“Les Jeunes amants”, with the magnificent Fanny Ardant, “La Vraie famille”, the moving film by Fabien Gorgeart with Mélanie Thierry, “Piccolo Corpo”, by Laura Samani… Here are 3 dramatic feature films to discover in theaters dark in February.
“The Young Lovers”, by Carine Tardieu
Love has no age. Fanny Ardant stars in the film “Les Jeunes amants”, by Carine Tardieu. This precious, delicate and moving melodrama sets out to show that the great love between two beings is much more powerful than social conventions. Directed from a screenplay by Solveig Anspach, who died in 2015, the feature film centers on the love affair between Shauna, a 70-year-old former architect, free, independent, played by the magnificent and bewitching star of French cinema, and Pierre, a married forty-year-old father of a family, played by Melvil Poupaud, mysterious and sensitive. The lovers met for the first time in a hospital, in tragic circumstances, before losing sight of each other for fifteen years.
When they finally meet, it’s obvious. With modesty, the two protagonists, who form a credible, intense and complicit duo, decide to take advantage of this air that they still breathe together, and to ignore the gaze of others and injunctions. “The person who is magnificent in this story is the man. It escapes all the clichés of our society. He knows that Shauna is the love of his life, but he can’t explain it, it’s alchemy, ”explained to CNEWS Fanny Ardant, who plays alongside her daughter Florence Loiret Caille.
Shot in Brittany, this film, which talks about love, but also about old age and illness, Shana suffering from Parkinson’s disease, shows that mature women still have the power to seduce and be desired, even by a younger man, and it just feels good. Cécile de France, who takes on the role of the deceived wife, and Sharif Andura, make up the rest of this four-star cast.
“Les Jeunes amants”, by Carine Tardieu (1h52), at the cinema on February 2.
“THE REAL FAMILY”, BY FABIEN GORGEART
Difficult to hold back tears in front of this remarkable family drama by Fabien Gorgeart, which resonates with its own history. In “La Vraie famille”, his second feature film, the director explores the power of the bonds of the heart through the story of Anna, a family assistant, camped by Mélanie Thierry, who impresses in this role. The 30-year-old lives in plush accommodation with her husband, embodied by Lyes Salem, who is not unworthy, her two sons, and Simon, 6, placed with her when he was only a year and a half old. They are happy and form a real family. But everything changes when the little boy’s biological father (Félix Moati, “No Man’s Land”) asks for custody of his son after mourning his wife.
This is the beginning of a heartbreaking separation between Simon and the one he has always called “mom”. At this moment, it’s a bit as if this child with the endearing face is also torn from us. However, we understand that their fusional relationship is not very healthy. Then we end up accepting the idea that it’s not fair either for this father, who is struggling to make ends meet, lives in a council estate, but loves his son, and tries to make efforts to recover his place, legitimate. Without falling into pathos, this film on a human scale between gravity and lightness, with scenes like that of the “phantom penis”, subtly describes the gray zone between powerful attachment and filial bond, and captivates us until the end.
“The True Family”, by Fabien Gorgeart (1h42), in cinemas on February 16.
“PICCOLO CORPO”, BY LAURA SAMANI
A miracle at the end of the journey. With “Piccolo Corpo” the Italian director Laura Samani, who signs her first feature film, paints the portrait of a courageous, bruised mother, ready to do anything to give a name to her stillborn child and thus allow him to go in Paradise, in the Italy of the 1900s. According to the religious doctrine of the time, for lack of baptism, the soul of his daughter is condemned to wander in limbo. An idea to which Agata, interpreted with overwhelming accuracy by Celeste Cescutti, who is taking her first steps in the cinema, cannot resolve. She will therefore undertake a great journey, from her fishing village, carrying her deceased baby on her back, to reach a sanctuary nestled in the mountains.
There, he could be brought back to life, the time of a breath, in order to be baptized. Throughout this quest, a sort of extension of her pregnancy, she can count on the help of Lynx (Ondina Quadri), a character with hypnotic eyes, neither quite boy nor quite girl, who does not believe in God, but who will fulfill the wish of this young mother, whose body is sometimes shown in a very raw way. Filmed in Friulian and Veneto dialects, “Piccolo Corpo” is a striking work, both realistic and mystical. This fable with its refined aesthetics, on motherhood, the strength of sisterhood and the emancipation of women, also gives a view of splendid landscapes, and makes resonate a capella songs with bewitching lyrics.
“Piccolo Corpo”, by Laura Samani (1h29), at the cinema on February 16.