Thriller de Justine Triet, 2h30
” What do you want to know ? The first line of Anatomy of a Fall is spoken by Sandra Voyter, an acclaimed German writer, interviewed by a student at her home, an isolated chalet in the mountains, slightly intoxicated by glasses of wine. Her 11-year-old son, who is visually impaired, takes care of the dog. Upstairs, Samuel, her French husband, is working. Or he’s pretending, pushing the music volume all the way up. Two and a half hours later, the viewer will know a lot about Sandra. His private life, his work, his infidelities, all his laundry, dirty or clean, will be unpacked in the public square during his trial. She is accused of having killed her husband, found his skull shattered at the foot of their chalet. Suicide or homicide? The medical examiner does not exclude the intervention of a third party. But two and a half hours later, the truth slips away. The whole truth, nothing but the truth, escapes. The shadow of a doubt remains. We owe it to the interpretation of Sandra Hüller, implacable, opaque, resistant to any concession. The scenario writer does not make the economy of a true film of lawsuit. With criminology experts and psychiatrists who contradict each other, skirmishes between a seemingly fragile defense lawyer (Swann Arlaud) and a ruthless general counsel (Antoine Reinartz), Anatomy of a Fall is the best film of French trials since L’Hermine, of Christian Vincent, with Fabrice Luchini as president of the assize court troubled by a secret love within the jury. A single flashback comes to break the camera of the courtroom. A sound recording broadcast as evidence is embodied in the image. A violent argument between Sandra and Samuel. They spit in their faces their incomprehension and their resentment. The scene, demented with cruel truth, makes Bergman pass for a tender heart. Anatomy of a fall is scalpel dissection of joint with child. S.S.
To read also “Little, I wanted to be a lawyer to make justice triumph”: the secrets of Justine Triet, palme d’or at Cannes
Thriller by Justin Lerner, 2h05
It’s a gritty and tense gang film, riddled with the sweltering heat and toxic dust of South America. Infiltrated, the third film by American Justin Lerner tells the immersion of a vengeful heroine, Sarita, in a mafia gang, in search of the truth about the disappearance of her sister. Between Guatemala and Mexico, the director immerses the viewer in the violent, dry and merciless daily life of the “ clicas”, these small local mafias that plague the country. Life has little price, we ride motorcycles without helmets, we deal, we prostitute ourselves, we reign over neighborhoods, we kill those who want to extend their influence. Sarita is fearless. She will do anything to learn the truth. His rise within the gang is gradual. But the damsel is determined. She’ll get dirty too. His odyssey, filmed in a sequence shot, reserves sequences of perfectly orchestrated dry violence. Co-produced by Guatemala, the United States and Mexico, the film won the New Blood prize last year at the Reims polar festival. This fiction, which will have required three years of work and investigation, turns out to be a dark thriller, some images of which remain in the memory. Above all, it is worn from start to finish by a magnetic actress, the young Karen Martinez (already seen in Rêves d’or, ten years ago). This little bit of actress, with a wild beauty, and a very expressive face, monopolizes the gaze. He is predicted a bright future in the cinema. O.D.
Thriller by Robert Rodriguez, 1h30
Friend of Tarantino, brat of Hollywood cinema, Robert Rodriguez has never hidden his love of bis cinema. The pop and violent director of Machete, Sin City or Alita: Battle Angel this time tackles without the slightest scruple a sci-fi thriller that voluntarily eyes Christopher Nolan’s Inception, the Wachowsky sisters’ Matrix, via the Scanners by Cronenberg. The plot features a detective played by Ben Affleck who investigates a mysterious robbery linked to the disappearance of his daughter. He gradually falls into a mind-blowing labyrinth that brings him face to face with a secret government program aimed at developing the telepathic faculties of about fifteen human guinea pigs. Quickly, we understand that under the serious varnish of a tribute to the Hitchcockian thriller, Rodriguez rather had fun paying homage to the solid B series like Roger Corman in the 1960s. By plunging the spectator into the uncertainty between reality and fiction , the crafty filmmaker multiplies the twists. Above all, he does not take himself seriously and plays like a kid with the codes of Nolan’s films. Hypnotic finally has the air of a nice nanar, and remains pleasant to watch if you don’t take too much care with the coherence of the whole. O.D.
Thriller fantastique d’André Øvredal, 1h58
In chapter 7 of his Dracula, the writer Bram Stoker mentioned the logbook of the ship’s captain who unknowingly ferried the vampire from Bulgaria to England. A passage never staged in the film adaptations until this classic but effective camera. This spray-swept, energized and neat game of slaughter recreates this crossing of the Demeter, a merchant ship on which the crew members meet a violent end. The bad omens accumulate. Superstitious sailors recognizing the emblem of the cargo refuse to embark. The animals in the hold are nervous. Dense fog and storms follow one another. From a crate escape black earth and a livid young woman, close to a coma. Only the transfusions of the Demeter doctor, Dr. Clemens, keep her alive. By virtue of their beliefs in science or religion, Clemens (Corey Hawkins, The Tragedy of Macbeth), the seasoned captain (Liam Cunningham, Game Of Thrones) and his sailors are slow to pinpoint the threat. The Carpathian Bloodletter is a skeletal monster (the emaciated giant Javier Botet). He plays with his food like a cat. Terrorizes and corners its prey like a serial killer. Enough to stay on the lookout even if the outcome of this confrontation is (almost) a foregone conclusion. C.J.
