To see at the cinema: Civil War… Why it’s the sensation of this month of April

What does it talk about ?

A frantic race through a fractured America which, in the near future, is more than ever on the razor’s edge.

4 good reasons to see Civil War

For some, the mere mention of Alex Garland’s name is enough to lead them to his new work. The Briton first distinguished himself as a novelist and screenwriter (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go…) before moving behind the camera (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men) and heading up a Fascinating TV series (Devs).

Focused on humanity and concerned with the issues bubbling up in our society, he is for many one of the most interesting authors of the moment. And if that’s not enough, here are some reasons to check out his new film.

1 – The shock of the photos

Centered on a team of photojournalists crossing an America at war, Civil War had to have striking images. And that’s the case. From its opening scene, repetition of a speech by the President of the United States (Nick Offerman) which takes up real pieces of Donald Trump’s rhetoric, while the montage parallels his voices with archive images showing violence in the streets.

Civil War owes its effectiveness largely to a simple process: taking images that are now part of our daily lives, and bringing them closer to us (in this case the United States, the scene of a new civil war), based on the fact that distance will impact the effect a conflict will have on us.

While asking the question: can we make a beautiful image from a horrible, bloody and violent event?

2 – More fiction than science fiction

Although set in the near future (without giving a date), Civil War is striking in its realism. Or rather its plausibility. Which questions the category in which we can place it. “I talked about it as a science fiction film in an interview. But I wouldn’t put it in that genre”Alex Garland tells us when we discuss the film with him in London.

“On the other hand, science fiction can be plausible. And some of the best work is about things that are plausible but haven’t happened yet. But Civil War is about things that aren’t impossible, so I would say ‘yes and no ‘ to the question ‘is this science fiction?'”

The attack on the Capitol did not have an impact on the writing of Civil War, but on many people who worked on the film, including me

The feature film is also not directly based on events that occurred, although it is difficult not to think of the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 in front of certain scenes: “Civil War was written before, about four years ago. And we can’t shoot such a film while following a Covid protocol, so we had to wait. So it didn’t have an impact on the writing , but on a lot of people who worked on the film, including me, yes.”

“Something of urgency. But also anger. One of the consequences of that day was to make people angry. And it was treated as a disgrace, which is what it was. So it was “It would be impossible for a group of people not to be affected in this way.” If the situation has become more plausible since the writing of the scenario, let us now hope that it remains of the order of “and if… ?”

3 – A tribute to journalists

“We testify so that people ask questions” : it is in this line that the key to reading Civil War lies. Who does not seek to give lessons but leaves it to the spectators to question themselves, and to seek the answers to these questions. This allows them to be a little more involved in the story.

“It’s an approach that comes from an ancient form of journalism”explains Alex Garland. “There was a time when journalism had an ideology of its own, namely trying to be as objective as possible. Showing the facts as we observed them. Reporting them, hence the term reporter.”

“This ideology made it easier for people to trust journalists. And we need to trust them. We need a free press and a public that understands its values, believes it. So that when an event was reported in an article, people believed it had happened Which ceased to be true.

“There are very good journalists working around the world, in all kinds of places, but their voices have been hugely discredited, which worries me. Because they are attacked by people who say you shouldn’t believe what the press said, first of all, and because of social networks, and even the internet in general, which disseminates all kinds of points of view everywhere and in a very short time.

There was a time when journalism had its own ideology, namely trying to be as objective as possible. Show the facts as we observed them

“But it’s also something that the media has done to itself: if an organization operates in a capitalist way, driven by advertising, and feels the need to speak specifically to its audience to generate the most possible publicity, this creates a bias in the way of reporting information.”

“Such an organization will be believed by one part of the public, and not another, which is problematic. There is too much biased news, which is the one that is the loudest. Civil War is therefore trying to return to this approach which consists of showing something, without putting one’s opinion in front, to rely on the intelligence and discussion skills of the spectators.”

4 – Cailee Spaeny, already the confirmation

Because chance sometimes does things well, Civil War brings together (probably unintentionally) Sofia Coppola’s first heroine, and the latest to date. These are Kirsten Dunst, who needs no introduction (and who meets her husband Jesse Plemons during a terrifying sequence). And Cailee Spaeny, who is going to make 2024 her year.

Thanks to Priscilla, biopic about Elvis Presley’s wife released in January which won her a Female Actor Prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. A Civil War today. And, this summer, Alien: Romulus, of which she will be the heroine. If the success is more there than for Noomi Rapace and Katherine Waterston, who tried to succeed Sigourney Weaver in Prometheus and Covenant.

Metropolitan FilmExport

If success is in order, in Fede Alvarez’s film expected on August 14, hope will quickly become essential. And she shines today in her role as a novice photographer, who allows the viewer to discover this environment with her, while her certainties and her idealism waver while she hardens, according to the horrors with which she confronts.

His name may not be the easiest to write, certainly. But we’re going to have to start training seriously.

Comments collected by Maximilien Pierrette in London on March 26, 2024