Cannes Film Festival: the Un Certain Regard selection honored by the stars

On the list of films selected by the festival we find: “Nothing to lose,” “Salem” or “One night”, films with the impressive names of actors known on the screen.

Un Certain Regard is a parallel section of the official selection, which was created in 1978 by Gilles Jacob to highlight original films and the talents of tomorrow.

Virginie Efira came to present her second film “Nothing to Lose” at the Cannes Film Festival

In some perspective. First feature film by Delphine Deloget, this hard-hitting anti-social film features Virginie Efira as a mother deprived of her son by social services, following a legal and administrative misunderstanding.

The film, produced by Curiosia films, was shot in the city of Ponant from mid-January to mid-March 2022, shot in Brest, was to be called Rodéo. It is ultimately called Nothing to Lose. Rodeo, a name already taken by director Lola Quivoron, whose film was released in September 2022. Delphine Deloget reviewed her copy, and renamed hers, Nothing to lose.

In the credits: Virginie Efira, Félix Lefebvre, Arieh Worthalter, Mathieu Demy or even India Hair.

Sylvie takes care of her two children, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques, on her own, and works at night in a bar. One evening, Sofiane gets second-degree burns trying to make fries while he is alone in the apartment, unsupervised. A report is made to social assistance for children (ASE) and overnight, Sofiane is placed in a home.

Sylvie is very close to her teenager, played by the young actor Félix Lefebvre who had been revealed in Summer 85. Even when everything is going badly, she remains present for him to repeat his trumpet score over and over again, as if to bring back a little normalcy and music in the chaos of their lives.

Sylvie, a little picky in her life, but always there for her children. His love for his sons is undeniable, even though social services have not had the opportunity to see it. The supervised visitation scenes to see Sofiane in her home are, as such, full of emotion. The determination of this mother is contagious to the point that when she physically hurts Madame Henry, the person in charge of Sofiane’s placement, the whole room applauded as a shared revenge.

It is impossible to give right or wrong to Sylvie’s choice and we say to ourselves that in the end, there was no right or wrong solution. Just the love of a mother who has nothing left to lose.

Jean-Bernard Marlin’s feature film joined the 76th Cannes selection in the Un Certain Regard category

Filmed entirely in the Marseille city, “Salem” was hosted for 63 days from August to November 2022 and had notably taken as decorations the streets and districts of the 15th arrondissement of Marseille such as the city Félix Pyat or the northern coast with Corbiere beach.

Jean-Bernard Marlin does too much in the fantastico-apocalyptic genre against a backdrop of northern districts, a social and fantastic fresco immersed in a sulphurous district of Marseille marked by settling scores and urban violence.

“Salem” brings to the screen Dalil Abdourahim, Wallenn El Gharbaoui, Rachid Ousseni, Inès Bouzid, Oumar Moindjie, Maryssa Bakoum and Amal Issihaka Hali.

Which could let us find more than doubtful, Salem qualities, if not excuses, a good layer of fantastico-apocalyptic, torrents of music layers, from the working-class neighborhood in mythological mode, not bad, in the phreatic genre, but it’s a haemorrhage, oddly not claimed in the credits, liters of fragile testo, sweat vapor on the foreheads and on the camera lens, fake blood on the tracksuits.

Synopsis:

Djibril is a young Comorian from Sauterelles, a difficult district of Marseille. He is in love with Camilla, a gypsy from the rival district of Grillons. When she tells him that she is pregnant, Djibril asks her to have an abortion so as not to start a clan war. But the assassination of a friend of Djibril, before his eyes, will set the two cities ablaze. Traumatized, Djibril gradually sinks into madness. He is convinced that a curse has fallen on the neighborhood and decides to keep his child at all costs: for him, only his daughter can save them from chaos.

The film hits theaters on August 30, 2023.

“One night”, at the Cannes Film Festival

Alex Lutz ventures into a field, that of the feeling of love, this film is their baby by Karin Viard and Alex Lutz, written together and directed by Alex Lutz, it starts from an argument in the metro and turns into passion.

This is the story of a romantic encounter in Paris that begins in the dark and ends at sunrise. Two strangers yell at each other on a crowded subway train and end up having sex in a photo booth. They will spend the rest of the night walking, talking, discovering each other, bickering and questioning the notion of a couple.

The two lovers go where their desires lead them and both know that the clock is ticking, and that they will soon have to return to real life.

Their conversations approach married life with honesty. She asks him if he married for love or comfort, they mutually admit that it is a mixture of both. The film questions what becomes of a couple when there is still affection but there is nothing more to say to each other, between the passion of the first days and the arguments leading to the breakup.

Thanks to the acting of Alex Lutz and Karin Viard, the film remains moving and the actors received thunderous applause at the end of the Un Certain Regard competition. One Night, however, might have benefited from being a romantic comedy rather than a dramatic film.

The actor is also the director of this low-budget project, which he shot in just fourteen days and which will be released on July 5 in cinemas.

Copyright ©2023 IMPACT EUROPEAN

Copyright ©2023 IMPACT EUROPEAN. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Gabriel MIHAI

See author's posts