Every day, the Rédac ‘d’AlloCiné summarizes the films seen during the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Today, spotlight on “Haut et Fort”, a serious candidate for the Palme d’Or, and the fourth appearances of Léa Seydoux and Tilda Swinton.
This tenth day of the Festival was marked by three films from the Competition: Haut et Fort, cry from the heart for Moroccan youth against a background of rap initiated by Nabil Ayouch, Memoria, the new virtuosity of Apichatpong Weerasethakul carried by an inhabited Tilda Swinton , and France, a new film by Bruno Dumont with Léa Seydoux as a star journalist.
In the rest of the works seen during this tenth day of the Festival, there was Rachel Lang’s new film, My Legionnaire, which closed the Directors’ Fortnight, a section which also highlighted the first feature film. by Yassine Qnia, From low floor, a marital drama with palpable tension.
The team also discovered the beautiful story of friendship between Anaïs Volpé’s waves and the return of an ex-pornstar to her native Texas in Sean Baker’s Red Rocket.
Haut et Fort by Nabil Ayouch (Official competition)
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Cry from the heart of Moroccan youth through rap and hip-hop, High and loud sign the return of Nabil Ayouch, known for his films crying out for the truth about Moroccan society. The strength and wisdom of Anas Basbousi, artist working for culture and community, allows him to embody a mentor for young people in a cultural center in a popular district of Casablanca. Thanks to the vitality of the troupe of young artists, the benevolent gaze of Anas Basbousi, the powerful staging of Nabil Ayouch and the brilliant slams punctuated by the musical compositions of Mike and Fabien Kourtzer, Haut et Fort is revealed to be a serious and fiery candidate for the Palme d’Or for which he is competing.
Megan Choquet
Memoria de Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Official Competition)
Kick the Machine Films / Burning / Anna Sanders Films / Match Factory Productions / ZDF / Arte / Piano 2021
With Memoria, Apichatpong Weerasethakul crosses several milestones: it is his first film partially in English and his first with professional actors. Among them, the Briton Tilda swinton and the Frenchwoman Jeanne Balibar. The feature film follows in the footsteps of a woman, Jessica, awakened one morning by a huge thud, a sort of gunshot. Where does this noise come from? Is it the fruit of his imagination, a sign from elsewhere? The heroine will embark on a quest by following her senses to better find contact with others and with oneself. Very contemplative, Memoria is the extra-terrestrial of this Festival. It gives off a spiritual force, a mystical energy that envelops the viewer to transport him to other spheres. Great humanist tale, Memoria is one of the great punches of this 74th edition. A serious contender for the Palme?
Thomas Desroches
My Legionnaire by Rachel Lang (Directors’ Fortnight)
ML / Horse two three / Wrong Men
Second feature film by Rachel Lang after Baden Baden, My legionary is presented as the closing film of the Directors’ Fortnight. The director sets down her camera in Corsica and Morocco for a dive into the world of the Legion of Honor and their families. The two places pass the buck in this film which follows couples torn and weakened by the job of the husband in the legion which leads him to be often far from his close relations. Rachel Lang offers an intimate drama and shows the harshness and truth of this demanding corporation through family issues. The cast made up of Louis Garrel, Camille Cottin, Ina Marija Bartaitė and Alexander Kuznetsov (Leto) offer themselves with force in sensitive and complex roles.
Megan Choquet
France by Bruno Dumont (Official competition)
RogerArpajou / 3B
Known for his offbeat cinema, Bruno Dumont returns with a satire of the world of information, more precisely of continuous information. It features France de Meurs, a star journalist, conceited and superficial, brilliantly interpreted by Léa Seydoux. At the height of fame, the reporter adored by the crowds will soon enter a phase of questioning. It is thanks to its main actress that France draws all its appeal. Criticism of the media world quickly turns empty, the film accumulates a few lengths, but it is the game of Léa Seydoux who comes to rescue the viewer from a beginning of boredom.
Thomas Desroches
From low floor by Yassine Qnia (Directors’ Fortnight)
Shanna besson
Presented at the Directors’ Fortnight, From low floor is the first feature film of Yassine Qnia. This rather convincing social drama follows the disorderly questioning of Mehdi, a thirty-something who struggles with small burglaries, and who will try to win back Sarah, the mother of his barely one year old son. The couple are played by actors Soufiane Guerrab and Souheila Yacoub, a talented duo who perform very well and play a sincere and effective score. Low Floor benefits from a well-crafted plot and a skillfully conducted tension throughout the film, even if we regret an abrupt end and a lack of depth in some characters, which would have deserved to be deepened.
Megan Choquet
Between the waves of Anaïs Volpé (Directors’ Fortnight)
KMBO
Between the waves follows the friendship of Margot (Souheila Yacoub) and Alma (Déborah Lukumuena). These two inseparable friends share the same passion for the theater. Both have an immense urgency to live. The film takes us through a wide range of emotions, from laughter to strong emotions. What we remember above all is its energy, its vitality and the strength of its tandem of actresses. The filmmaker Anaïs Volpe, who had produced the self-produced project Heis in the past, signs a film with communicative energy, always in motion, and an aesthetic photograph reminiscent of American independent cinema (we owe it to Sean Price Williams, cinematographer of Good Time by the Safdie brothers).
