised us with a feminist “Perceval” – Lucie loses her horse (2021). A theatrical creation canceled due to Covid-19 and transformed into a film: the story of a slightly disconcerted actress, moving away from her granddaughter for the purposes of filming, literally getting lost in nature, before to land in a deserted theater. The filmmaker once again drew on reality to make his film grow like a rare herb.
Bardot of modern times
With The Other Laurens, selected last May at the Cinematographers’ Fortnight in Cannes, Claude Schmitz tackles pure fiction by revisiting the myths of American cinema: through straight shots, illuminated with electric colors, his film navigates between thriller, series B and western, with its actors with archetypal looks. Olivier Rabourdin, with a dull eye, plays a pure detective, Gabriel, who has just lost his twin brother, François: this high roller had made his fortune in business and was killed, officially, in a car. But his daughter, Jade (Louise Leroy), is convinced that it is a crime and asks her uncle to investigate.
A little in spite of himself, Gabriel finds himself drawn into a dirty story populated by bikers, a gang of thugs and two slightly shady cops (Rodolphe Burger and Francis Soetens, in a wacky duo). Among all these men, there is not one who can catch up with the other. In essence, Schmitz tells us, through his heroine, a modern-day Bardot who he places at the center of the device, that these harmful fathers have had their day.
The ancient world is in the viewfinder of this symbolic work. The Other Laurens constantly plays on two sides, magnifying the genre (film noir, gangsters) while dismantling it, working on the false and the true. With his well-known sense of humor, the filmmaker adds a replica of the White House (this is François’ nouveau riche villa) into the setting, which actually exists in the Dordogne – it is the Rastignac castle. Likewise, he inserts into his film a video of September 11, 2001, capturing the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, as a nod to the twins in the film.
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