France Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Misericordia’ (2024), starring Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jacques Develay, Jean-Baptiste Durand and David Ayala

March 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

Félix Kysyl and Jean-Baptiste Durand in “Misericordia” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films)

“Misericordia” (2024)

Directed by Alain Guiraudie

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2023, in Saint-Martial, France, the dramatic film “Misericordia” features an all-white group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An unemployed con artist goes back to visit a bakery family whom he used to work for, and he proceeds to cause chaos in their lives.

Culture Audience: “Misericordia” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in twist-filled psychological dramas about con artists and their victims.

Pictured clockwise, from center: Tatiana Spivakova, Salomé Lopes, Sébastien Faglain, Catherine Frot and David Ayala in “Misericordia” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films)

“Misericordia” is a spellbinding psychological thriller about how a con artist fools people into thinking he’s harmless but is actually intent on causing havoc in people’s lives. It’s a superbly acted story about manipulation and murder. Some of the subject matter is intended to be unsettling in showing how victims of con artists can continue to dismiss or ignore indications or evidence that they’ve been conned because it’s easier than facing the truth.

Written and directed by Alain Guiraudie, “Misericordia” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It then made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2024, including the Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. “Misericordia” (which takes place in 2023, in the small town of Saint-Martial, France) received seven nominations, including Best Picture, at the 2025 Cesar Awards, the French version of the Oscars.

“Misericordia” (which takes place in 2023) begins by showing Jérémie Pastor (played by Félix Kysyl), a con artist who’s in his 30s, returning to Saint-Martial, after many years spent living somewhere else. He has most recently lived in Toulouse, France. Jérémie used to live in Saint-Martial when he worked for a family-owned bakery. The family’s patriarch Jean-Pierre Rigal (played by Serge Richard, seen in photos and flashbacks), who was the bakery’s manager, has recently died at the age of 62. Jérémie is back in town to attend the funeral.

Jérémie’s presence gets mixed reactions. Jean-Pierre’s widow Martine Rigal (played by Catherine Frot) seems happy to see Jérémie. By contrast, Martine’s son Vincent Rigal (played by Jean-Baptiste Durand), who’s about the same age as Jérémie, isn’t thrilled to see Jérémie and asks him when he’s going back to Toulouse. Jérémie says he’s only visiting for a few days. He ends up staying much longer than that.

Jérémie tells people he is currently unemployed and has no plans on what to do with his life. Martine assumes that Jérémie’s unemployment means that he’s struggling financially, so she generously invites him to stay at her house. She says that Jérémie can sleep in the bedroom that Vincent had when he lived there. Vincent has his own home with his wife Annie Rigal (played by Tatiana Spivakova) and their son Kilian Rigal (played by Elio Lunetta), who’s about 7 or 8 years old.

Vincent is slightly annoyed to see Jérémie sleeping in Vincent’s former bedroom. He’s also suspicious that Jérémie has come back to Saint-Martial to take over the bakery. Now that Jean-Pierre is deceased, Vincent is expected to become the chief manager of the bakery. Jérémie assures Vincent that he has no intentions of working at the bakery again.

In a conversation with Vincent, Jérémie mentions that he recently broke up with a girlfriend whom he had been dating for three years. The movie eventually shows that Jérémie is bisexual, queer or sexually fluid. Jérémie doesn’t put a label on his sexuality. After a while, it’s pretty obvious that he’s sociopath who will have sex with or try to seduce anybody if it’s a way to get what he wants.

And that’s why there’s another reason why Vincent is highly suspicious of Jérémie: He senses that Martine has a weird crush on Jérémie: Martine treats Jérémie like a second son, but she also seems to be sexually attracted to Jérémie. Vincent is concerned that Jérémie will take advantage of widow Martine’s loneliness.

There’s an even more complicated twist to this dynamic, which further explains Vincent’s apprehension and resentment about Jérémie. When Jérémie used to work at the bakery, Jérémie told Jean-Pierre that he was in love with him. It’s unclear if Jean-Pierre did anything sexual with Jérémie, but Jérémie is the type of person who would at least try to sexually seduce someone he wants to target.

Martine and Vincent know about all Jérémie’s “romantic feelings” for Jean-Pierre, which is why Vincent is alarmed that his mother Martine seems so willing to let Jérémie back into their lives, even if it might be for a few days. The tension starts to grow between Jérémie and Vincent when Vincent sees that Martine is treating Jérémie like a son who has permanently come back home to live with the family.

A local elderly priest named Philippe Griseul (played by Jacques Develay) is a friend of the family and frequently stops by the house to visit. Martine lives near a wooded area, where the priest likes to pick mushrooms. One day, Father Griseul is on one of these mushroom-picking walks when he sees Vincent and Jérémie playfully roughhousing in the woods. It’s not a real fight, but there’s some real anger simmering between Vincent and Jérémie.

Another person who affects the dynamics between Jérémie and the Rigal family is Walter Bonchamp (played by David Ayala), a middle-aged bachelor who lives near Martine. Walter is an eccentric loner who doesn’t know Jérémie very well. But when Jérémie sees Walter again, Jérémie pretends that they were good friends during the time that Jérémie worked at the bakery.

The word “misericordia” is a Latin word for having compassion or pity for someone. And that is the reason why Jérémie is a successful con artist. He’s not handsome, nor is he especially charismatic. But he has a “sad sack” way about him that makes people feel sorry for him and want to offer to help him. Vincent can see right through Jérémie, which is one of the reasons why Jérémie and Vincent clash with each other.

As already revealed in the trailer for “Misericordia,” Vincent disappears and is reported missing to the local authorities. Two unnamed police officers (played by Sébastien Faglain and Salomé Lopes) show up and start investigating. Jérémie is the main person of interest because he was the last-known person to see Vincent alive.

Jérémie denies anything to do with Vincent’s disappearance. The cops put Jérémie under surveillance anyway. He becomes paranoid, which starts to affect what he does. About halfway through the “Misericordia,” the movie shows what happened to Vincent, so there’s no real mystery. The only mystery is if whoever is responsible for Vincent’s disappearance will be caught and held accountable.

Kysyl gives a compelling performance as manipulative Jérémie, who is not as “smooth” as he likes to think he is. Although the other cast members give very good performances, “Misericordia” is effective mainly because Kysyl is convincing in his “Misericordia” role as a con artist who pretends to be a “regular, harmless guy” but is actually the opposite. “Misericordia” has an ending that some viewers might dislike, but it’s an ending that is uncomfortably realistic, considering everything that takes place in this memorable story.

Sideshow/Janus Films released “Misericordia” in select U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on March 28, 2025. The movie was released in France on October 16, 2024.

Review: ‘White Bird’ (2024), starring Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwerdt, Bryce Gheisar, Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren

October 28, 2024

by Carla Hay

Orlando Schwerdt and Ariella Glaser in “White Bird” (Photo by Larry Horricks/Lionsgate)

“White Bird” (2024)

Directed by Marc Forster

Some language in French and German with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1940s France and in 2020s New York City, the dramatic film “White Bird” (based on the graphic novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A French Jewish grandmother tells her 15-year-old American grandson the story of when she was hidden from Nazis by a compassionate gentile family during World War II in France.

Culture Audience: “White Bird” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the novel on which the movie is based, the movie’s headliners, and stories of about the Holocaust.

Helen Mirren and Bryce Gheisar in “White Bird” (Photo by Larry Horricks/Lionsgate)

“White Bird” might get some comparisons to “The Diary of Anne Frank,” but “White Bird” is a fictional story that won’t be considered a classic. This dramatic film has good performances from the principal cast, despite the movie’s treacly tone and drab dialogue. Overall, the message of “White Bird”—showing kindness and bravery when society becomes consumed by hate—transcends any noticeable flaws in the movie.

Directed by Marc Forster and written by Mark Bomback, “White Bird” is based on R.J. Palacio’s 2019 graphic novel of the same name. The “White Bird” novel was also turned into a regular novel that was published in 2023, the year that the “White Bird” movie was originally going to be released. After several delays, the “White Bird” movie was released in 2024.

The “White Bird” movie has two different timelines: The first timeline is in 2020s New York City. The second timeline is in 1940s France and is depicted in flashback scenes told through the memory of one of the story’s main characters. (“White Bird” was actually filmed in Prague, Czech Republic.)

In 2020s New York City, 15-year-old Julian Albans (played by Bryce Gheisar) is a new student at an elite prep school called Yates Academy. He is introverted and a little socially awkward. On his first day at Yates Academy, Julian is invited by a fellow student named Rahmiya (played by Priya Ghotane) to join the school’s social justice club. Rahmiya also invites Julian to sit with her at the same table for lunch. Julian politely declines to join the social justice club because he doesn’t seem to want to get involved in any political issues.

A stuck-up student named Dillon (played by Teagan Booth) introduces himself to Julian while Julian is sitting with Rahmiya. Dillon says Julian’s mother plays tennis wth Dillon’s mother, who told Dillon to protectively “look out for” Julian and befriend him. Dillon rudely tells Julian: “This is the loser table.” Dillon then says that Julian should have lunch with Dillon and his friends on the following day.

At Julian’s home, a family member makes a surprise visit: Julian’s French grandmother Sara Blum (played by Helen Mirren), who has arrived from Paris. Julian and Sara have not seen each other for years. Sara offers Julian a glass of wine, but he declines and reminds her that he’s too young to legally drink alcohol.

Julian tells Sara about how he’s a new student at Yates Academy because he was expelled from a previous school for being cruel to another boy. (This is in reference to Julian being a character in the 2017 movie “Wonder,” which is also based on a Palacio novel.) Julian says he has learned to be “normal,” which Julian defines as not being cruel or nice but just “minding your own business.” Sara looks slightly appalled that this is Julian’s definition of being “normal,” so she says she is going to tell him what happened to her when she was a child in France during the Nazi occupation of the 1940s.

Most of the movie consists of Sara’s childhood story told as flashbacks, beginning when Sara (played by Laura Hudeckova) was 5 and 8 years old. Sara describes her childhood before the Nazi occupation as happy and idyllic. She was an only child in a loving, middle-class household in the village of Aubervilliers-Aux-Bois.

Her happily married parents were surgeon Max Blum (played by Ishai Golan) and math teacher Rose Blum (played by Olivia Ross), who would take her on picnic trips. These picnics are Sara’s most treasured memories of Sara’s childhood, she tells Julian. Sara comments, “I was a bit spoiled, but I didn’t see it that way.”

But trouble began brewing for Jewish people in their community when the Nazis occupied France in 1940. The Nazi persecution of Jewish people began gradually. First, Jewish people began to lose their jobs and financial freedoms. (Nazis seized bank accounts of Jewish people.)

Then, Jewish people (who were often identified by neighbors who were paid to identify Jews) were rounded up by Nazis and usually separated from family members. Jewish people were then sent to be imprisoned, starved, tortured, and usually murdered in what the world now knows were death camps during this Holocaust. The Holocaust became a central cause during World War II.

At the beginnng of the Nazi occupation in France, teenage Sara (played by Ariella Glaser) is a student at a co-ed high school named École Lafayette, where most of the students are not Jewish. Her two best friends are “popular girls” in the school: Mariann (played by Selma Kaymakci) and Sophie (played by Mia Kadlecova), who are really “mean girls.” This clique and other students at the school sometimes bully a disabled student named Julien Beaumier (played by Orlando Schwerdt), who uses a cane to walk.

Other student bullies at the school are cruel Vincent (played by Jem Matthews) and his two sidekicks Jerome (played by Jordan Cramond) and Henri (played Yelisey Kazakevich). These bullies have given Julien the insulting nickname Tourteau (which means “crab” in French) because they think he walks like a crab sea creature. Sara doesn’t participate in the bullying of Julien, but she doesn’t do anything to stop it either. She can also sense that Julien has a crush on her.

Sara has a talent for drawing. And one day in a classroom, one of her teachers notices an illustration that Sara has made of a white bird. The teacher advises Sara: “A gift is a treasure. Never stop drawing, Sara.”

Sara first begins to suspect that something wrong is happening in the community when her mother Rose announces during dinner one evening that she was abruptly fired from her job for no credible reason. Sara’s father Max has been hearing stories about Jewish people in France being rounded up by Nazis and disappearing. Max thinks Rose was fired because she’s Jewish. He’s alarmed enough to suggest that the family flee as soon as possible to a nation that isn’t occupied by Nazis.

Rose is adamantly against the idea. She thinks what is happening with the Nazi occupation will eventually subside and go away. Rose says she doesn’t want to uproot her life to move to another country. And she doesn’t want to frighten Sara, so Rose scolds Max for even talking about their lives possibly being in danger in front of Sara.

Sara soon finds out that her father was correct about his fears. At school, she notices that she is beng treated differently for being Jewish. This bigotry then escalates until one day, Nazi soldiers show up at the school and take away all students, faculty and staff who are Jewish. Through a series of harrowing circumstances and actions, Sara manages to escape in the Mernuit forest nearby. The Nazi soldiers can’t find her, so they leave. It should come as no surprise that school bully Vincent becomes a Hitler youth informant for the Nazis.

The trailer for “White Bird” already reveals the essence of the story. Julien (who is an only child) comes to Sara’s rescue and brings her to his home to hide. Julien’s parents Jean Paul Beaumier (played by Jo Stone-Fewings) and Vivienne Beaumier (played by Gillian Anderson) show her kindness and compassion by deciding to hide Sara in a barn near the family house, which is somewhat isolated in the rural town of Dannevilliers. Jean Paul is a sewer worker, which is why Julien is familiar with the sewage tunnels in the area.

Sara learns through the Beaumier family that her parents were taken by the Nazis. Jean Paul and Vivien promise Sara that they will do everything they can to find out what happened to Sara’s parents and reunite Sara with her parents. During the time that Sara is hidden in the Beaumier family barn, she and Julien become closer. And their friendship turns into a chaste and tentative romance.

In an attic window, Sara can see a white bird that appears in a tree directly across from the window. This white bird becomes a symbol of hope and freedom for Sara, who does not know how long she will be sequestered and hidden and if she will ever see her parents again. Jean Paul and Vivien also put their lives at risk when the Beaumier family’s upstairs neighbors Monsieur Lafleur (played by Miroslav Taborsky) and Madame Lafleur (played by Zuzana Hodkova) begin to suspect the Beaumier family of hiding a Jewish person.

“White Bird” has some suspenseful moments but offers no real surprises. Perhaps the weakest part of the movie involves a risky trek through the snow-filled forest and an encounter with a wolf. The wolf looks very fake, with substandard visual effects. This phony-looking scene lowers the quality of the movie.

However, the acting in most of the movie is earnest, even if it at times it seems like the cast is trying too hard in their acting instead of performing more naturally. Mirren has played the role of a wise grandmother in so many other movies, what she does in “White Bird” is competent and effective but not anything extraordinary. The other principal cast members also give capable performances, with Glaser and Schwerdt performing in their roles quite nicely as teenagers who grow close and find love under these horrible circumstances.

“White Bird” could have used more authenticity in depicting French people. Most of the principal cast members are obviously not French and don’t have convincing French accents. It’s a noticeble discrepancy that doesn’t ruin the film but it’s an example of how “White Bird” lacks certain attention to realistic details that prevent it from being a completely well-made film. However, most viewers of “White Bird” will find something to appreciate about it so that it shouldn’t be considered a waste of time to watch this somewhat formulaic movie.

Lionsgate released “White Bird” in U.S. cinemas on October 4, 2024.

Review: ‘The Taste of Things,’ starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel

February 10, 2024

by Carla Hay

“The Taste of Things”

Directed by Trân Anh Hùng

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in France, in 1889, the dramatic film “The Taste of Things” has an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A renowned chef and his longtime live-in cook are lovers, but she resists his attempts for them to have a more committed relationship.

Culture Audience: “The Taste of Things” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel and movies about people who love to cook.

Juliette Binoche Benoît Magimel and Galatéa Bellugi in “The Taste of Things” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

The slow-paced drama “The Taste of Things” isn’t for everyone, but it’s a mature story of what can happen when a famous chef tries to get his longtime personal cook to marry him. There’s plenty to like in this movie for romance fans and cuisine enthusiasts. The movie spends almost much as much time detailing the preparation of food as it does on showing how these two people live and love together.

Written and directed by Trân Anh Hùng, “The Taste of Things” is based on Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel “La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet,” which is French for “The Life and the Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet.” “The Taste of Things” had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where Trân won the prize for Best Director. “The Tatse of Things” then made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2023, including the New York Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and AFI Fest. “The Taste of Things” was France’s official selection for the category of Best International Feature Film for the 2024 Academy Awards, but the movie didn’t get any Oscar nominations.

In “The Taste of Things” (which takes place in 1889, in France), Dodin Bouffant (played by Benoît Magimel) is a renowned chef and a middle-aged, never-married bachelor with no children. He has been in a sexual relationship with his live-in cook Eugénie Chatagne (played by Juliette Binoche), who is also middle-aged, never-married, and has no children. Eugénie has been Dodin’s live-in cook at his manor for the past 20 years.

Dodin and Eugénie love each other, but she doesn’t want to commit to marrying him. She tells Dodin that she’s happy with the way their relationship is. Eugénie has turned down Dodin’s marriage proposals multiple times.

Will persistent Dodin get Eugénie to change her mind? That’s the question that lingers for most of “The Taste of Things,” as the movie fills up its time with scenes of preparations and servings of elaborate multi-course meals. Dodin decides he’s going to cook for Eugénie as a way to show his love.

Dodin is also seen with a group of five affluent male friends in many social situations, including when he and these friends get invited to dine with the prince of Eurasia (played by Mhamed Arezki), who originally invited just Dodin, but Dodin insisted that his friends get invited too. Dodin’s five closest friends are Grimaud (played by Patrick d’Assumçao), Magot (played by Jan Hammenecker), Beaubois (played by Frédéric Fisbach), Augustin (played by Jean-Marc Roulot) and Rabaz (played by Emmanuel Salinger). Rabaz is the one who stands out the most because he is a compassionate and very busy doctor.

Eugénie has an assistant cook named Violette (played by Galatéa Bellugi), who’s in her 20s and is a very loyal employee. Near the beginning of the movie, Violette’s niece Pauline (played by Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), who’s about 11 or 12 years old, is at Dodin’s manor to visit and is introduced to Eugénie and Dodin. It isn’t long before Eugénie notices that Pauline is a prodigy in culinary arts, with extraordinary senses of taste and smell. Eugénie wants to formally teach Pauline how to be a chef but first must get permission from her parents.

“The Taste of Things” is not a movie that makes any grand or provocative statements about life. The story also holds very little surprises. A few scenes of Eugénie fainting and clutching her abdomen in pain are foreshadowings of what happens to her in the last third of the movie, which won’t be a shock to anyone who’s read “La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet.”

The reliably engaging performances by Binoche and Magimel are worth watching in how they portray this bittersweet romance. Binoche and Magimel have easy chemistry with each other, since they were partners from 1998 to 2003 and have a daughter together named Hana, who was born in 1999. Magimel and Binoche also co-starred in the 1999 drama “Children of the Century.” The tone of “The Taste of Things” is quietly sensual, which is best appreciated by viewers who know that not all movies about romance have to be about messy breakups and predictable makeups.

IFC Films released “The Taste of Things” in select U.S. cinemas on February 9, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2024. The movie was released in France under the title “La Passion de Dodin Bouffant” on November 8, 2023. “The Taste of Things” will be released on digital and VOD on March 28, 2024.

Review, ‘Our Father, the Devil,’ starring Babetida Sadjo, Souleymane Sy Savane, Jennifer Tchiakpe, Franck Saurel and Martine Amisse

November 19, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Our Father, the Devil”

Directed by Ellie Foumbi

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Lucho, France, the dramatic film “Our Father, the Devil” features a cast of white and black characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A nursing home chef is disturbed when a Catholic priest is a visitor at her job, and she is convinced that he is the same person who caused trauma to her in her childhood.

Culture Audience: “Our Father, the Devil” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful dramas about people with dark secrets.

Souleymane Sy Savane in “Our Father, the Devil” (Photo courtesy of Cineverse/Fandor)

“Our Father, the Devil” is a well-acted psychological drama that offers a fascinating portait of a woman’s complicated feelings about revenge, religion and redemption. The movie also explores issues regarding PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and long-term effects of childhood trauma. “Our Father, the Devil” is a slow-burn story that effectively shows how pent-up emotions can erupt in ways that lead to problematic consequences.

Writer/director Ellie Foumbi makes an assured feature-film directorial debut with “Our Father, the Devil,” which had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival. The movie then made the rounds at several festivals in 2022 and 2023, including the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. In addition, “Our Father, the Devil” was nominated for Best Feature at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

“Our Father, the Devil” takes place in Lucho, France, where protagonist Marie Cissé (played by Babetida Sadjo) is an African immigrant working as the head chef of a nursing home. Marie, who is a bachelorette with no children, is very good at her job. Marie keeps mostly to herself and lives alone in a small apartment. Marie’s closest friend is a co-worker named Nadia Benoit (played by Jennifer Tchiakpe), who works as an orderly at the nursing home.

Nadia confides in Marie about her fertility issues. Nadia and her husband want to start a family, but Nadia hasn’t gotten pregnant. Nadia worries about her chances of getting pregnant after her husband will move out of the home for a long-distance job. Marie is a compassionate friend who comforts Nadia when Nadia gets emotional about these worries.

Marie’s boss is nursing home manager Sabine Leplanche (played by Maëlle Genet), who is demanding and shows hints of being xenophobic. In an early scene in the movie, Sabine goes in the nursing home’s kitchen to taste some of the food before it gets served to the residents. Sabine scolds the sous chef for making soup that is too spicy for Sabine’s taste. Sabine tells the sous chef in a condescending tone: “We’re not in Algeria,” Sabine comments. “The sous chef replies defiantly, “Good thing I’m French.”

One of the nursing home residents named Jeanne Guyot (played by Martine Amisse) has taken a liking to Marie, who has a good rapport with Jeanne. When Jeanne’s adult son Thomas Guyot (played by Maxence David) makes a rare visit to Jeanne at the nursing home, it’s obvious that this mother and son have a tension-filled relationship. Later in the movie, Jeanne makes a confession explaining why she thinks she sees a lot of herself in Marie.

One day, Jeanne tells Marie that Jeanne recently changed her will to cut Thomas out of any inheritance. Jeanne then surprises Marie by giving her the keys to Jeanne’s guest home, which is in remote wooded area. To Marie’s shock, Jeanne tells Marie that Jeanne has signed over the deed to the house to Marie. Jeanne insists that Marie accept this unexpected gift.

Marie seems comfortable around women, but she shows obvious discomfort and sometimes hostility in the company of men whom she thinks are giving her unwanted attention. An early scene in the movie shows Marie at a cafe, where a server named Arnaud Charpentier (played Franck Saurel) tries to flirt with her, but she’s standoffish and rebuffs his attempts to engage in a friendly conversation with her. Based on this brief and uncomfortable talk, Marie is a regular customer, and Arnaud has been noticing her for a while, because he knows what she likes to order.

Another scene shows just how “on edge” Marie is. She’s walking down a street by herself at night, when she notices a man walking behind her. She thinks this stranger is following her. And when he walks close enough to her, she pulls a knife on him. When Marie sees that the stranger means no harm, she quickly makes an apology. What would cause Marie to be so paranoid and combative?

The answer comes a little later in the movie, when a Catholic priest named Father Patrick (played by Souleymane Sy Savane) visits the nursing home to give a sermon. Marie looks like she’s seen a ghost when she first sees Father Patrick, who says he’s from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Marie goes to a computer and finds an article with the headline “Young Warlord ‘The Oracle’ Found Dead in a Bush.”

The sight of Father Patrick has unnerved Marie so much, she asks Sabine for a few days off, but Sabine declines the request because the nursing home is currently understaffed. In the nursing home’s cafeteria-styled dining area, Marie has to serve Father Patrick. Marie is visibly uncomfortable in his presence. Later, after the nursing home’s kitchen is closed, he goes to the kitchen to ask Marie if he can have more of the stew that he was served earlier. This conversation changes the course of the story.

Without giving away too many details, it’s enough to say that Marie is certain that Father Patrick is actually someone she used to know from her past. She thinks Father Patrick is someone who caused a lot of pain and trauma in her life. Father Patrick vehemently denies Marie’s accusations and insists that she has him mistaken for someone else.

There’s more to the story than this identity mystery. The truth is eventually revealed in a gut-wrenching emotional scene. Although all of the principal cast members give skilled performances, the movie’s emotional heart is in Sadjo’s riveting performance. For her role in “My Father, the Devil,” Sadjo was nominated for a 2023 Gotham Award for Outstanding Lead Performance. Foumbi’s absorbing writing and directing make viewers feel that they are right in the middle of the emotional journey that Marie goes on in the movie.

“Our Father, the Devil” raises provocative questions about how much people should be defined by past actions, how much people might be able to change, and how much trust can be put into people who might not be showing their true selves to others. Although some extreme things happen in the movie, “Our Father, the Devil” maintains a realism about it all that looks credible. This memorable film shows in intriguing ways how people judge themselves when they are judging others.

Cineverse and Fandor released “Our Father, the Devil” in New York City on August 25, 2023, and in Los Angeles on September 1, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on October 10, 2023.

Review: ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ (2023), starring Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth and Camille Rutherford

October 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud in “Anatomy of a Fall” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Anatomy of a Fall” (2023)

Directed by Justine Triet

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in France, the dramatic film “Anatomy of a Fall” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A famous novelist, who is a German immigrant, is accused of murdering her husband, who fell out of a third-floor window in their home.

Culture Audience: “Anatomy of a Fall” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching well-acted psychological thrillers and courtroom dramas.

Milo Machado Graner in “Anatomy of a Fall” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Anatomy of a Fall” is an above-average mystery thriller that will leave people guessing about the answer to the mystery. The movie is a little too long, but the courtroom scenes are riveting. “Anatomy of a Fall” had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize.

Directed by Justine Triet (who co-wrote the “Anatomy of a Fall” screenplay with Arthur Harari), “Anatomy of a Fall” is a sprawling movie with a total running time of 152 minutes. The film achieves a tricky balance of spending a lot of time exploring the psyche of the story’s protagonist while still giving viewers the feeling that the protagonist is still too mysterious to completely know. This inscrutability is why the ending of the movie is effective but will be unsettling to viewers who want clear and undeniable answers at the end the story.

“Anatomy of a Fall” begins by showing a fateful day in the life of an affluent family living in a fairly remote French Alps chalet near Grenoble, France. The family has been living in this chalet for about one year. Early on in the story, one of the family members will die on the house’s property.

Sandra Voyter (played by Sandra Hüller) is a German immigrant who is a well-known, successful novelist. Her husband Samuel Maleski (played by Samuel Theis) is a university professor who is an aspiring writer. Their 11-year-old son Daniel (played by Milo Machado Graner) is visually impaired because his optic nerves became permanently damaged after he was accidentally hit by a motorcycle when he was younger. Daniel isn’t completely blind but his vision very limited.

The day starts off in a fairly normal manner. It’s winter, so there is snow all around, but the day is sunny and clear. Sandra is being interviewed in the family home by a graduate student journalist named Zoé Solidor (played by Camille Rutherford), who is a star-struck fan of Sandra.

During the interview, Sandra gets annoyed because Samuel is in the third-floor attic and is playing music that is loud enough to be heard in the room where the interview is taking place. An irritated Sandra loudly tells Samuel to turn down the music more than once before he finally does so. The song that he’s playing is Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s cover version of 50 Cent’s 2003 song “P.I.M.P.,” which is played several times later in the courtroom scenes.

After Zoé leaves, Daniel comes back from a walk with his guide dog, a Border Collie named Snoop. (The dog’s name is real life is Messi.) To his horror, Daniel finds the dead body of Samuel on the ground outside the home. It appears that Samuel has fallen out of the attic window of the house. Was it an accident, suicide or murder?

Those are the questions that continue to swirl when Sandra becomes a person of interest when the investigation into the death begins. Sandra claims she was taking a nap at the time that Samuel fell out of the window. About an hour into the nap, she heard Daniel scream when he found Samuel’s body.

She also tells investigators and her defense attorney Vincent Renzi (played by Swann Arlaud) that she thinks Samuel’s death was an accident. Vincent tells Sandra, “Nobody is going to believe that. I don’t believe that.”

An autopsy reveals that Samuel had a severe blow to his head before he died, but the cause of death is ruled as inconclusive. Sandra then changes her theory of how Samuel died by saying that he could have committed suicide. She tells authorities and Vincent that she remembers that about six months earlier, she found Samuel unconscious in a puddle of his vomit because he had taken an intentional overdose of sleeping pills.

Sandra, who admits she was the only other person in the house when Samuel died, becomes the only suspect. She’s arrested for murder, indicted, and then goes on trial, one year after Samuel’s death. Sandra pleads not guilty. Her defense is that the blow to Samuel’s head probably came from a small wooden shed located directly beneath the window, with the theory being that Samuel hit his head on the shed during the fall, before he fell on the ground. However, there was no DNA found on the roof of the shed.

Vincent tells Sandra early on when they begin working together that he doesn’t know if she’s guilty or not guilty, but he expects her to be honest with him. As time goes on, people find out that Sandra has many secrets. She’s often dishonest and rude, which affects her credibility and likability. But is she guilty of murdering Samuel?

One of the truths that come out during the trial is that Samuel and Sandra had a troubled marriage before he died. Sandra and Samuel met when they were both living in London, and he had just become a university professor. Their relationship revolved around “intellectual stimulation, even at the expense of everything else,” says Sandra.

Samuel and Sandra had a volatile marriage that got worse after Samuel convinced Sandra to move from London back to his native France. Sandra tells Vincent in a private conversation that she was very happy in London. She bitterly says of the decision to move to France: “I left my shithole in Germany to live in his shithole.” Sandra tells Vincent that Samuel was a frustrated and wannabe novelist who couldn’t finish a manuscript and was jealous of her success as a published author.

Sandra, who is openly bisexual, is described in the movie as being very seductive and alluring when she wants to be. She admits that she had sexual relationships outside the marriage, including an affair with a woman. Samuel knew about these affairs. According to Sandra, he wasn’t happy about the infidelity, but he tolerated it.

More suspicion falls on Sandra when it’s revealed that Samuel secretly made an audio recording of a violent argument that he and Sandra had the day before he died. The recording is played in court, but it’s difficult to tell from the recording who initiated the violence. At the time of Samuel’s death, Sandra had a bruise on her elbow. She says she got the bruise from accidentally bumping into a kitchen counter at her home.

One of the more memorable aspects of “Anatomy of a Fall” is how this entire ordeal affects Daniel. After the death of Samuel, introverted Daniel becomes very depressed to the point where it’s difficult for him to get out of bed. He’s assigned a child therapist named Marge Berger (played by Jehnny Beth), who is compassionate and tries to remain as neutral as possible with Daniel about what she thinks about Sandra.

As time goes on in the trial, the prosecutor (played by Antoine Reinartz) and the media seem determined to place the marriage of Sandra and Samuel on trial too. Sandra is also judged for not being a stereotypical image of a warm-hearted, nurturing and virtuous mother. It’s the movie’s way of observing how society can judge mothers who are on trial for murder.

Sandra is not cruel, but she is certainly a complicated person. The movie leaves it up to viewers to decide how manipulative she might or might not be. Hüller gives a masterful performance as someone who thinks she’s smarter than the average person and has little to no patience with anyone who doesn’t agree with her point of view. Graner gives a standout performance as vulnerable Daniel, who might have some secrets of his own.

“Anatomy of a Fall” has well-written courtroom scenes that will keep viewers interested in what will happen next. There’s also a point in the movie where it looks like Sandra and Vincent look like they’re attracted to each other. Will they act on this attraction? And is Sandra faking this attraction to manipulate Vincent? It’s a testament to the excellent writing and performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” that the movie raises many questions but the answers are not always predictable or simple.

Neon will release “Anatomy of a Fall” in select U.S. cinemas on October 13, 2023. The movie will be released on digital an VOD on December 22, 2023.

Review: ‘Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,’ a whimsical animated sequel from France about an elephant, a mouse and the power of music

September 30, 2023

by Carla Hay

Célestine and Ernest in “Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” (Image courtesy of GKIDS)

“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia”

Directed by Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger

Available in the original French version (with English subtitles) or in a dubbed English-language version.

Culture Representation: Taking place in an alternate version of France, the animated film “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” (a sequel to 2012’s “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” features a cast of animal characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Best friends Ernest (an elephant) and Celestine (a mouse) go on a trip together and get entangled with authorities who want to ban music that the authorities think is problematic and are looking for the leader of a resistance movement that wants to defy this ban.

Culture Audience: “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of of the first Ernest & Celestine” movie and animated films that combine adventure with social commentary.

Ernest and Célestine in “Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” (Image courtesy of GKIDS)

“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” packs a lot of serious issues (such as government oppression and family conflicts) into an engaging story that has whimsical animation and memorable characters. There’s enough joy to balance out the heavy topics.

Directed by Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger, “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” was written by Guillaume Mautalent and Sebastien Oursel. The movie is a sequel to 2012’s “”Ernest & Celestine.” Both movies take place in an alternate version of France where there are talking animals.

In “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,” Ernest the bear and Celestine the mouse have a mishap when Celestine accidentally breaks Ernest’s rare violin. He tells her that they have to go to Gibberitia to find the person whom Ernest says can repair the violin.

The encounter a storm on the way but make it to Gibberitia, where they find there are strict rules in place about music. The police say that only the C note is allowed in Gibberitia. Anyone caught violating this “musical agitation” law can be arrested. Someone named Octavius is an outlaw for this reason.

Ernest and Celestine also find out that the police in Gibberitia are looking for someone known only as EFG, who is considered to be the leader of the “music agitators.” Most of the movie is about the mystery of EFG and EFG’s real identity. Viewers will also learn some interesting facts about Ernest, who visits estranged members of his family. The friendship between Ernest and Celestine evolves through a deeper understanding of what Ernest has been through in his past.

“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” adeptly balances the story’s comedy and drama. It’s the opposite of the slick, computer-generated animated films that get churned out by major corporate studios. The movie evokes a tone of simpler times and can be enjoyed by people of many different generations.

GKIDS released “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” in U.S. cinemas on September 1, 2023. The movie was released in France on December 14, 2022.

Review: ‘The Miracle Club,’ starring Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O’Casey, Mark O’Halloran, Mark McKenna, Niall Buggy, Hazel Doupe and Stephen Rea

July 9, 2023

by Carla Hay

“The Miracle Club”

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1967, in Ireland and in France, the dramatic film “The Miracle Club” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Four women, who are from a working-class suburb of Dublin, travel to Lourdes, France, in search of personal miracles in their lives, but the trip becomes more about confronting their grief and resentments.

Culture Audience: “The Miracle Club” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the star headliners and are interested in watching somewhat sentimental European dramas about different generations of women.

Laura Linney and Mark O’ Halloran in “The Miracle Club” (Photo by Jonathan Hession/Sony Pictures Classics)

“The Miracle Club” offers no real surprises in this retro drama about four women who travel together to Lourdes, France, and confront their pasts. The lead actresses’ performances, especially from Laura Linney and Kathy Bates, are worth watching. “The Miracle Club” is the type of drama that’s a dying breed, simply because it takes a very traditional/old-fashioned approach to telling this story cinematically. There’s an audience for this type of movie, but it’s the type of audience that prefers movies that were made in the 20th century.

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, “The Miracle Club” had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival. Even though the movie’s story is centered on four women, “The Miracle Club” has an all-male team of writers: Joshua D. Maurer, Timothy Prager and Jimmy Smallhorne wrote “The Miracle Club” screenplay. When a movie about women is written and directed by men, the movie sometimes has a very patriarchal tone. There’s a whiff of that patriarchal tone in “The Miracle Club,” but the heart of the movie is how the women interact with each other without influence from husbands or clergymen.

“The Miracle Club,” which is set in 1967, opens in Ballygar, Ireland, a working-class suburb of Dublin. A senior citizen named Lily Fox (played by Maggie Smith) is looking mournfully at a cliffside memorial plaque dedicated to her son Declan Fox, who drowned at sea in 1927, when he was 19 years old. Declan was the only child of Lily and her husband Tommy Fox (played by Niall Buggy), who is now retired.

Declan’s death has left a void that Lily and Tommy don’t like to talk about. Lily has a cranky and very judgmental personality that is outmatched by Tommy’s cranky and judgmental personality. When Lily comes back from visiting the memorial dedicated to Declan, she gets this scolding from Tommy: “You’re not visiting our son. You’re visiting a pile of rocks and sand that don’t mean anything.”

Lily is in an amateur singing trio with two friends who live nearby and who all know each other from going to the same church: Eileen Dunne and Dolly Hennessy. (They are all devout Catholics.)

Eileen (played by Bates) is a middle-aged married mother of six children. Eileen’s oldest child is inquisitive Cathy Dunne (played by Hazel Doupe), who’s about 15 or 16 years old. Eileen’s husband is Frank Dunne (played by Stephen Rea), who likes to think he’s the head of the household, but outspoken Eileen is really the one who runs things in this crowded home.

Dolly (played by Agnes O’Casey, in her feature-film debut) is sweet-natured and in her 20s. She’s also a married mother. Her husband George Hennessy (played by Mark McKenna) is very bossy and impatient. Dolly and George have two children together: Their son Daniel Hennessy (played by Eric Smith) is about 5 or 6 years old, and he happens to be mute. Their daughter Rosie Hennessy (played by Alice Heneghan) is an infant.

George gets annoyed when Dolly asks him to donate some of their money to the church. The family is on a tight budget. Dolly and George’s marriage is also under some strain, because George has become disappointed and frustrated that Daniel is mute. Dolly is hopeful that Daniel will eventually begin talking, which she thinks can happen with the right amount of prayers and encouragement. George, who has grown cynical and bitter about Daniel’s muteness, doesn’t think religion will have anything to do with getting Daniel to talk.

Lily had a longtime best friend named Maureen. Their dream was to take a trip to Lourdes, France. It’s a city whose main claim to fame is the Grotto of Massabielle (also known as the Grotto of the Apparitions), which has a reputation for being a place where miracles happen, ever since the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared to a local woman in 1858. Unfortunately, Lily and widow Maureen won’t be going to Lourdes together because Maureen has recently died.

In Ballygar in 1967, Maureen was on the church’s committee for an upcoming fundraiser: a local talent contest where the winner gets a trip to Lourdes. It’s been decided that the fundraiser will go on in Maureen’s honor. (Brenda Fricker has the voice of Maureen when one of Maureen’s letters is read on screen after Maureen’s death.) Lily, Eileen and Dolly choose to become a “legitimate” singing group and enter the contest. They name their group the Miracles.

Even though all of their husbands think that the Miracles have little to no chance of winning, viewers already know from what’s revealed in “The Miracle Club” trailers that Lily, Eileen and Dolly end up going to Lourdes anyway, with Daniel also along for the journey. (This review won’t reveal whether or not they won the contest.) It’s a bittersweet trip, since they all wanted Maureen to go on this trip too. It will be the first time that Lily, Eileen and Dolly will travel outside of Ireland.

There’s someone else who’s going on the trip with them to Lourdes: Maureen’s estranged daughter Chrissie Ahearn (played by Laura Linney), a middle-aged bachelorette who has been living in the United States and hasn’t been back in Ballygar since 1927, the year that Chrissie moved away as an outcast. Chrissie has reluctantly come back to Ballygar for Maureen’s funeral.

The only person in town who seems to welcome Chrissie is Father Dermot Byrne (played by Mark O’Halloran), who is the chief priest at the local church and the officiator at Maureen’s funeral. Lily and Eileen react to Chrissie’s hometown visit with a lot of hostility toward Chrissie, because of something that happened in 1927. Dolly, who wasn’t even born when this grudge happened, tries to stay neutral, but Lily and Eileen tell Dolly to stay away from Chrissie. Father Dermot takes on the role of peacemaker and suggests to Chrissie that she go on the trip to Lourdes, not just as a tribute to her mother but also to possibly heal old emotional wounds with Lily and Eileen.

Eileen, Chrissie and Declan used to be the best of friends. But something caused a rift in this friendship that led to Chrissie abruptly moving away and cutting off contact with almost everyone she knew in Ireland. Eileen felt abandoned by Chrissie and hasn’t forgiven her.

As already revealed in the trailers for “The Miracle Club,” Chrissie tells Eileen that Chrissie didn’t abandon anyone but Chrissie was “banished.” Chrissie’s “secret” is very easy to figure out before it’s revealed. It’s the most obvious reason why a teenage girl would be sent away from her home in 1920s Ireland.

That’s not the only secret being kept before there’s the inevitable confession to the rest of the group. Lily wants to go to Lourdes for miracle help with her grief over Declan. Dolly wants her miracle to be for her son Daniel to talk. Eileen wants a miracle that has to do with a secret that Eileen is keeping. Eileen’s big secret is also not very surprising.

“The Miracle Club” goes through the expected scenes of discomfort as unwelcome travel companion Chrissie has awkward and tension-filled interactions with Lily and Eileen. It should come as no surprise when Chrissie has to share a hotel room with Lily, who has the most unresolved issues with Chrissie. It’s explained that the hotel is booked up, so there’s no other room available. It’s a very contrived scenario for a movie, because Chrissie could have stayed at another hotel.

“The Miracle Club” doesn’t really waste time, but it doesn’t have any genuine suspense about Chrissie’s secret, which is the main source of the conflict between Chrissie and Lily. Eileen doesn’t find out this secret until much later. The banter between the women is often realistic, but the scenarios around them sometimes look too phony.

“The Miracle Club” pokes fun at male egos by showing how the husbands of Lily, Eileen and Dolly have trouble coping with household duties while their wives are away. Suddenly, these “macho” men find out that they’re kind of helpless and ignorant about a lot of things that they thought were easy to do, just they because they’re thought of as “women’s responsibilities.” It’s the movie’s obvious way of showing that spouses shouldn’t take each other for granted.

The issue of Daniel’s muteness is handled with sensitivity, but it often takes a back seat to the main story about the feuding between Chrissie, Lily and Eileen. Chrissie is the only one of the four women who isn’t religious. She’s grown disillusioned about religion because she thinks religious people are very hypocritical. (Her disillusionment is another big clue about her secret.)

Linney and Bates, as estranged friends Chrissie and Eileen, have the most realistic dynamics in the movie and give the best performances. Smith is doing yet another “grumpy old woman” role that she seems to be stuck doing in the later stages of her career, although the character of Lily has some emotionally impactful scenes toward the end of the film.

O’Casey makes an impressive feature-film debut as Dolly, who is somewhat of “third wheel” to Lily and Eileen. At times, it’s not quite convincing that Dolly could be close friends with Lily and Eileen, because Dolly seems more like a sidekick than someone whom Lily and Eileen treat as an equal. O’Casey brings some very good nuance to this role portraying a mother who tries to be cheerful to everyone on the outside but is worried sick about her mute son.

“The Miracle Club” is not the type of movie where people should expect outrageous things to happen. There’s also no supernatural element to the story, even though much of it takes place in “miracle destination” Lourdes. The Miracle Club” has solid performances and a story that’s the equivalent of familiar comfort food. It’s not going to change the world, but it can be entertaining to people who like this type movie.

Sony Pictures Classics will release “The Miracle Club” in U.S. cinemas on July 14, 2023.

Donatella Versace and Dua Lipa team up for La Vacanza collection for women

May 4, 2023

Dua Lipa and Donatella Versace (Photo courtesy of Versace)

The following is a press release from Versace:

The Versace “La Vacanza” fashion show, will take place on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, in Cannes, France. The show will feature a women’s collection co-designed by Donatella Versace and Dua Lipa. The “La Vacanza” collection will be available in store and on-line on Versace.com immediately following the show.

“I have always been inspired by a collaborative design process. Working with Dua on this collection has been very exciting and I love the dynamic between us. Dua is strong, fearless, and free and her creative vision is exceptional. Summer is a magical time. We will capture this feeling and the colours of that time of the year with a truly special and intimate fashion show in Cannes.” – Donatella Versace, Chief Creative Officer, Versace

“I am absolutely thrilled to have co-designed the women’s “La Vacanza” collection for Versace with Donatella. She and I have formed such a strong bond over the years, and I’m so grateful for the support I’ve received from her and the whole team since the very beginning of my career. For her to give me the honor of co-designing this collection and letting all my summer inspirations go wild has been a dream. I am so very proud of this collection and cannot wait to debut it in Cannes.” – Dua Lipa

https://dam.gettyimages.com/universal/

Review: ‘Smoking Causes Coughing,’ starring Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra

May 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Smoking Causes Coughing”

Directed by Quentin Dupieux

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in unnamed cities in France, the sci-fi comedy film “Smoking Causes Coughing” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Five superheroes called the Tobacco Force, whose mission is to combat people who cause pollution from smoking, are sent on a team-building retreat while a lizard villain threatens to take over the world.

Culture Audience: “Smoking Causes Coughing” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching quirky European movies that blend societal observations with bizarre comedy.

Oulaya Amamra, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier and Jean-Pascal Zadi in “Smoking Causes Coughing” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Smoking Causes Coughing” has some amusing satirical things to say about pollution and the concept of utopias. It’s not writer/director Quentin Dupieux’s best movie, and the ending is underwhelming, but most of the movie is entertaining to watch. Unlike his other films that have a overall cohesive narrative, “Smoking Causes Coughing” is more like a series of sketches compiled for a movie. “Smoking Causes Coughing” had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and later played at other film festivals in 2022, including Fantastic Fest and AFI Fest.

“Smoking Causes Coughing” (which takes place in an unspecified future in unnamed cities in France) begins by showing a road trip being taken by an unnamed mother (played by Julia Faure), an unnamed father (played by David Marsais) and their teenage son Stéphane (played by Tanguy Mercier), who are passing by a remote desert-shrub area in their car. Stéphane wants to stop the car because he has spotted five “celebrities” he wants to meet: a group of “superheroes” named the Tobacco Force, who all dress in outfits that are similar to Power Rangers outfits, but in blue, white and gold.

When Stéphane and his parents stop the car, Stéphane runs closer to see the five members in this desert-shrub area. The members of the Tobacco Force have surrounded a giant mutant turtle called Tortusse (played by Olivier Afonso), who moves like a human, and are fighting this creature. Laser-like gas comes out of the Tobacco Forces’ fists until Tortusse explodes, with the body splatter flying in all directions, including on Stéphane and his parents. (Part of this scene is already shown in the trailer for “Smoking Causes Coughing.”)

This star-struck family is unfazed by being covered in gunky remains of an animal. They want to take photos with the Tobacco Force. All of the members willingly oblige and happily pose for pictures with these strangers who have gunk on their faces and clothes. And then this family gets back in the car and is not seen again for the rest of the movie.

The Tobacco Force’s five members, whose ages range from 20s to 40s, have a mission to save the world from pollution, specifically pollution from people smoking. They are also told there is a constant threat of villains trying to destroy the world. The villian who is their biggest threat is named Lizardin (played by Benoite Chivot), who is said to be much more dangerous than Tortusse. The Tobacco Force has a small robot sidekick named Norbert 500 (voiced by Ferdinand Canaud), who does all of the cleaning up after the Tobacco Force’s inevitable messes.

All of the members of the Tobacco Force are named after ingredients found in cigarettes. The oldest member of the Tobacco Force is Benzene (played by Gilles Lellouche), who acts as if he’s the leader of the group. Nicotine (played by Anaïs Demoustier) is flirtatious and bubbly. Ammonia (played by Oulaya Amamra) is sassy and assertive. Mercury (played by Jean-Pascal Zadi) is cautious and a married father of two underage children. Methanol (played by Vincent Lacoste) is the group’s quietest and youngest member. Benzene says that Methanol reminds Benzene of how Benzene used to be when he was Methanol’s age.

The Tobacco Force has to report to a boss named Chief Didier (voiced by Alain Chabat), who is usually just called Chief. This cranky boss looks like a human-sized rat and constantly has green ooze drooling from his mouth. The costumes in “Smoking Causes Coughing” are deliberately made to look like they’re from a tacky, low-budge sci-fi B-movie. For example, Tortusse’s costume looks like it’s ready to fall apart at any moment. Chief is obviously just a cheap-looking puppet.

A running joke in the movie is that Chief (who has a personality as slimy as the green ooze the drips from his mouth) is a ladies’ man who has no shortage of women in his bed. (He is seen with a different lover in every scene.) It’s the movie’s way of commenting on how power can be an aphrodisiac and can make someone look more attractive.

And not even Nicotine and Ammonia are immune to this attraction. Another running joke in the movie is that Nicotine and Ammonia both want to be the “favorite” employee of Chief and probably date him, but Nicotine and Ammonia don’t want to admit it to each other. Still, Nicotine and Ammonia sneakily try to find out what Chief says and does when he’s alone with the other woman. Nicotine and Ammonia also pretend not to be jealous when they see Chief with any of his girlfriends.

The Tobacco Force has been having some in-fighting recently, so Chief orders this quintet to go on a team-building retreat, which is also in a desert-shrub area. The best way to describe their living situation at this retreat is it looks like a high-tech camp. The group members are supposed to be by themselves at this retreat, but it should come as no surprise that they get some unexpected visitors.

A large part of “Smoking Causes Coughing” is about people sitting around a campfire and telling their scariest or most unusual stories. Benzene tells a story about two married couples—spouses Bruno (played by Jérôme Niel) and Agathe (played by Doria Tillier) and spouses Christophe (played by Grégoire Ludig) and Céline (played by Adèle Exarchopoulos) going on a camping trip together. Someone in this group of spouses gets alienated from the other three people, and choas ensues.

“Smoking Causes Coughing” has a total running time of about 80 minutes, which is a good-enough length, because this movie doesn’t have much of a plot. The performances of the cast members are mildly engaging but not particularly outstanding, People should not be fooled into thinking that the “superhero” costumes are indication that “Smoking Causes Coughing” is an adrenaline-packed action movie. This is a film that is for viewers who like seeing movies with unusual characters, eccentric comedy and the appeal of some very unexpected things happening.

Magnet Releasing released “Smoking Causes Coughing” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on March 31, 2023. The movie was released in France on November 30, 2022.

Review: ‘Chevalier’ (2023), starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Minnie Driver, Sian Clifford, Alex Fitzalan and Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo

April 21, 2023

by Carla Hay

Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Joseph Prowen in “Chevalier” (Photo by Larry Horricks/Searchlight Pictures)

“Chevalier” (2023)

Directed by Stephen Williams

Culture Representation: Taking place in France, from the 1750s to the 1790s, the dramatic film “Chevalier” (a biopic of musician/fencer Joseph Bologne, also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and royalty.

Culture Clash: Bologne experiences racism, an illicit love affair and treacherous politics in his journey to becoming a celebrated musician and fencer.

Culture Audience: “Chevalier” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of history-based biopics and classical music and don’t mind if a movie set in 1700s France has some modern touches that didn’t exist in that century.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo in “Chevalier” (Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures)

“Chevalier” has its share of corny “only in a movie” moments, but the essential truths of oppression and racial barriers in society have the most resonance in this story. Kelvin Harrison Jr. gives an admirable performance. The costume designs are gorgeous. You don’t have to be fan of classical music to enjoy the movie, but it certainly helps. History purists will be wincing through some of the story, because it’s yet another biopic that takes liberties with facts, in order to make the movie more dramatic.

Directed by Stephen Williams and written by Stefani Robinson (who is one of the producers of the movie), “Chevalier” (which takes place in France, mostly in Paris) tells the story of Joseph Bologne, also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who lived from 1745 to 1799. He the first black person to conduct a major orchestra in France. He was also renowned for being a champion fencer. The movie depicts Joseph mostly in his 20s, 30s and 40s, but there are flashback scenes to his teens and younger childhood. “Chevalier” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie tells viewers right from the beginning that Joseph (played as an underage teen and as an adult by Harrison) was so phenomenal, he outshone Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (played by Joseph Prowen) in concert. The opening scene shows Mozart conducting an orchestra in Paris, sometime in the 1780s, and asking the audience for requests. Joseph confidently strolls into the concert hall and asks to play the violin alongside Mozart.

Mozart looks slightly amused and asks, “Who put you up to this?” Joseph says, “Myself, monsieur.” Mozart calls Joseph a “dark stranger” and smugly says, “I hope this won’t be too embarrassing for you.” They proceed to play the violin, as if it’s a dueling competition of musicianship.

And in the end, Mozart is the one who’s embarrassed, as Joseph proves that he’s the more talented violinist. Joseph is so masterful, the crowd gives him a standing ovation. An infuriated Mozart runs off stage and fumes, “Who the fuck was that?” Clearly, “Chevalier” is not a movie that wants to look historically accurate.

This scene is a perfect example of how “Chevalier” tries but doesn’t always succeed in balancing hokey drama with regal gravitas. It’s a movie with a lot of 1700s pomp and circumstance, but with a modern approach to melodrama that takes viewers out of this time period, especially in a lot of the dialogue that sounds too contemporary. The movie’s messages about racism sometimes get bogged down in too much exposition, but luckily the cast is talented enough to elevate the material.

If some of the scenes in “Chevalier” look over-the-top and fabricated for a movie, that’s because the real life of Bologne did not get a lot of historical documentation. However, you don’t have to be a historian or a classical music expert to know that the opening scene definitely looks fake. Mozart running off stage in humiliation because of a newcomer rival—if it happened in real life—would have gone down in history as one of the most notorious stories about him.

What the movie does depict that is historically accurate is that at the age of 7, Joseph (played by Reuben Anderson) was taken by his white French American father to live in France, where Joseph was educated and lived for the rest of his life. Joseph’s father was a wealthy plantation owner named Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges, and his mother was an enslaved black woman named Nanon, who was originally from Senegal. In real life, Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges lived in the Caribbean archipelago Guadeloupe, which was a colony of France at the time.

The “Chevalier” movie changes the location of Joseph’s birthplace from Guadeloupe to Louisiana. His father’s name has the English-language spelling of George Bologne (played by Jim High), a French American who spends time at his plantations in Louisiana and Guadeloupe. Joseph’s mother Nanon (played by Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo) is depicted as being originally from Senegal and brought to North America in enslavement, just like in real life. The “Chevalier” filmmakers perhaps made Joseph have a connection to Louisiana because Harrison is American, and his American accent can be heard in much of the dialogue.

Before abandoning his son in France at the private Academie de La Boëssière, George instills the belief in Joseph that Joseph must be the best at anything he does if he is going to survive and succeed. The academy’s owner Tessier de La Boëssière (played by Ben Bradshaw) reluctantly enrolls Joseph in the school and warns George that Joseph people at the school will not be kind to this “Negro bastard.” In real life, Joseph had an older white half-brother named Pierre (they had the same father), who was already enrolled at the academy when Joseph was admitted as a sudent. However, the “Chevalier” movie erases Pierre, probably to make it look more dramatic that Joseph felt isolated by not knowing any at the academy as a new student.

“Chevalier” shows the expected racist bullying that Joseph received throughout his life. But the movie also shows how he achieved greatness, despite many obstacles put in his way. Expect to see several montages of him practicing his music or fencing, as if his life depended on it, because in many ways, his life really did depend on it. Joseph eventually became well-known for his talents and got respect from members of high society.

This notoriety resulted in a volatile friendship with the fun-loving but very spoiled Marie Antoinette (played by Lucy Boynton), the queen of France, who introduced him to powerful members of her inner circle. This inner circle includes Marie’s cousin Philippe (played by Alex Fitzalan), the Duke of Orleans. Philippe becomes Joseph’s close confidant, and their friendship leads to an important political alliance.

As already revealed in the trailer for “Chevalier,” Nanon reunites with Joseph around the time that he becomes a famous musician and a champion fencer. The reunion doesn’t go smoothly at first, because Nanon represents a part of Joseph’s life that he wants to keep in the past. Eventually, Nanaon and Joseph become close when he begins to understand that he should embrace and appreciate his African American heritage.

“Chevalier” is not subtle in its messages about how black people who achieve success in a predominantly white culture have to decide how much “black culture” will be part of their identity when interacting with white people. The way that Joseph chooses to wear his hair in public (African-styled cornrow braids or European-made wigs) is a manifestation/symbol about how much of his “black” or “white” identity that he wants to express.

Some of the best aspects of “Chevalier” have to do with Joseph confronting his “assimilation” into white French society and what that assimilation will cost him, in terms of his self-respect, his relationship with his mother and his career. Joseph has to deal with constant condescension from white people who think that Joseph will never be equal to them, simply because he is not white. Marie Antoinette often treats him like “charity case” who needs her and other white people to “save” him. At one point, Joseph assertively says to her: “Not everything is about you people.”

The movie’s strongest non-musical scenes are those between Joseph and the women in his life: his kind and patient mother Nanon, his unpredictable friend Marie Antoinette, and his conflicted lover Marie-Josephine (played by Samara Weaving), an opera singer who is an unhappy marriage to a cruel and wealthy man named Marquis De Montalembert (played by Marton Csokas). Marie-Josephine was the one who introduced Joseph to her husband, who could immediately sense that there was an attraction between her and Joseph. Privately, Marquis De Montalembert tells Joseph (who has a reputation for being a ladies’ man) that he doesn’t “wish for my Marie-Josephine to become a whore.”

Joseph also has to navigate the power and politics of getting investments for an original opera that he is composing and plans to conduct. Marie-Josephine’s cousin La Guimard (played by Minnie Driver), who is a rich opera singer, expresses interest in being an investor, but she enjoys manipulating Joseph, because she knows she has the financial upper hand. Joseph ends up wanting Marie-Josephine to be the star of his opera. Marquis De Montalembert doesn’t want Marie-Josephine to take the job, for obvious reasons.

Another affluent potential investor is Madame De Genlis (played by Sian Clifford), who believes in Joseph’s talent, but she wants some creative control that he’s reluctant to give. She says she will finance the opera if he bases it on a story that she wrote. Observant viewers will notice that no matter how exceptional Joseph can be, it causes resentment among racist people who will use any excuse to try to tear him down.

“Chevalier” does not make Joseph look like a saint. He can be stubborn and arrogant to a fault. His affair with Marie-Josephine is an example of his selfish recklessness. And even though Joseph thinks he loves Marie-Josephine, it’s pretty obvious that people will get very hurt by this love affair. The movie takes an abrupt turn into some melodrama that comes as a result of this extramarital relationship.

Despite some cringeworthy lines of dialogue in “Chevalier” and occasionally slow pacing of the movie, Harrison holds everything together and keeps things watchable in his intriguing portrayal of this complex character. Boynton has some memorable moments in her performance as the imperious and fickle queen Marie Antoinette. The movie’s costume design by Oliver García and production design by Karen Murphy are truly feasts for the eyes.

The music of “Chevalier” is also noteworthy, including a vibrant original score by Kris Bowers and production and musical arrangements of Bologne’s music by Michael Abels. In terms of overall storytelling, “Chevalier” is no masterpiece. However, the movie has enough compelling moments and good acting to maintain viewer interest in this very dramatic version of an extraordinary and talented life.

Searchlight Pictures released “Chevalier” in U.S. cinemas on April 21, 2023.